Crytek is a studio who has had issues in the past paying workers, but the situation became dire in 2016. Reported by Kotaku, the major developer shut down five studios with only two studios left under their name.
After a year of financial hardship, Crytek is closing its studios in Hungary, Bulgaria, South Korea, China, and Turkey, the developer said today. Crytek says they plan to “refocus on its core strengths of developing innovative games and game-development technology.”
This news comes after months of late and missing employee wages at the multinational developer, which will now retain only two studios, in Frankfurt, Germany and Kiev, Ukraine. In a press release, Crytek said that they’ve “put plans into action to secure jobs and to ensure a smooth transition and stable future” for those who will lose their jobs as part of the studio closures.
Hearing this is really sad, as the many employees lost jobs and while Crytek is helping them find new work, it still is a shame to hear that a studio shut down a significant amount of it’s work force at the end of 2016.
The most interesting part of this rumor is that some Crytek IP were sold off to help keep the studio afloat.
Rumour among Crytek staff (speaking to Kotaku) is that the company also sold its free-to-play games, Warface and its sequel, to the Russian publisher Mail.ru.
In the long run this is a good move, as it might help the remaining two teams get enough money to continue upcoming projects. But this could indicate that Crytek might be selling off other IP they own like Timesplitters and Crysis. We will see what happens in 2017 for the studio but it’s always sad hearing developers are not getting paid and struggling to find work. I hope the people laid off from Crytek find work right away and with little trouble.
Source: Kotaku