Serious news story about the closure of my workplace, Interzone Games
At first I was quite hesitant to talk about this online, but given the amount of media coverage that’s now out there, it seems like a good time.
My workplace, Interzone Games, in Perth, Australia, is about to be liquidated by the ATO due to unpaid tax debts. Interzone Games is a game development studio, working on an MMO that was scheduled for release later this year.
Money for these taxes was meant to be sent by the parent company, Interzone Entertainment, based in the USA. Namely, the CEO, Marty Brickey, and directors (though now resigned), Greg Chadwell and Mike Turner.
The parent company has also failed to send money to pay employees salaries. They’ve been constantly late with payments, and as we currently stand, we have not been paid for the last one and a half months work. They have also failed to pay our superannuation, in my case, for about two of the two and a half years I’ve worked there.
The last year I have spent there, we’ve had multiple occasions where our pay was extremely late (almost two months at one point) and naturally during these times the US company had nothing but a huge stream of promises of incoming money, of which next to none of these promises were kept. They were never up front with us about the condition of the company, and were trading in an insolvent state, ie. illegally, for over a year. There has also been no resident director for the Perth company since 2008; also illegal by Australian law.
There were also two other branches of the company, one in Brazil and one in China. Very similar things happened to both; they weren’t paid and were liquidated, while the directors from the US company got away with it. As far as I understand it, if the directors of a company are out of the country, there’s very little you can do to them. Ex-employees from both companies have been in serious trouble financially as a result.
You’re probably wondering, why the hell I stuck around, with a company with a CEO and directors as dodgy as that. First of all, the people I worked with in the Perth studio were some of the most amazing, talented and friendly people I’ve ever met. I’ve learnt a lot from them, and I would still love to work with them in the future. I don’t regret staying with the company, even through all the shit that we went through.
We always very active, striking when not paid for extended periods, seeking all the legal and government advice and action we could. However, pretty much all the avenues we have pursued turned to be either hopelessly slow at acting or unable to help us. The ASIC in particular, the one organization that could have detained the directors from the parent company when they were in Australia, turned out to be completely useless, as any investigation they made had a turnaround of almost a month, by which time the directors could have run back to the US.
I feel absolutely no obligation to the parent company, who screwed us over in any way they possibly could. But for the people I worked with and the game we were working so hard to complete, you know, I really wanted things to at least hold together until we’d shipped the game.
But you know what? I haven’t even GOTTEN to the story that’s unfolded this week, so I’ll share what I can with you, here.
This week, with the ATO’s closure of the company imminent, Mike Turner arrived in Perth to copy the game (ie. the intellectual property) and leave with it before all the building’s assets were seized. There’s a lot of controversy surrounding this, naturally.
To start with, Turner turned up at the office, with no paperwork, expecting us to HELP him download the IP from the servers. We said as we hadn’t paid, we wouldn’t co-operate.
He then came back after dark, when we’d all gone home and changed all the locks, telling us we were all suspended and that we were trespassing (both of these are false. You can’t be suspended when there is outstanding pay, and we were on public property). With the help of a contracted Bigworld Technology server engineer, over the next two days they downloaded an unknown quantity of data from the servers, quite possibly including property that was not their own.
As an employee, I’m horrified at the idea of the parent company swooping in and flying off with all our hard work that they haven’t paid for, and dodging all responsibility for the massive debt they’re leaving behind.
Supposedly, their plan is to get another studio in the USA to finish the game, which is a ridiculous idea. Anyone who knows anything about developing games would know how much longer it would take to release the game if you’re starting with a new development team who don’t know the game engine or the code. Oh, and they’ll ‘pay out everything we’re entitled to’ once the game ships and makes money (Hahahaha. Seriously, a promise from Marty? Like all those other promises? Even if the game shipped and made money, the chances we’d see a cent of it are pretty much nil).
Also, this means that they DID have the money to pay our debts, but decided it would be cheaper not to.
That’s the situation we’ve all found ourselves in. It’s all over the news, if you’d like to read more, there are a number of videos and articles:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IsIKD… (yes, I’m on television)
kranzky.rockethands.com/2010/0… (breakdown of info on the companie/people involved, news articles etc)
www.wabusinessnews.com.au/en-s…
www.kotaku.com.au/2010/02/wa-d…
au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/busi…
What you can do to help:
Just looking at the above links will help. I would love these news articles to be the first thing you see when you Google ‘Marty Brickey’. People need to know not to trust them. He’s the sort of character who’s all charisma and promises, but his word is worthless.
Don’t invest with them, don’t work for them, and if you can, spread the word about who they are and what they’ve done.
I’m not in dire need of any financial support for the time being, so please don’t worry. I should be able to apply for GEERS, a government organization, which pays any outstanding payroll in Australia in the event of a company being liquidated. That'll most likely take a year or more though.
I will lose the superannuation, and yes, it sucks, but that at least I’m pretty well resigned to.
However, if you would like to support the rest of the team several members of Interzone work on game projects in their spare time. I’ll later post another article with more detail showcasing some of the iPhone games, because one, it’ll help them financially in a small way, and 2, THEY’RE AWESOME!
Rocket Hands
Sandbox Software
I have decided to wait until all the drama has calmed down before looking at my options for further work.
At first I was quite hesitant to talk about this online, but given the amount of media coverage that’s now out there, it seems like a good time.
My workplace, Interzone Games, in Perth, Australia, is about to be liquidated by the ATO due to unpaid tax debts. Interzone Games is a game development studio, working on an MMO that was scheduled for release later this year.
Money for these taxes was meant to be sent by the parent company, Interzone Entertainment, based in the USA. Namely, the CEO, Marty Brickey, and directors (though now resigned), Greg Chadwell and Mike Turner.
The parent company has also failed to send money to pay employees salaries. They’ve been constantly late with payments, and as we currently stand, we have not been paid for the last one and a half months work. They have also failed to pay our superannuation, in my case, for about two of the two and a half years I’ve worked there.
The last year I have spent there, we’ve had multiple occasions where our pay was extremely late (almost two months at one point) and naturally during these times the US company had nothing but a huge stream of promises of incoming money, of which next to none of these promises were kept. They were never up front with us about the condition of the company, and were trading in an insolvent state, ie. illegally, for over a year. There has also been no resident director for the Perth company since 2008; also illegal by Australian law.
There were also two other branches of the company, one in Brazil and one in China. Very similar things happened to both; they weren’t paid and were liquidated, while the directors from the US company got away with it. As far as I understand it, if the directors of a company are out of the country, there’s very little you can do to them. Ex-employees from both companies have been in serious trouble financially as a result.
You’re probably wondering, why the hell I stuck around, with a company with a CEO and directors as dodgy as that. First of all, the people I worked with in the Perth studio were some of the most amazing, talented and friendly people I’ve ever met. I’ve learnt a lot from them, and I would still love to work with them in the future. I don’t regret staying with the company, even through all the shit that we went through.
We always very active, striking when not paid for extended periods, seeking all the legal and government advice and action we could. However, pretty much all the avenues we have pursued turned to be either hopelessly slow at acting or unable to help us. The ASIC in particular, the one organization that could have detained the directors from the parent company when they were in Australia, turned out to be completely useless, as any investigation they made had a turnaround of almost a month, by which time the directors could have run back to the US.
I feel absolutely no obligation to the parent company, who screwed us over in any way they possibly could. But for the people I worked with and the game we were working so hard to complete, you know, I really wanted things to at least hold together until we’d shipped the game.
But you know what? I haven’t even GOTTEN to the story that’s unfolded this week, so I’ll share what I can with you, here.
This week, with the ATO’s closure of the company imminent, Mike Turner arrived in Perth to copy the game (ie. the intellectual property) and leave with it before all the building’s assets were seized. There’s a lot of controversy surrounding this, naturally.
To start with, Turner turned up at the office, with no paperwork, expecting us to HELP him download the IP from the servers. We said as we hadn’t paid, we wouldn’t co-operate.
He then came back after dark, when we’d all gone home and changed all the locks, telling us we were all suspended and that we were trespassing (both of these are false. You can’t be suspended when there is outstanding pay, and we were on public property). With the help of a contracted Bigworld Technology server engineer, over the next two days they downloaded an unknown quantity of data from the servers, quite possibly including property that was not their own.
As an employee, I’m horrified at the idea of the parent company swooping in and flying off with all our hard work that they haven’t paid for, and dodging all responsibility for the massive debt they’re leaving behind.
Supposedly, their plan is to get another studio in the USA to finish the game, which is a ridiculous idea. Anyone who knows anything about developing games would know how much longer it would take to release the game if you’re starting with a new development team who don’t know the game engine or the code. Oh, and they’ll ‘pay out everything we’re entitled to’ once the game ships and makes money (Hahahaha. Seriously, a promise from Marty? Like all those other promises? Even if the game shipped and made money, the chances we’d see a cent of it are pretty much nil).
Also, this means that they DID have the money to pay our debts, but decided it would be cheaper not to.
That’s the situation we’ve all found ourselves in. It’s all over the news, if you’d like to read more, there are a number of videos and articles:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IsIKD… (yes, I’m on television)
kranzky.rockethands.com/2010/0… (breakdown of info on the companie/people involved, news articles etc)
www.wabusinessnews.com.au/en-s…
www.kotaku.com.au/2010/02/wa-d…
au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/busi…
What you can do to help:
Just looking at the above links will help. I would love these news articles to be the first thing you see when you Google ‘Marty Brickey’. People need to know not to trust them. He’s the sort of character who’s all charisma and promises, but his word is worthless.
Don’t invest with them, don’t work for them, and if you can, spread the word about who they are and what they’ve done.
I’m not in dire need of any financial support for the time being, so please don’t worry. I should be able to apply for GEERS, a government organization, which pays any outstanding payroll in Australia in the event of a company being liquidated. That'll most likely take a year or more though.
I will lose the superannuation, and yes, it sucks, but that at least I’m pretty well resigned to.
However, if you would like to support the rest of the team several members of Interzone work on game projects in their spare time. I’ll later post another article with more detail showcasing some of the iPhone games, because one, it’ll help them financially in a small way, and 2, THEY’RE AWESOME!
Rocket Hands
Sandbox Software
I have decided to wait until all the drama has calmed down before looking at my options for further work.
Kingdom Hearts: Light by 
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Be Seen: First, make it easy for people to find you. Create a deviation with a list of the different kinds of commissions you offer, with a sample and a price for each. Put this deviation near the top of your profile so that everyone knows you’re open for commissions. H
Very sad I didn't get to meet all the cool artists who ended up working there though. Sounds like you guys got pretty tight and looked out for each other.
Best of luck with finding new work.
I wonder if the new computer system upgrade FAILURE at the tax office had anything to do with the delays.
Wow, I need to get out more, it's been 2 months and this is the first I heard.
I can only promise you that not all large businesses coming from America are like that. I do hope you find work again. And if I were you, I would consider starting your own business with the other disadvantaged employees.
Hope all your problems become resolved soon.
With your talent I am confident that you will be able to find another and better job in the very near future!
Gunbare!
P.S. You look good on camera!!!
I wish everyone who was screwed out of so much money and hard work the best. Unfortunately, in times like these, proper justice is very rare.
Gordon Gecko from the movie 'Wall Street' once said that greed is good. To many corporations, greed is not only good, it is the only possible good there can ever be.
Tell me where this Turner ass is and I'll deliver a swift kick to the balls...although this bastard sounds like he honestly needs to have his greedy hands paper cutted off with the very money he hoards...
Damn, I'm sadistic. XD
[hugs]
I think you did pretty damned well to put up with so much crap... and i hope that things end up working better in the future for you
There's that guy who was the brainchild behind Cool World and Titan A.E. He apparently was going ok in the 90's, and could talk investors into his animations. During the last movie he was tryin to do, the bank finally shut the door on him. In the USA this all happens a lot quicker....
Overnight the employees came back to this guy's studio to work and found the whole building relocked and anything inside now the property of the US government because of the sudden bankruptcy. Including any action figures or art supplies you left in your desk.
I love the first couple of lines of that letter on the door. "We really appreciate your hard work and sorry for any inconvenience..." We got the same thing from the governator here in CA before he grabbed a month's salary. But at least we still have jobs. As if a job is just a "convenience." Grrr.
Linked to. And I'm sorry.
Hope everybody comes out of it all right.
I hope they get what they deserve. That is just beyond wrong to do that.
Stupid American company owners.. the people here freakin go to other countries and try to bring out the corruption in THOSE areas, but continue to do that same crap here.. uughh..
Thanks for the warning, and for the articles!
you guys should make your own game company now since you guys have the knowledge from them.
sort of...
Looks like Perth is never destined to have a great games company at this rate!
Hopefully you guys can get together and do something though, start a new company without the drama. I know so many people that are looking to get into the games industry.
Hope everything works out for you!
Hope everything turns out good for you and the others.