Mobile gaming company Gameloft has shut down its development studio in Hyderabad, reports Gamasutra. The report states that Gameloft has laid off all its 250 employees in its Hyderabad office without notice.
Gameloft has declined to comment on the lay offs both to GamaSutra and The Hindu report suggests that Gameloft has neither confirmed nor declined this shutdown. The Hyderabad studio primarily focused on porting iOS games to Android platform.
The reason for the studio shut down is not clear yet but Gamasutra report mentions multiple sources who said that employees were asked to sign the resignation letter citing personal reasons. It also suggests that two employees are currently considering legal action against Gameloft. Interestingly, this is not the first time Gameloft has found itself in trouble over employees. In 2011, a New Zealand based Gameloft developer had accused the company of poor working conditions.
Headquartered at San Francisco, USA, Gameloft is popularly known for its mobile gaming titles like N.O.V.A, Assassin’s Creed, among others. It has 28 studios worldwide employing more than 5000 developers in 100 countries and had recently reported consolidated sales revenue of €57.7 million (around Rs 416.22 crore) for Q4 2012, up 23% from the previous year.
Indian Companies Try And Help Those Laid Off
Meanwhile, Indian companies on the NASSCOM Gaming forum on Facebook are trying to help those who have been fired. There’s a complete list of Indian gaming companies here, and a user consolidated a list of companies who are looking to help those from the Gameloft India closure:
Playdom Hyderabad: http://on.fb.me/14raFFi
ColourParachute: http://on.fb.me/14u375p
Dhruva Interactive: http://on.fb.me/X7ehpJ
Rolocule: http://on.fb.me/TUTFq5
Electronic Arts: http://on.fb.me/XJ0OEv
In case any gaming companies would like to use the MediaNama job board at this point in time, we’ll upgrade their listing to featured listings free of cost.
Gameloft in India
Gameloft had launched its Indian operations in 2005 and had tied up with partners like Vodafone, Airtel, Spice, Indiatimes, Star and Dialog, to distribute its game titles such as Prince of Persia, LOST, Desperate Housewives, Might and Magic, Block Breaker Deluxe and Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, as indicated by a Gameguru report.
In May 2012, Gameloft had partnered with mobile chipset manufacturer, Mediatek to support gaming applications on MediaTek’s feature and smartphone platforms.
In September 2012, DisneyUTV’s digital business had tied up with Gameloft to distribute their mobile games in India. The game titles includes game such as Asphalt 6: Adrenaline from the Asphalt franchise, Prince of Persia Forgotten Sands from the Prince of Persia saga series, along with latest releases like The Dark Knight Rises, an action game inspired by the movie trilogy’s final chapter.
