Technology & Software - Sidhe Interactive

Stacey Jones Rugby League Game

Every boy’s dream of making computer games has turned into a reality for Tyrone McAuley, co-founder and technical director of Wellington games development company, Sidhe Interactive.

Over the past eight years Sidhe (pronounced 'she' - it’s Gaelic for faerie folk) has grown from being a hobby to a full-blown career and company which now employs 40 people.

Their start was far from flash but they thrived on the challenge. 'We wrote games on weekends, doing our ‘normal jobs’ during the week,' Tyrone recalls.

Choosing Wellington

Choosing where to base Sidhe was easy. 'Practically all our staff live in town,' says Tyrone. 'It makes sense to be in a central location in the middle of a creative centre, like Wellington.'

Better, cheaper internet access and being able to hook up with other creative businesses were also key, and once again Wellington fitted the bill.

Popular Games

Their biggest seller to date is Stacey Jones Rugby League, a game highly suited to the growing ‘casual gamer’ market. 'The hard core game market is well established', says Tyrone. 'What we’re working on now is games like Rugby League that people can play intuitively after just a couple of minutes.'

In the highly competitive game industry the hard work is paying off. Sidhe Interactive won the Dominion Post Wellington Region Gold Business Award in 2004. It was one of the first organisations accredited by Sony to develop games for the new PSP gaming console and their first PSP game, GripShift, will go on sale in the US in September 2005, and will be published by Sony Online Entertainment.

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Marketing