Crytek, the major developer perhaps best known for the Crysis series, has broken silence on rumours regarding its inability to pay staff, confirming that it's closing down a whopping five of its wholly owned studios. The move means that its Budapest (Hungary), Sofia (Bulgaria), Seoul (South Korea), Shanghai (China), and Istanbul (Turkey) offices will all cease to exist. Its main headquarters in Frankfurt (Germany) will survive, while its team in Kiev (Ukraine) will continue work on Warface.
As part of a press release, the company indicated that it will focus its attention on its CryEngine game development toolkit. "All other development studios will not remain within Crytek and management has put plans into action to secure jobs and to ensure a smooth transition and stable future," the firm explained. Co-founder Avni Yerli also personally thanked staff for their support, though his embattled brother Cevat Yerli refrained from being quoted.
Crytek's most recent release, Robinson: The Journey, launched as a PlayStation VR exclusive, but despite being technically impressive, drab gameplay failed to thrill critics. However, the company does still have one high-profile engine licensee on its books in the form of Cloud Imperium Games, the makers of Star Citizen. "We believe that going through this challenging process will make us a more agile, viable, and attractive studio, primed for future success," Yerli concluded.
Our thoughts go out to all those who suddenly find themselves out of work.
Comments 18
There is fan made Timesplitters project callled Timesplitters Rewind which Crytek gave permission for it to be built.
The project has gone silent for nearly 3 months now I hope this hasn't been cancelled too or if it has I hope they sell the IP. They've had great IP for years and done nothing with it
@B-I-G-DEVIL I don't think Crytek owns it anymore do they? I thought Deep Silver bought it along with Homefront?
@B-I-G-DEVIL Sony should buy it, jib off Killzone and concentrate on Timesplitters 4. One of the greatest mysteries is how TS FP didn't sell or review well? The game was practically perfect. Similar to TF2 this year I suppose.
@get2sammyb No wasn't part of the deal. It was the first thing I checked at the time. Unless something happened recently.
@themcnoisy Yes I wasn't keen on the first one but absolutely loved 2 and FP still my favourite games but I need new PS2 controller as mines broke now.
@B-I-G-DEVIL I've just read metacritic and some terrible reviews pull the score down. The worst is one at 60%. How the hell was / is Timesplitters Future Perfect only worth 60% that's a crime against gaming. I'm trying to recall any other shooter on the PS2 / xbox / gc that has the playability, variety and longevity and can only think of possibly Halo 2.
Crytek really hasn't done much recently outside of selling their engine, and i haven't seen very many high profile games using it, so i can imagine they're hurting for money. Shame, but eventually you have to stop making sandbox tech demos and start producing actual games if you want to thrive.
@themcnoisy My favourite FPS story personally then you had the arcade and challenge modes and map maker! Not to mention all the levels and characters...
I want it to be part of the ps2ps4 collection. Wouldnt need another game for months
Have they tried making some actual games? You know being a game studio and all
They should do a crysis hd collection maybe that will help a lil.
The thing with Crytek like others have pointed out they need to start making game's, and making a F2P game wasn't the smartest move. Its a shame Crytek was too stubborn to make a TimeSplitters game, or maybe a remake.
i'm kind of surprised they didn't make crysis 4 for current-gen. it wasn't exactly a stellar franchise, but it's the one franchise they're mainly known for, and you'd expect them to be able to take the graphics up a considerable notch from how crysis 2/3 looked on PS3. though, maybe EA as the publisher owns that IP?.
Ouch. Talk about a christmas vacation.
The engine is based on up and coming tech and sadly in the world thats a hard sell. Theres reasons Crysis had a joke around it.
Its assets and developer forums pale by far compared to UDK and U5, so thats less inviting, and its far less customisable to make a game you want. It can do tropical islands okay with FPS gameplay...anf not much else.
I appreciate pushing new tech that isnt necessarily usable at that time, like how Physical Based Rendering is now widespread, but its not sustainable when as a developer you dont make games, just tech demos, with an engine thats hard to use and sell.
I feel mighty sorry for everyone involved - this is the kind of industry where you don't tend to lose a few from the headcount but whole studios and swathes of talented people.
Sounds like they had some serious issues with direction - my personal feeling is that if you want to take a major risk with new tech (and you aren't a start up or a split subsidiary) then get yourself a stable revenue stream. I guess from reading here they didn't manage it.
@DerMeister Apparently it's all the rage.
http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/20/news/companies/christmas-layoffs/index.html
"Crytek's most recent release, Robinson: The Journey, launched as a PlayStation VR exclusive, but despite being technically impressive, drab gameplay failed to thrill critics."
Not surprised, to be honest. After their work with Risen Son of Rome, in which the only thing the game got praised was the graphics while the combat was a bit shallow and simple, it was obvious that Robinson will be yet another one of Crytek's Quality over Quantity.
Wow, how many studios, too many, that can't be smart. And what games? Useless. I can see something similar coming from Ubisoft possibly, they ain't in trouble yet but a lot of their games died this year, they may have been in trouble had the division not sold an absolute ton so quickly.
Crytek entered a death spiral when they tried entering the F2P market they'll need a lot of luck to pull out of it.
Tap here to load 18 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...