ZeniMax Online Studios, a ZeniMax Media company, plans to open a customer support centre in Galway, which will provide customer support for players of their future multiplayer online games.
The development is anticipated to create hundreds of jobs over the next several years.
Under the leadership of the company’s current president Matt Firor, ZeniMax Online Studios was founded to create online role-playing games.
Rich Barham, director of customer support, will lead the global customer support initiative at the studio. Barham previously worked with Blizzard Entertainment, and was a major contributor to the management of in-game support needs, customer care, and retention for World of Warcraft. He was also a key team member in establishing customer service centres for North America and Europe.
“We are excited to be building an experienced team, led by Rich, which will focus on providing superior customer support for our games. Galway has world-class educational facilities, is a beautiful place to work and live, and offers a wide variety of benefits for our employees. Our ability to provide superior customer service for our future products is firmly on track,” Firor said.
Adding to today’s announcement, Minister for Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation Richard Bruton TD, said, “ZeniMax Online Studios is a premier developer and publisher in interactive entertainment and a very important addition to the thriving games industry in Ireland. This investment was won for Galway by IDA Ireland in the face of stiff competition from other European locations and as such it demonstrates yet again to the global investment community that Ireland continues to attract high-quality foreign direct investment.”
“The company will be a significant employer in the West of Ireland hiring multilingual customer support agents and technical support staff and will contribute to the further development and attractiveness of the Region. We welcome ZeniMax Online to our business community and look forward to continued partnership in the years to come” concluded Minister Bruton.
Speaking from New York, IDA CEO Barry O’Leary welcomed today’s announcement, saying “ZeniMax Online Studios’ decision to locate its European customer services operations in Galway acknowledges Ireland’s delivery of services’ excellence in the digital media sphere and its position of strength in the global gaming industry. They are a very welcome addition to a cluster of companies across Ireland in a sector which is witnessing rapid growth. IDA Ireland’s strategy, Horizon 2020 recognises the global growth in services and today’s announcement by ZeniMax Online further embeds Ireland’s reputation as a European digital capital.”
