Australian studio Auran, announced that it shutting down its action MMO Fury. The game was released October 16 of last year and immediately failed in gaining much of an audience.Quickly after the release of the game, it moved to a free play system, and shortly after that Auran had to cut almost all staff. Now though, CEO Tony Hilliam says "We have reached our time limit to find a solution that would help us keep the Fury servers open. Sadly, no solution has been found and so we have no alternative than to shut the servers down in 48 hours."

Hilliam added, "To all those players who have enjoyed Fury and played countless battles, I am sorry that we could not find a viable business model that would allow you to continue playing. To all those naysayers and doomsdayers, we know that deep down you wanted Fury to succeed. Have fun with your parting wishes :)"

Independent Australian studio Auran, which most recently released the PvP-only MMO Fury, has been in the news a great deal over the past week. Reports have indicated that the company has suffered massive layoffs, or even that the entire studio was shutting down.

Tonight, multiple sources claimed Auran has been liquidated and all staff let go. CEO Tony Hilliam then issued a statement confirming the news and noting that a small team has been set up to maintain Fury as well as the company's Trainz Railroad Simulator. "Despite earlier reports, staff will be paid for all their work to date, their annual leave entitlements, redundancy payments and long service leave," he promised.

On Tuesday, Auran announced Fury would move to a free play system, with an optional $9.95 per month subscription for premium services. Hilliam said at the time, "We will then have some bad news to follow (unless a miracle occurs), but there will be a very positive end to the week."

According to Shacknews' sources, some half-dozen staff members were allowed to retain their jobs--no doubt these employees will comprise the core team tasked with keeping Fury and Trainz up to date.

"I believe that once people hear about F:AotC and the new Free to Play business model, we'll start building up the player numbers and revenues that will make the game successful," added Hilliam. "I expect the naysayers will have different thoughts, but they haven't played the new build...yet.

Independent Australian developer Auran has confirmed recent reports of layoffs within the company via its official forum, though CEO Tony Hilliam notes that "the death of Auran and Fury has been greatly exaggerated."

Despite "a bright and long future" for the recently released PvP-focused MMO Fury (PC), Hilliam admits that the game "started off slower than expected" and that its future does not involve all of the 60-person team that created it.

Instead, "a smaller, more agile core team" will work on continued support of the game, with some of the new content outsourced to Chinese development... Read more

Computer & Video Games has a Q&A on "the ultimate player versus player experience", asking Auran CEO Tony Hillman about Fury.

Auran is hosting a free preview of its player vs. player-only PC RPG Fury this weekend. Like an intense version of World of Warcraft's player combat, Fury focuses on providing quick matches and endlessly customizable characters. I went hands-on to help you determine whether it's worth your time. Check it out.

Fury is all about quick rounds of PVP combat, and provides no massive world to explore outside of its battleground maps. After putting their skills to the test, players are awarded experience and gold, then promptly kicked out of the instanced arenas. In between bouts, characters are relegated to a jail-like setting, inaccurately referred to as a sanctuary. It's a sanctuary insomuch as the pits of the Coliseum were a sanctuary--it is here that you will wait before your inevitable battle to the death.

Completing the MMORPG beta testing trifecta, Auran Studios is now accepting applications for the Fury beta. The fantasy MMORPG, which focuses on Player vs Player combat, will be released in North America by Gamecock this holiday season. A couple of new screenshots have been released as well, you can find those here.

Gamecock sends along a new Fury trailer, showing gameplay footage from this PvP MMO in development at Auran. It's due out later this year.

New at GameInformer is this Fury preview, offering impressions of the build on display at GDC. Gamecock is set to publish this MMORPG in North America later this year.

GameSpot, FiringSquad and IGN all have Fury previews, checking out the PvP heavy MMORPG in development at Auran. The Gamecock Media Group will be publishing this game in North America later this year.

Over at Game Musketeers you can find a Fury Q&A. Producer Paul Whipp is asked about this MMORPG's lack of grinding and waiting, content updates, sanctuary areas and maps, character creation and development, and PvP combat.

New at MMORPG is a Q&A with Joseph Hewitt, senior designer on the MMORPG Fury. Topics include Fury's unique features, growth plans, UI customization, and voice communication among other things.

New at FiringSquad today is this Fury Q&A, asking Paul Whipp of Auran about this MMORPG. Topics include the backstory, the emphasis on combat, player races and classes, weapons, unique gameplay elements and use of the Unreal Engine 3.