WTF Interzone Entertainment?!

Seriously, what is wrong with you Interzone Entertainment?!

First this story breaks out on Kotaku and tsumea that you’re sending Mike Turner down to pick up assets from the Perth Studio so that you can contract someone else to finish the game (rather than pay existing staff what they are owed in unpaid wages, entitlements, and superannuation).

Now I’m hearing reports that Mike has turned up in the dead of the night to change the locks (which I assume was done illegally given that Mike just recently resigned as company director, and I can’t imagine that the building owner was informed) and take all the computers.

He was stopped by the police. The police!?! What are you doing Mike? Seriously, what the hell are you doing? Please come to your senses and stop playing any role in this insanity. Anyone asking you to perpetrate illegal or questionable actions probably hasn’t got your best interests in mind.

Update: Okay, I’ve calmed down now. I’m not making any claims regarding the authenticity of this information or the legality of any actions taken by any individuals. This just completely blew my mind. Read up on it elsewhere.

9 thoughts on “WTF Interzone Entertainment?!”

  1. It’s nuts isn’t it man. I actually remember Mike being a pretty good guy. Him and I, and his wife, got along pretty well initially, meeting up for sunday breakfasts and things, we’d have a laugh. Even Greg I never had a problem with, and remember chatting casually with him a few times about cars and stuff in the halls… wtf? Now it’s like some mafia shit going on.

    1. I don’t really believe in the idea of “bad people”. I’m sure that everyone involved feels justified in what they are doing to some degree – or maybe they feel trapped, or loyal, or in denial, or detached, or scared, or invested, or desperate, or any number of other human traits that led them to do what they are doing.

      I do think it important that people are confronted with opinions and really deeply consider their actions. Stop and think “why am I really doing this?” and “what should I really be doing?” in order to identify and commit to what is right.

  2. Called this a few months ago when Mr. Ringis was fired based on a few things I’d heard about how much was owed.

    Mike T wasn’t a bad guy, but he was way out of his depth and I’m not sure he had the best role models?

    I’m not sure that this ends well for any of the “names” involved at a high level – you got out at a good time Nick :/

  3. Hmm… While there’s a lot that can be explained, as Nick said, by people managing to justify things to themselves, there’s still a moral threshold that people cross when they set out to deliberately screw others out of what’s rightfully theirs. Marty made a moral decision when he chose to try and take the work done by IZ staff without paying him the money he’s been promising for years now.

  4. I don’t dispute that people cross a morale threshold when they undertake actions that they know to be wrong…

    … but it’s offensive (particularly to victims of more serious persecution) to liken a business person with outstanding debts (and accused of various forms of negligent mismanagement and illegal activities) to a political leader responsible for the systematic persecution and genocide of millions of people.

  5. Nick, always the diplomat.

    Corruption is a silent killer. Did you read Tang’s comment about how people at the GZ studio have suffered death in the family as a direct result of not being paid what they were owed, thus not being able to afford crucial family medical care?

    If an employer comes clean and says “Sorry, we’re in trouble, I can’t pay you”, then an employee can work with that. But to continuously sell them false promises in exchange for continued labor until the employee finally works out that the employer is actually lying through their teeth – and had no intention of paying them all along? That’s pretty evil imho. It’s Usury.

    I knew this endgame scenario was coming from the moment I was fired – precisely because a)I was sacked for challenging management for what the Federal Government forces employers to deliver, and b) I had to resort to legal action to recoup my said entitlements, and the company failed to even respond to not only my letters, but orders from the Government. I am not exaggerating when I say at least one agency had no idea what to do when the defendent did not respond – they literally had never seen a company that was so blatantly in contempt of the Australian Federal Government that they would just not show up.

    They have no respect for Australian law, and they’ve probably had this “endgame” scenario in mind for a very long time.

    You should watch “Enron : Smartest Guys In the Room”. They were all “Oh I’m sorry, we fucked up”, and yet their callous ignorance and blatant illegal trading practices destroyed the pensions and lives of over 40 thousand people – many of whom had spent 40 years building up a pension of just under half a million dollars only to find their pension fund call up and say “you owe us $6500”. That’s not as bad as Hitler, but imho it’s pretty damn close, from a Civil perspective.

    Keep being even headed though – I know it’s a bit hard for you since you invested some level of trust in these white collar criminals – but I don’t think you should feel guilty – you did everything you could to bring the company back into the fold of doing the right thing, and I think I speak for most former employees when I say we all were extremely happy with your influence, your attempts to bring sanity to these nutcases, and we were very, very sad to see you go when you did.

    Good luck IZ’ers……

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