Blizzard setting up shop in Ireland
by Mike Schramm 
Sep 20th 2007 at 4:01PM
Blizzard is apparently setting up a fourth support center, this one in Cork, Ireland. Currently, they've got bases in Southern California (where the main company and developers are located), Austin, Texas and Paris, France. But now an Irish newswire is saying that Blizzard plans to have another center in Cork, where they'll hire 100 people total over the next three years to support the European realms.And Cork is apparently happy to have them-- Motorola and Bourns Electronics have recently closed up shop there, leaving IT employees looking for new jobs. Ireland is apparently a hotspot of digital content as well, or at least it wants to be. I had no idea-- Irish companies, if you're hiring and willing to fly me out there, let me know! I'd love working in the country of Guinness.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mad Cow Sep 20th 2007 4:07PM
You're about a year too late on this one. A friend of mine worked for Blizzard, or rather the company Blizzard outsources in Cork.
Old news, nice try though.
Tiforix Sep 20th 2007 4:24PM
A lot of people don't know it, but Ireland has actually been trying to position itself as a hot place for information technology for quite some time now.
Kyle Sep 20th 2007 8:50PM
It may be old new, but I just found out that Blizz is starting up in Ireland. That is a dream come true for me lol.
oshin Sep 20th 2007 4:40PM
The physics engine used in many modern games was developed in ireland \o. Also i live in cork, gief job.
oshin Sep 20th 2007 4:47PM
The havok engine that is
Shadgalaul Sep 20th 2007 4:56PM
Hell.. I'd work FOR Guinness, Bliz. Hire me!
Hooper Sep 20th 2007 4:59PM
Guinness? Bleh.
Now the Colt 45 factory, I'd work there. I love you guys. You've made grinding okay.
Braehagh Sep 20th 2007 5:18PM
Guinness is good! Can I get paid by the keg?
jiggster Sep 20th 2007 5:24PM
w00t! i heard this on the news the other da can't wait summer job here i come XP Irish players are like world drops on wow XD
Balasan Sep 20th 2007 5:25PM
I live in cork too. Gief job!
Too bad I have the wrong qualifications...
Aralaz Sep 20th 2007 5:30PM
There are big tax breaks for software developers in Ireland. I guess Blizzard needs some more money for their struggling little games.
But grats to Ireland, the system is obviously working!
Matt Graham Sep 20th 2007 5:35PM
Old news. :(
fian Sep 20th 2007 7:52PM
wow plenty of other irish red this. Not going to apply myself but it is nice ot have blizzard come to stay here.
Btw - ireland was the worlds second largest exporter of computer software about 5 years ago (overtaken since). That is pretty impressive when you consider that we are not talking per capita, talking absolute levels, and ireland has a population of 4 million. Coming second behind the us (which has a slightly larger population :P) was not too shabby. India now is second i believe.
yotix Sep 21st 2007 4:30AM
You would HATE working there. Believe me, I've done it, working in games localization QA.
a) Dublin is a tiny city center surrounded by miles and miles of horribly expensive estates. Culture? Getting drunk in city center on the weekend. Anything else to do? Not much.
b) Salaries are below-average, with almost nonexistent social security and pension funds.
c) Dublin is one of the most expensive cities in Europe. One .5 liter can of beer in a supermarket? E 1.29 (USD 1.8). Rent for an 8 foot by 8 foot room in a shared house on the city fringe? 400 Euros monthly (565 USD). Rent for a tiny one-room apartment near city center? 1100 Euro (1550 USD). Dinner at a restaurant? If you can make it before 7:30 pm, make sure to grab the early bird special for only E 30 (USD 42) per person.
I later found a job in Berlin which paid exactly the same: E 100 per working day (of which 16% go into social insurance, and 15% income tax), leaving me about 1400 Euros per month. Prices in Berlin? The beer's 40 cent, 400 Euros rented me a nice 2-room apartment, and restaurant set menus start at 5 euro or 7 USD.
d) Up until the 1960s, Ireland was practically a third-world country with lots of poverty and almost no education. Now, the nicer parts of town are full of Jaguars and Porsches. The poorer areas are slums where kids burn cars for fun, where the police only goes with mesh riot shields across the windshield.
The old poverty is especially noticeable from Ireland's lousy infrastructure:
Public transport is an utter joke (they'll kick you off the bus unless you have exactly the right amount of change - not fun with only one bus every 40 minutes!)
Hospitals are at a 1950s level (I waited for five hours - 10 pm to 3 am - for three stitches on the arm).
The streets are narrow and winding, making the entire city of Dublin a death-trap for cyclists ... and there's three-hour traffic jams every morning and evening.
Believe me, I've been there: Dublin is nice for a week or so, if you're a tourist. After more than a few months, it's unbearable.
Gadai Sep 21st 2007 4:28AM
Aye, a friend in Cork is encouraging a number of us to apply for jobs there. While Blizzard have had a presence in Cork for a number of years this current recruitment is a huge expansion on the current numbers and represents a fairly major commitment to the Irish centre. GOA (the support company for Warhammer) are also setting up in Ireland at the moment, starting a support centre and Q&A division for Warhammer online in Dublin, so it looks like you could start getting form responses from GM's in both games with an Irish brogue soon ;)
Regarding the Irish on WoW, check out http://wsww.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=524 - the Boards.ie WoW forum - there's a thread there with the Character/Server for about 200 Irish players on WoW :)
yotix Sep 21st 2007 5:02AM
PS Whatever you do: Make sure you rent a room in SOUTH Dublin. North Dublin has most of the area where - I got this story from a taxi driver -
a) Daddy picks up his 11-y-o daughter after school
b) they see some kids crawling under a car
c) Dad says "I wonder what these kids are doing"
d) the 11-year-old says "they're pulling out the fuel hose so they can set the car on fire."
And a joke from the area:
Q: How does a North Dubliner propose to his girlfriend?
A: You're WHAT?
Inaraserra Sep 21st 2007 5:48AM
This was out on our main news stations a few days ago..
www.rte.ie/news/2007/0919/jobs.html
They've confirmed 75 jobs, and theres rumour of even more coming. This isn't the same as the Dublin 'office' they have - this is actually Blizzard setting up the office, not outsourcing to others.
Ireland is well known for its high level of education - one of the highest in the world, don't let Yonix fool you.
To be honest, I'm really offended by Yonix's description. Yes, we have a few issues - any Irish person will bitch and moan about the health service, but that's very slowly being addressed. It takes time to fix it, and though we're going through an economic boom, we're still catching up with everything that there simply wasn't money to do in the 80s. Our road infrasture is finally getting the massive overhaul it needed, and yeah, though the health service is still far behind - its improving.
As for salaries being much lower - our minimum wage is just over 8 euro an hour, a lot higher than for example, the US.
Public transport in the cities.. yeah, its a joke, but to be honest in Cork - if you cant catch the bus you can probably walk the distance in about a half hour / hour anyway. Its a small city. :D
And as for getting drunk in the city on the weekend.. umm.. this is Ireland, that's our social scene... what did you expect?! ;)
irishstu Sep 21st 2007 8:23AM
@15 - e) Dublin is not Cork
Bixxi Sep 21st 2007 8:13AM
Having spent about a year in Ireland, I whole-heartedly agree with #15. Dublin is an overpriced shithole, London-level prices with none of the frills, or salaries. I worked for HP/Compaq there for EUR 1600 a month where a studio apartment already costs EUR 1100. In the end we lived miles away from the city, and spent 3 hours a day stuck in gridlock traffic (1 in the morning, 2 in the afternoon).
After 3 months I had the shit, and bailed. Rang my boss from the deck of a ferry to England and said "Guess what I'm looking at? The Mountains of Mourne disappearing in the distance. You can shove that job up your ass."
I'm not dissing all of Ireland though, the north-west has some awesome mountains and coastline worth a hiking trip and Belfast is a pretty cool city in it's own right, but Dublin, let me say it again, is a shithole. Don't go there.
speed Nov 15th 2007 7:16AM
nope, cork is much MUCH smaller and dirtier and ... oh.. well.. its worse...