Realtime Worlds Management Slammed By Ex-Employee

If you thought the drama surrounding Realtime Worlds' financial problems following the release of APB has been rough already, you may want to shield your eyes. A new blog post from an ex-employee raises the drama to pretty wild new heights, including plenty of accusations about how the incompetent management at RTW is screwing over laid off employees.

In a post on his blog, ex-Realtime Worlds developer Luke Halliwell was up front about his problems with RTW in light of his departure. He revealed that the developer apparently still owes money to many of the people who were let go:

"For those of us on the inside, it’s been expected for a while -- at least since the release of APB -- but I must say I was shocked at quite how quickly it went down in the end. It felt like we were being let go decently, and then BOOM – not getting paid anything, owed last month’s wages, our notice periods, redundancy pay and unused holidays. A substantial amount of money, all told."

Halliwell said that things are even worse for American employees who moved to Scotland to work there and now have a month to leave the country and no financial support. According to Halliwell the upper management at Realtime Worlds is to blame:

"There had been mounting discontent internally about the competence of our top management -- and what better proof could you need than this. How they could keep operating the company when they couldn’t even pay this month’s wages, I don’t know. Presumably they continued to think we had a chance somehow; the behavior of a deluded, greedy, addicted gambler."

Halliwell's wife Lucy left a comment in the blog that was even more direct, specifically targeting Realtime Worlds founder (and Grand Theft Auto creator) Dave Jones:

"Dave Jones and Ian Hetherington have pissed away millions, they are getting away with not paying over 200 employees for the work that they have done and have fiddled their way to being able to buy back Project: MyWorld for cheap. Moreover these very people have enough personal wealth to pay the money owed to the individuals and families whose lives they have left shattered, heck Dave could probably pay them all just by selling one of his beloved cars. So I’m more than a little pissed off, but mothers get like that when their kids are hurting.

"So Dave Jones if I end up having to put a bullet in my own horse’s head because no welfare charity has space for him I am going to barter my last possessions to have a fork lift driver dump his 800kg bloody carcass on the top of your favourite car."

Yikes. Not everything is terrible, though. In the blog post, Halliwell mentions that he has a new job lined up already, but it's safely out of the video game industry.

Clearly the problems at Realtime Worlds have had a negative effect on a lot of people. I've said it previously, but it's worth repeating: I hope that all the employees out of work over there land somewhere more stable safely and soon.