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GAMING COMPANY BIG Fish Games has announced it is to close its Cork facility. 89 jobs at the company’s European headquarters hang in the balance as a result of the decision.
The company has entered into a statutory 30-day consultation period with its Irish-based employees. The closure is taking place as part of a global realigning of the firm’s business.
In a memo to staff, founder and CEO Paul Thelen says that the restructuring process means Big Fish will invest more in areas that are performing, and stop concentrating on products that are not working out.
In terms of gaming products, Thelen says that the most significant decision is the discontinuation of the company’s cloud-based game platform, which was launched only last year.
49 full-time employees at the company’s international HQ in Seattle are being let go as part of the move – 524 people are currently employed in the western US facility.
An office in Vancouver is also being shut-down, with those jobs moving to Seattle. Another facility in Oakland, California will continue to operate.
According to the memo:
As the founder of this company, it is painful for me to say good-bye to colleagues who have become our trusted partners, and in so many ways, close friends. Letting people go is not an easy decision, and we would not be making it if it weren’t absolutely necessary to secure the best possible future for us at Big Fish Games.There is never an easy or good way to do this, but we made every effort to be respectful and to do right by those who are departing wherever possible to minimize the impact this will have on their lives.
Big Fish Games announced a significant IDA-backed investment in its Cork facility just last year as part of its now-shuttered cloud gaming project.
it is entering
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Take the IDA money and irish tax reductions and then run. Screw the irish workers nice.
I think the rules usually are that they will have to return the money invested in them. Also, they are closing their facility. They are not withdrawing from the market. They still wish to trade in Europe, so they will have to leave on food terms.
Good terms not food terms
Yep, ida don’t gets burned, their contracts are tight.
There’s plenty more Fish in the Sea
@matt – you’re grammar is appalling
What do you expect the cost of doing business is thus country is ridiculous.
Lads in Waterford several businesses closed/moved and the outstanding balances were NEVER paid back to the IDA, whether is was in the form of rents or grants.
If companies keep their business in Ireland there is nothing that the IDA can do other than leave them be. Its the old “we’ll move abroad if you force us to pay it back!”..
So the businesses are not pursued.
Now do we understand that GSE’s are a bad idea?
I could have told you the moral hazard before this began
Hang on, was this companies job announcement not so long ago heralded by this useless government as proof its strategy on Job ceation “particularly in the high skills sector” was working? tell that to the Big Fish employees. FFS, is there any real prospect of this dire recession turning around, for every miniscule job annoucement there is an annoucement of further job losses elsewhere, as anything really changed in the past three years? Green shoots me arse with the exception of weeds me thinks.
3 years Ffs five years more like this country has been in a shit heap
And they put 272 people in jail last year for non payment of there tv license.
Yet not one of thoses Corrupt filth bags of the earth politicians have not payed one dime or spent one minute in a jail cell for bringing down a whole country them and the parasite bankers
Makes me sick if I got a job in the uk tomorrow I could not afford the flight!!
Going from a self employed person that
Paid all his taxes and employers contributions paye insurance to €119 from the proxy state and back living in the family home as I can’t pay my mortgage this country is rotten to the “core” and the sooner I get out the better for my sanity!!
I have a friend that works in big fish games and hope she finds other employment !!
Foreign companies are all very well but I think we should do a great deal more to help home grown small and medium businesses to prosper and survive in the long term. These foreign business have little loyalty to this country and while the IDA may recoup their money it’s the emoloyees who pay the price when companies move on. And who has to pick up the tab when people made redundant can’t get new employment ? Social Protection, ie, the state and the Irish taxpayer , while these companies sail off into the sunset.
Agree with you Mary. What we need is a balance between foreign multinationals and local small to medium enterprises. But those local enterprises must also focus on the export markets, to avoid dependency on the multinationals based here, and also to bring export revenue into the country.
Government jobs / economic policy should be focused on creating that type of growth through training and education, business development grants, favourable tax regimes to allow business growth, etc.
Government jobs. You can’t actually be serious. You realise the jobs that government ones destroy, I hope?
This outfit are doing what all American companies do. When the going gets tough they simply pull back to the home office. The fact they still intend to operate, (sell), in the local, Irish, market should make no difference.
Your comment was spot on hit the nail on the head.
Well said
Same sh*the different company
Sad news for all involved, but companies do fail all the time. I hope those affected will find new employment quickly. Even better would be a new Irish owned business competing in the same space.
Not such a big fish after all
…. I’ll get my coat….
Word is the slow growth in paid for apps on the android platform was the reason for the turn around in Ireland. For all the nah sayers on gov investment… this company is scaling back across the word, not just here.
I need a job so im heading to geopardy there be jobs there yipee!
All these people made redundant by Big Fish closure will be picked up fast by other IT / Software Dev firms around Cork. Their expertise are much sought after. So I reckon no fear for their futures.
Re the game industry bolting. I dont think so. This is just one firm restructuring. Game Dev industry is worth 10s of billions if not more worldwide. What we need in Cork is MORE Game Dev companies and also ones that actually DEVELOP their games here and are not just admin / call centers for the Dev branch in the USA.
If we develop an actual GAME DEV hub here where development is actually originating from here then we are sucking diesel :D
Jeopardy ,where is that I hear there is a lot of jobs there
Good riddance to casual gaming rubbish.
Ahh yes the thriving games sector, looks like that bandwagons bolted already.
Big Fish are involved in the ‘casual gaming’ market, based around Facebook and low-quality smartphone apps. The games industry as a whole is as vibrant as ever.
have your say