230°

Sources: Crytek Not Paying Staff On Time, Ryse Sequel Dropped

Kokatu :

"Crytek, the developer behind Crysis and Xbox One launch game Ryse, is having trouble paying employees, and the company has been bleeding staff since March, according to people who work there.

In addition, from what I hear, the multi-national studio has had to cancel work on multiple games over the past few months, including some original prototypes and a sequel to last fall's Xbox One exclusive, Ryse.

Current and former Crytek employees describe a tense, unstable environment, plagued by poor communication and a number of high-level staff departures at the company's biggest studios in Germany and Britain. In extensive conversations over the past few weeks, developers have described a company in turmoil, where staff openly talk about leaving or looking for new jobs. One employee estimates that some 100 people have left over the past three months."

ArchangelMike4015d ago (Edited 4015d ago )

It's not sounding good at all for Crytek. What went wrong though? I don't understand how the company all of a sudden is struggling? Mismanagement, poor financial planning, unable to pay employees, falling out with Microsoft over Ryse sequel??? It's not sounding good at all. Man I don't know what to say?

Edit: I remember Free Radical, they were bought by Crytek if I remember correctly. Aww man I hope we can still get a Timesplitters game, but I'm not holding out much hope anymore :(

Ogygian4015d ago

It seems that the primary problems have been the dismal performance of Ryse: Son of Rome (less than a million sales worldwide; compare this to ten million for AC: Black Flag) alongside underperformance of the Cryengine 4.

I'm quite shocked they were even making a Ryse sequel. I wouldn't expect Microsoft to save Crytek, as they seem to have been the reason for their decline in the first place.

Testfire4015d ago

I don't think 1 game would make or break a studio, especially one as prominent as Crytek. Their problem started with Crysis 2, an expensive engine that didn't catch on, Ryse and probably mismanagement of money and resources.

gamer11384015d ago

You can't blame Ryse for everything. This has been a gradual decline. Crysis 3 hardly set the charts on fire and EA would have had their pound of flesh before Crytek saw any return. They're into F2P but by all accounts that is struggling. Developing a graphics engine is not cheap either.

Also, comparing a next gen platform exclusive against a cross gen game thats the 6th in it's series and Ubisoft's biggest franchise is just dumb.

HacSawJimThugin4015d ago

No where in that article was Ryse listed as the primary financial problem.They did mention that Warface and jumping into Free to play was. Troll somewhere else. Even Phil stated in a interview a few weeks ago Ryse sold well, well enough for him to state it publicly.

I really hope MSFT can work with another dev and get Ryse fans a proper sequel. I really enjoyed correction still enjoy this game.

Ogygian4015d ago (Edited 4015d ago )

Ok fair enough, Crysis 3 was also partially responsible after racking up appallling sales, and Crysis 2, while not a failure (over 3 million copies sold) was not exactly an outstanding success.

Mediocrity followed by Ryse and Crysis 3, both flops, seem to have killed the studio.

@HacSawJimThugin

Crytek also stated that they're not currently in financial difficulties. Studios will say anything to keep funding coming in from banks and investors.

And indeed Warface also seems to have been problematic.

tdogg4015d ago

did you even read the artical? It says crytek and microsoft had problems over the ownership of ryse. also phil said ryse sold well for them and here you are comparing ryse to assassins creed smh. they say so many employees left because of not being paid meaning there short of staff had result in cancled ryse 2

ThunderSpark4015d ago (Edited 4015d ago )

I think this serves as a good reason why the better system to back this generation so far is the PS4. With almost double the fanbase of the Xbox One, you would be near crazy or mad to release exclusively on the Xbox One. Why limit your options when you know you can't afford to in the first place. It bewilders me.

imt5584015d ago (Edited 4015d ago )

@HacSawJimThugin

If Phil Spencer said that Ryse sold well, WHY IS RYSE 2 CANCELED? Why Microsoft don't fund Ryse 2 development if Crytek has problems? Of course Phil will say something positive.

Ryse development was problematic. Read Gamestar.de summary here ( they talked first about Crytek's problems )

http://m.neogaf.com/showpos...

monkeybizz4015d ago

MS killed Crytek ? Discuss

christocolus4015d ago (Edited 4015d ago )

@spartanlemur

Yes blame it all on MS. Lol. Did you even read the article?They usually depend on big projects from bigtime publishers. So is it MS fault that they had no other projects in the works?projects always get put on hold or held back for some reasons or the other and that is why there should always be a plan b. Was crytek banking on Ryse2 alone to sustain a company of over 800 people?or will you blame MS for that too? Also will you blame Ms for the other projects that were scrapped? Or the many years of mis-management of funds and poor adoption of the cryengine? Are those all caused by MS too? Learn to read before commenting. And so you know Ryse has sold over a million copies to date. Stop spreading crap.

@whathapened

Yes, so in your opinion the xbox doesn't deserve any exclusives because it hasn't reached ps4 numbers. Remember haze and lair on ps3? Those were exclusives which were released very early during the life of the ps3 and guess what? they bombed really hard and affected the devs too but did that stop other devs from making exclusive games for the console? No. Dude its a business with risks. And as long as there is competition in the industry MS and developers will keep taking those risks and that's why I am able to look forward to ips like SO, quantum break,scalebound and D4.

Ontopic: its really sad to see this happen. I really hope they bounce back but im very glad to see MS is considering a sequel to Ryse. Hopefully they resolve their issues or assemble a new team to work on the game. Phil recently stated on twitter that the sales were good so I'm expecting work on a sequel will continue in some form or the other.knowing phil spencer I'm sure they have already sorted this out. I Wish all parties the best of luck.

UltraNova4015d ago (Edited 4015d ago )

If this article is to be believed then who ever wanted to buy them out would definitely have to do major restructuring, as much as 30% of the staff could be terminated and some overseas studios could be shut down, would have to minimize the middle management to a bare minimum (the worst part of any company), reduce salaries (yes I know), bring F2P en-devours to a minimum (ASAP) and focus 100% on your established franchises and engine, making sure you cross the word exclusive off the list for good and release your games on all systems available (including Ryse 2 -if they own the IP that is)and if it.

Last but not least make sure you repair relations with the remaining staff first by giving them a stable environment and a listening ear when they have something to say and a solid promise of better things to come (mainly giving them their old salaries back with a bonus when the company gets in the green again).

If Activision, MS or EA buys them you can forget Crytek all together.

+ Show (7) more repliesLast reply 4015d ago
GryestOfBluSkies4015d ago

if i were to just purely speculate, i'd guess that sales of their games arent so great. theres only so much you can expect from visually great looking games that play mediocre. personally i thought Crysis 1 and 2 were pretty good, but not unforgettable experiences. Ryse certainly sold less by being exclusive (same can be said for any exclusive)

imt5584015d ago

Quote from article :

One employee estimates that some 100 people have left over the past three months.

Really sad! :(

KwietStorm_BLM4015d ago

Not paying staff on time? This is more serious than I thought. And now all the bragging and chest thumping they were doing last year makes it that much worse.

Joe9134015d ago (Edited 4015d ago )

Exactly I like their games and all but have people forgot how much crap they were talking last year around the time next gen was being talked about. Glad to see people are finding other jobs before the ship sink though.

ZeekQuattro4015d ago

Meanwhile Crytek released a comment saying the are not in danger of bankruptcy. Could of fooled me what with the late pay, shrinking workforce and cancelled games. I say games because I doubt Ryse 2 or what ever they were going to call it is the only casualty. Every day seems to bring more dire news.

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90°

DF Direct: Crysis 4's uncertain future is a grim portend for the industry

Crysis 4 is "on hold" and Crytek is facing layoffs - so what does that mean for the company that was once Germany's biggest games dev + the industry as a whole?

Read Full Story >>
eurogamer.net
PrinceOfAnger123d ago

I really want to see a Crysis 4 with all the ray-tracing & path-tracing effects. It would be a shame if they canceled the project. Maybe they could do a kickstarter?

DF
" Crysis is something of a tentpole game series for us at Digital Foundry, with a reputation for being an early adopter of graphics technologies that would later define entire generations of PC and console video games. That includes the likes of screen-space ambient occlusion, sub-surface scattering and ray-marched volumetric lighting, but you could write volumes about just how ground-breaking that first game was "

isarai123d ago

I really hope they come out and push the industry forward like they used to. I miss old crytek

PrinceOfAnger121d ago

They all look disappointed by this news especially Alex

JEECE121d ago

Pretty sad that the studio that gave us a monumental game like Crysis is now subsisting on microtransactions from a live service PVPVE game.

140°

Crysis 4 put "on hold" as developer Crytek is next studio hit by layoffs

Crysis developer Crytek is the next studio hit by layoffs, as it announces it's set to lose an estimated 15 percent of its 400 employees.

RaidenBlack129d ago

Why'd the day start with such sad gaming news?
Absolutely disheartening.

Jingsing129d ago

Maybe putting The Power Rangers in Hunt Showdown will get you some money back. (sarcasm)

Kassanova07129d ago

I'm always rooting for Crytek.

P_Bomb129d ago

I’m rooting for Crysis. Hope they work it out.

Show all comments (7)
200°

Crytek Wanted Crysis To Be "Future-Proof"

According to Crytek CEO Cervat Yerli, "I want[ed] to make sure Crysis does not age, that [it] is future proofed, meaning that if I played it three years from now, it should look better than today." Yerli and the team designed Crysis' highest graphical settings for the PC hardware of 2010 and beyond.

While Crytek has officially announced Crysis 4 is in development, nothing new has surfaced. For now, gamers' only way to scratch that itch is to play the Crysis Remastered Trilogy available on PC and consoles.

Read Full Story >>
dualshockers.com
RaidenBlack152d ago

OG 2007 Crysis (not the remastered weirdo), is & will forever be a legend amongst the PC community.

PrinceOfAnger152d ago

This video will always be impressive to me, even for years to come. Some things here are better than games we have today, OG crysis is the best version!

https://youtu.be/SVg63_aNr-...

RaidenBlack152d ago

OG Crysis physics, man ... amazing! Thanks for the reminder!

PrinceOfAnger151d ago (Edited 151d ago )

Looks really nice with VR mod too

FinalFantasyFanatic151d ago

I'm still shocked that it looks as good as it does today, puts some modern games to shame.

Profchaos151d ago

I thought the remaster was fine tbh some rough edges at launch but after some patches it's decent

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 151d ago
isarai152d ago

I mean the lighting and physics still hold up extremely well. I still revisit it from time to time.

RedDeadLB151d ago

That CPU performance thing is preventing it.

isarai151d ago

Yeah unfortunately Crystek's decision to bet on the linear progression of clock speed in CPUs was derailed by the unforseen shift towards multicore CPUs. It just wasn't built with that in mind because that wasn't even in the conversation at the moment

DivineHand125151d ago

I remember when I tried to play Crysis with my Intel Pentium Dual core E2200 @2.2GHz , 4GB ram and GeForce 9400gt. I was a kid back then and that was the best I could do. I would get about 15 to 20 fps. When I over clocked the CPU to 2.8GHz I would get about 40fps. The experience wasn't good at all and it was the only PC game I could not run back then unless and put the settings on low. At that point the game went from cutting edge graphics to PS2 graphics. To this day I haven't completed the OG Crysis. I was able to complete Crysis 2 and 3 after building a new PC when I got my first job.

HyperMoused151d ago

Never played it, worth a try you think?

Profchaos151d ago (Edited 151d ago )

Worth a try just because it's the only game that lets you pick up a turtle on the beach and throw it at enemy soldiers that should have been a back of the box feature.

But nah seriously unless you're nostalgic for it I'm not sure if it will hold up

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