Marketer axed as games publisher folds

Simon Lilley, marketing director at computer games publisher Rage, has been made redundant after the company was put into receivership. The rest of the marketing team has also been laid off as the computer games publisher halved its workforce to 70.

Lilley was Rage’s first marketing director. He was appointed to the position in October 2000 (MW October 12, 2000), ahead of the release of the company’s first Play-Station 2 title, Wild Wild Racing.

Before joining Rage, Lilley was head of global marketing and planning at Adidas Salomon, where he was responsible for strategy and licensing. During his nine-and-a-half-year stint at Adidas, Lilley also worked as an international marketing manager for training footwear and as European business manager.

Rage owns the worldwide licences to develop games based on Sly Stallone’s Rocky, David Beckham, former SAS officer Andy McNab and Italian car manufacturer Lamborghini. It uses agencies for launching different titles on an ad-hoc basis. Advertising for the Rocky game was created by Sass Panayi Collective, a Knutsford-based advertising agency.

Last week, Rage went into receivership, following the Bank of Scotland’s decision to withdraw its $6.5m (£4m) overdraft facility.

However, the bank has told receivers that it will provide enough funds to cover the development costs of games that are near completion. This includes a Lamborghini racing game, which will be one of the launch titles for Xbox Live, Microsoft’s online gaming service.

Managers at three of Rage’s four studios are now understood to be planning a buy-out of the company’s facilities and intellectual property.