The Irish arm of gaming firm, Big Fish Games, saw sharp increases in revenues and profits before its US owners decided to pull the plug with the loss of 89 jobs last year.

Staff facing the axe at the Big Fish gaming company in Cork claim they are being offered redundancy packages “barely above minimum legal amounts”.

Cork needs to work to keep the IT professionals from Big Fish Games in the region to foster the growth of the technology sector, according to IT@Cork member John Dennehy.

Just four years after it arrived in Ireland, gaming company Big Fish has announced it is pulling out of Cork.

The world’s largest producer of casual games, Big Fish, has passed a landmark by distributing over 2bn games to PCs and mobile devices around the world since it was founded.