Found on IGN, penned by Patrick Kolan. The link is courtesy of Tsumea.

From the piece:

Is it possible that, while we’ve been sitting on our couches delving into the latest and greatest games from the world’s biggest developers, the Australian games industry is on the brink of collapse? A slow, secret death that is not only affecting the lives of games industry employees, but completely undermining the long-term health of the Australian game design community?

I think “game design community” is a little specific – producers, programmers and artists are losing their jobs too – and the lack of comment from any of the companies mentioned (apart from the GDAA) makes it as hard-hitting as a wet cake, but it’s a start. To be fair to Pat, when you’re working for a pulp site like IGN, finding a reason to scribe something that isn’t a game review or needlessly estatic preview can be difficult. If it isn’t R18+, the audience is apathetic at best.

All we need now is for a few more Aussie journos to take a closer look at the local industry. Why has no one interviewed Rob Murray over at Firemint about the iPhone OS 4.0 license agreement? And in the wake of the GFC, we have studios such as Halfbrick putting out quality morsels like Fruit Ninja. Surely it’s worth a bit of coverage? It broke into the USA app store’s Top 10 after all.

Honestly, the stories almost write themselves.

Ah… nothing like a zombie march to get the blood pumping. Does it really matter if it’s flowing from an exposed wound? I don’t think so.

Zombie marches are held everywhere, but Melbourne’s own undead shuffle is taking place this weekend on May 1. The horde will start at the Carlton Gardens north of the city at 1PM, and shamble its way to the metro core, bringing all the fake corpulent skin you could ever want with it. Even if the only shooting will be done with cameras, I’m sure it’ll be fun for everyone who doesn’t instantly drop a potato in their underdaks. If the photos from previous years are anything to go by, it should be a blast.

And, despite being an amateur affair, some of the makeup and effects are quite good… more than good enough to find their way into a certain zombie survival simulator…

Melbourne Zombie Shuffle 2010 [that's melbourne]

The global financial crisis continues to disembowel the Australian games development scene, with reports suggesting up to 60 employees have been cut from local stalwart Krome.

The cuts have been confirmed by Krome’s CEO Robert Walsh, in a statement to Australian Gamer:

These cuts, while incredibly difficult as they affect the co-workers we consider friends, are necessary as we position Krome for the future. We’re also actively pursuing several business opportunities which, if secured, will enable Krome to reemploy some of the staff given notice.

All three of Krome’s studios have been hit – its Brisbane presence lost 30 people, 16 are gone from Melbourne, and Adelaide is weaker by 14, according to comments on Tsumea, a networking and news site for Australian developers. If these numbers are accurate, the Adelaide studio took the brunt of the damage, relatively speaking – it’s original complement was just 36.

Krome’s titles include Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed on Wii and a number of games in the Spyro series.

All the best to the employees affected. Many say the economy is well into recovery, but personally, I find it hard to see the truth of this given the current state of our industry.

The latest round of redundancies [Tsumea]
Krome Studios official statement [Australian Gamer]