A new dawn
for gaming A new dawn

PRESS RELEASE

People-first games studio to enhance employee experience and set a new focal point for game developers in North East England.

Middlesbrough, UK (21 March, 2024) - Full-service developer and publisher Double Eleven proudly announces the completion of Boho X, its new flagship headquarters built in close proximity to their current offices in Middlesbrough, England. The building has been designed to enhance the well-being of the studio’s employees and support the growth of the business, whilst also acting as a central hub facilitating regular meetups for games professionals in the region and beyond. Employees will be moving in this month, before an official opening later this year.

The cutting-edge facility marks a significant achievement in Double Eleven's journey. After 14 years in locations ranging from lofts to shared office spaces, the company will be the sole occupant of a seven-story, multi-purpose building designed to bring all the studio’s UK teams under one roof and support employee wellbeing.

Double Eleven’s fitout of the work spaces is the result of years of meticulous planning and execution, taking into consideration modern design principles and the need for staff to access top-tier technology in a supportive environment. Boho X provides plenty of break-out spaces incorporating natural elements, and new amenities, including a classroom, an auditorium, a market hall providing healthy, subsidised food and a fully-equipped staff gym.

“We've experienced remarkable growth, expanding from just over 100 employees to nearly 400 within the past three years, with the majority of our workforce based right here in the centre of Middlesbrough”, highlights Kimberley Turner, CFO of Double Eleven. “We’re proud to have been able to retain many of the local talents in the region and support their growth over the years.”

Mark South, the company’s COO, who has been overseeing the design, fit-out and transition to the new headquarters, explains: “Boho X is a remarkable addition to Teesside. It’s a testament to Andy Preston and Ben Houchen’s proactive leadership in creating an office to the high standard that local technology companies need to both recruit and retain highly skilled people locally, nationally and internationally. This building embodies the ambitious vision of the Tees Valley Combined Authority and Middlesbrough Council, who have demonstrated their commitment to elevating the region's office infrastructure by setting a new benchmark for excellence.

Starting from a new, empty shell allowed us to design and build our space from scratch, and transform it into something that exemplifies our continual investment in our people and our culture. We’ve combined our experiences in incredible offices all over the world with best practices for modern working environments in the context of hybrid working. This has resulted in a contemporary design that focuses on fresh air, a mix of well-lit and dark areas, open spaces, all featuring significant greenery, with a specific focus on healthy living and most importantly, building human connections.

To bring it all to life, we’ve looked holistically at the people and supporting services required for our new headquarters. As a result, we’ve decided to create new roles, and our own hospitality, cleaning and security teams, leveraging the strengths of our parent company, Pneuma Group, allowing us to have full ownership of our employee experience.

More than just wanting a great quality of working life for our people; our new headquarters aspires to be a vibrant hub for developers, students, and professionals in the region. As well as providing spaces to work and collaborate, it also houses a classroom and an auditorium. Infrastructure that will support our ambition to host industry events, educational programmes and relevant local initiatives as a force for good. Our move into and fit-out of Boho X represents a significant investment and underscores our commitment to becoming an integral part of the local landscape, driving positive change and fostering growth in Middlesbrough and the wider region."

The landmark Boho X development was supported with £21m in funding from the Tees Valley Mayor and Tees Valley Combined Authority. Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen said: “Double Eleven are a fantastic example of the innovative and forward-looking companies we want to support across Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool and which are providing the highly skilled, well-paid jobs our economy needs. We want these companies to be able to expand and attract the best talent, but to do that we need to have the right offices and developments. We are proud to have supported Boho X, which will continue to help the growth of Middlesbrough’s thriving community of digital and creative businesses.”

We are delighted to be a joint Headline Sponsor for TEDxNewcastle 2022, taking place this Saturday, November 12th at The Sage, Gateshead.

TED is an annual event that brings together the world’s leading thinkers and doers to share ideas that matter in any discipline — technology, entertainment, design, science, humanities, business and development.

The talks at the conference, called TED Talks, are then made available to watch for free on TED.com. In the spirit of "ideas worth spreading”, TED has created TEDx, a program of local, self-organised events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. TED and TEDx speakers tackle humanity’s toughest questions, attempting to answer them with innovation, enterprise and enduring optimism.

Furthermore, it lacks any commercial, religious or political agenda. Its goal is to spark conversation, connection and community. These are values that inspire us at Double Eleven which is why, as part of the community of world class tech businesses in the North East, we wanted to not just attend the event but also be a part of it in 2022.

Attendees will be able to meet volunteers from Double Eleven who will be there to answer questions, play games and give them a chance to go home with some goodies.

This year, TEDxNewcastle sees an Olympic Gold Medalist, a Cardiologist Youtuber, a Magician and Horror Writer, an X-Prize Winner and host of other speakers come to share their ideas to over 1000 registered attendees.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia -- May 24th, 2022

We are delighted to announce that we have launched our new Kuala Lumpur studio in Mid Valley today as part of our continued expansion, reinforcing our commitment to Malaysia and its talent base.

Our new 12,000 square foot Kuala Lumpur studio has been carefully designed and fitted out incorporating the lessons we’ve learned in the UK in our first decade. There is a lot of positive energy and excitement in the studio, our team know they are setting the foundations for the future. Seeing their ambition and joy to work on great gaming titles while being able to enjoy a normal family life is really rewarding.

A typical day starts at your desk in one of our development rooms. These vary in size to accommodate our different project teams. Each team member has fully adjustable desks and all the equipment needed to make great games, connected to our 10 gigabit network to make sure you don’t have to wait around, pausing to think is your choice, not your computer’s.

Need a break? Head to our reception area, grab a drink, play a game of pool or take a moment to chat with friends before heading into a meeting. Our meeting spaces are designed for a mixture of group sizes ranging from 1-2-1s all the way up to full production and build reviews.

Meeting over, we’re holding a brief company town hall update back in the reception area after which you’re free to take advantage of the many restaurants and shops in the mall at the base of the building to get some lunch.

In the afternoon it’s back to work, the UK team are coming online and you work together on your projects via video and Teams. As you’re getting ready to leave for the day you notice that some of the KL team are settling down to use the cinema room to enjoy a blockbuster together. Maybe next time, you’re heading home to see your family and have dinner.

“We’re excited to celebrate this milestone in expanding our studio’s people-first ethos into Malaysia. Combined, both studios position Double Eleven for the future to continue developing and publishing great games,” said Mark South, COO of Double Eleven.

At Double Eleven we’ve made a name working with some of the biggest developers and publishers in the world. We are excited to be able to announce publicly that we’ve recently begun working with Bethesda Game Studios to create new challenges for players of Fallout 76. Since its release in 2018, Fallout 76 has invited players from all over the world to create a unique Dweller, leave The Vault and explore the many wonders and challenges of The Wasteland of Appalachia.

Bethesda and Double Eleven began speaking in late 2020, and since then we’ve worked together on a host of exciting new content that will be enjoyed by this passionate community of fans later in 2022.

“It’s a privilege to be trusted to work on one of the most iconic franchises in gaming history.” Double Eleven CEO, Lee Hutchinson, said “The team we’ve assembled to work on Fallout 76 are so passionate about the series, working with Bethesda is a dream come true.”

We’ve loved working on this game so far, and from small beginnings our team is expanding as we plan to develop more content in the future so keep an eye on our careers page for more information on open roles across all disciplines.

Games developer and publisher Double Eleven have announced they have tripled the size of their team, having welcomed their 300th employee.

It’s a significant milestone for the company, as it had already doubled its staff throughout the pandemic and opened an additional studio in Kuala Lumpur.

The 300th employee is Katie Atkins, who joins the company as Operations Assistant from the British bank Santander.

Katie said: “I’m thrilled to be joining Double Eleven. My partner works here as a junior programmer, he’s been with the company for two years, and he’s often talking about how great it is, so I already knew it was an incredibly special place to work.

“My new role is different to my previous job, but Double Eleven recognised my previous skills and experience were exactly what they were looking for.”

Originally from London, Katie moved to Teesside a couple of years ago when the rest of her family relocated.

“Friends from London often ask me why I would want to move here, but I’m so glad I did. There are lots of opportunities, the scenery is fantastic, there is so much to do, and now I’m working for one of the world’s biggest games developers and publishers,” added Katie.

Double Eleven’s recent growth has resulted from recruiting world-class talent locally, nationally, and internationally from America, Japan, Europe, and many other countries. And the company has brought experience from outside the games industry to support its scale of growth.

Lee Hutchinson, founder and CEO of Double Eleven, said, “The scale and complexity of the projects we have been working on have resulted in us tripling the size of our team in the past 18 months, which is phenomenal.

We’ve achieved this growth because we actively recruit people who have the right capabilities and experience, regardless of their games sector experience.

With 300 employees, Double Eleven is now one of the top three independent games publishers and developers headquartered in the UK. Trusted with some of the world’s biggest IPs, it is currently collaborating on Minecraft Dungeons with Mojang Studios, Prison Architect with Paradox Interactive, and Fallout 76 with Bethesda Game Studios, as well as working on other unannounced projects for Switch, Xbox Series S/X and PlayStation 5.

Opportunities at Double Eleven are available across various disciplines within the UK and Kuala Lumpur. To find out more, visit www.double11.com/careers.

We are honoured to count ourselves among the best companies to work for in the industry, this is huge recognition for us. Of all the awards out there, this is probably the single most important one to us and resonates with the main reason we started the company originally: to create an awesome place to work where employees could have a healthy work-life balance, an environment that allows them to spend time with their families and friends and thrive both in and out of the office.

The past 18 months or so have been challenging for everyone in both a professional and personal capacity. Our company has not only grown tremendously in this time, but everyone has been working from home which was definitely not the norm for most before March 2020. Despite the challenges that recent times have presented to us, everyone on the team has worked incredibly well and we’re so proud of each and every one of them for the resilience, patience and passion they’ve demonstrated throughout. Around 75% of the score for this award comes from anonymous employee feedback and given the physical distance and the fact that a lot of teams haven’t met many of the people they’re working with in person, you can never be sure whether the environment you work hard to create and maintain as a company carries over on digital platforms as well as it would have in the office. It’s great to know we’re still on the right path for our company and whilst the recognition is fantastic, we know that the work to grow this will carry on; it’s like a living being that needs to be nurtured to thrive.

We can’t wait to celebrate with everyone in person when it’s safe to do so and we’re excited to continue making Double Eleven a fantastic place to work!

2019 was a busy year for Double Eleven with major project announcements and a big expansion of our Middlesbrough-based team. 2020 doesn’t look like it’s going to be any slower, especially with this new announcement! Double Eleven will be opening our first overseas office, in Malaysia. The team will be based in Bangsar South, Kuala Lumpur and represents a new ability to develop great games across multiple time zones, as well as help us to gain a foothold with the potential for new partnerships in the Asian games market.

“We’re building Double Eleven Malaysia our way; it’s going to be a great place to work and they will become part of our tribe. At the same time we’re continuing to invest in our UK headquarters and make key hires within our management team. Our Malaysian studio will be there to support and bolster the incredible teams we have working in the UK. The Asian market is a huge player on the global stage, and we want to be at the vanguard of this exciting new hotbed of our industry.” – Lee Hutchinson, CEO

While the new studio will open in spring 2020, recruitment will begin in February. Initially Double Eleven will be recruiting full-time staff in development and management positions, including a new Malaysian Studio Head. Applicants can find further details on our Careers Page.