Gaming company Big Fish Games is to close its office at CityGate in Mahon, with the loss of over 90 jobs.
The company’s Dublin based PR spokeswoman had no comment to make at the time of going to print, while there was no answer from the Cork office. Stephen Hegarty is the company’s Director of European Business Operations in Cork and could not be contacted last night.
Chairman of it@cork Denis J Collins expressed regret at the move but was hopeful that those who lost jobs would find work elsewhere in Cork's IT industry, which he said has seen successes this year as well as losses.
"I think the IT industry is vibrant enough that there will be job opportunities for all of them. it@cork will make itself available to help as best as possible for any transitional needs - we are currently working on some initiatives in this area," said Mr Collins.
Earlier this year the company, which is the world’s largest producer of casual games, celebrated its 10th consecutive year of record growth and announced that it had distributed over two billion games. For the fiscal year 2012, it had more than $220 million in bookings, with free-to-play and mobile business making the lion’s share of that.
The company's founder and CEO Paul Thelen, said it expected to accelerate growth throughout 2013 and 2014. Its headquarters is in Seattle, with other offices in Oakland, California, Vancouver, Canada and Luxembourg.
The company was supported by IDA Ireland in 2012, when it planned to recruit 30 highly skilled software engineers. At the time, IDA CEO Barry O’Leary said the investment would establish Cork “as a leading RD&I Centre of Excellence in cloud computing.
A spokesman for the IDA said the decision was regrettable but expressed hope that staff would find roles in other companies operating in the IT industry in Cork:
“We do expect other opportunities in the games centre, Cork’s internal FDI has been performing strongly, so there is no reason to think replacement jobs can’t be found for these people.
“It’s been quite buoyant in the last year, Cork has been doing well so hopefully staff will find alternative opportunities.”
In Ireland, the company has won a number of awards, including an An Taisce Coastcare Initiative of the Year Merit Awrd, for work with Inchydoney Island Residents’ Association, and the Gaming Company of the Year, awarded by the Irish Software Association.
Deirdre O'Shaughnessy, Editor
www.corkindependent.com
