Video games company put into administration

Around 200 staff in Dundee have been told they are at risk of redundancy after Begbies Traynor was appointed as administrator to Realtime Worlds.

The business, which also has operations in the United States, was founded in 2002 by Dave Jones, who designed action-adventure game Grand Theft Auto, a series which has sold over 50 million copies.

Mr Jones also co-founded Rockstar North, formerly known as DMA Design, which, developed popular puzzle game Lemmings, which has sold over 20 million copies.

Begbies, which hopes to sell the business as a going concern, blamed the slide in fortunes on poor demand for Realtime's latest game APB: All Points Bulletin, which was released six weeks ago.

Less than 12 months ago, the firm was awarded PricewaterhouseCoopers' hottest prospect award at a conference on technology investment.

The first game under the Realtime Worlds name was Crackdown, released in 2007 on the Microsoft Xbox 360 format to strong sales and critical acclaim.

Throughout 2007 and into 2008, Realtime Worlds and Crackdown bagged numerous industry awards.

The company, which has offices in Colorado, has raised more than $80m (50m) in venture capital funding since it was founded in 2002 but it has suffered since the delayed UK release of APB: All Points Bulletin on July 2.

It involves battles between law enforcers and criminals but has had a poor reception.