INDEPENDENT game developer Eutechnyx is aiming to grow its turnover from £5m to £64m in three years after attracting more than a million worldwide users to its latest online game.
The 25-year-old Gateshead company has used a £6m investment from Amsterdam-based capital investor Prime Technology Ventures to produce a free-to-play online racing game, which has been enjoying a successful test run since its launch in March.
Now, Auto Club Revolution has hosted more than a million virtual races, while 150,000 users have customised and enhanced their experience by paying money for in-game add-ons such as power-ups or clothing.
The game will help brothers Darren and Brian Jobling, who run and own half of Eutechnyx, to really establish the firm in the growing free-to-play games market.
It is a focus that will lead to significant growth, which the brothers say will mean North East staff numbers doubling from 85 to 175 in the next three years. Brian said: “We’ve hired 41 people in the last 10 months to produce and launch this game and we’re well on target to reaching 175 in the next three years.
“The investment from Prime Technology Ventures has enabled us to go back to producing games, which we stopped doing in 1995 with the arrival of the Playstation. I’m passionate about designing and producing games so I’m thrilled to be able to develop the publishing arm of the company.
“Since 2000, we’ve invested £24m in research and development and we’ve brought all that technology into Auto Club Revolution.
“This new product is very exciting for us because we are dealing in a worldwide market so the income stream is limitless. If you consider Facebook went from zero to £2bn revenue in just three years, that’s an example of what we’re aiming for here in Gateshead.
“If it takes off in a massive way, which we predict it will, we hope to grow Eutechnyx from a £5.2m company to a £64m company within three years.”
As well as an office in the Metrocentre East Business Park, the firm also has studios in Pittsburgh in the US and in Chengdu in China and Hong Kong and employs over 180 people worldwide.
The company was set up in 1987 and briefly sold to Merit Studios in Dallas in 1993.
However, they bought it back in 1996 with the help of French software firm Infogrames in a deal which allowed them to take the firm fully independent again in 2000.
