Interzone Games

In news which is bound to agitate many ex-Interzone Games Perth staff, it looks like the game which was developed mostly at the Perth studio is hitting a new milestone in development.

In the continuing saga of the Interzone debacle, Interzone employees have just released footage of a former Interzone manager attempting to unlawfully retrieve i.p from the Perth game studio containing the Interzone Futebol content and assets that the employees had worked on, the previous 18 months of which were completed without payment.

The West Australian and WA Business News reports that U.S based Interzone Games have locked down their lead development studio in Perth on Thursday. Ten of the remaining Interzone staff were picketing at the front of their former workplace in protest of unpaid wages and superannuation as far back as 18 months, after being locked out of the premises and left unable to retrieve personal belongings. Segments of a notice at the entry of the studio placed by Interzone Vice President of business operations, Mike Turner, reads:

We've had to pull down our news item on Interzone Games last Saturday as our tip off was just too early to report. The information provided then was premature for when it was posted, and Interzone staff members were right to respond that it didn't reflect the current situation at the Perth studio. The tip off was true, but things were set to happen only a short time later.

Interzone Entertainment has opened the doors to Interzone Futebol's Closed Beta and is processing applications for prospective testers. The Closed Beta is being run in Australia by the company's Australian development studio, Interzone Games. Sign-ups are currently underway at http://www.interzonefutebol.com.au with testers already playing in regular daily matches.

Press Release

Interzone Games have debuted the first trailer for Interzone Futebol, giving the world a glimpse of their MMOG soccer game. The press release below has more information on the trailer, so I won't repeat anything other than to say I totally dig the bright, colourful, and non-realistic visual style that they chose to go with. The fly-through of the various places in Rio de Janeiro show some top quality art work by the Interzoners.

(Press release)