January 17th, 2005 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Trends | No Comments »
Simian Industries, the developer that created the Beano-town Racing game based on the comic book characters of Beano & Dandy, has laid off two-thirds of its staff and turned to contracting in a bid to deal with the feast and famine economics of the games industry.
Dundee-based Simian has retained a core group of five staff and will now put all its development work out to freelancers. Mark Ettle, the founder of Simian, is acting as a consultant to the business. Observers said the move reflected a trend emerging across Britain as the games sector follows in the footsteps of the film industry by looking for ways to reduce its fixed cost base through various forms of outsourcing. More …
