There’s still trouble at Crytek, the independent game developer behind games like Crysis and Ryse. And as of yesterday the bulk of employees at Crytek’s UK office are no longer going to work, according to people familiar with the situation.
This comes in the wake of numerous reports that Crytek, which has studios across the world, has had trouble paying staff on time. Though Crytek has publicly denied facing financial difficulties, I’ve heard from close to 20 current and former employees stating that, as we reported last week, paychecks have been late and a Ryse sequel was cancelled following a dispute with Microsoft over who would own the rights to the franchise.
New developments point to more trouble ahead. Over the past two days, I’ve spoken with four people connected to Crytek’s UK studio, which is currently developing Homefront: The Revolution. According to those people, Crytek’s UK staff have still not been paid the full amounts they are owed, and this week, according to two sources, the staff at Crytek’s UK office handed in formal grievance letters and went home.
One person familiar with the studio estimates that around 100 people have left, though it’s unclear how many people plan to leave permanently and how many would like to stay with Crytek UK, which has been consistently losing staff for the past few months.
Rumour around the studio is that Crytek and Homefront publisher Deep Silver are currently negotiating over what will happen next. Employees at Crytek UK, which is based in Nottingham, are hoping that Deep Silver will purchase the studio and continue funding development of Homefront: The Revolution, according to two people connected to the company.
“They have invested a lot in Homefront and will want to protect their investment,” said one source.
For now, however, Crytek UK is in stasis as employees wait to see what will happen next.
Representatives for Crytek and Deep Silver did not respond to requests for comment.
Comments
8 responses to “Sources: Crytek UK’s Staff No Longer Going To Work”
Sucks pretty hard if Crytek are going under. I wonder if their recent decision to license their engine to compete with Unreal 4 has generated any revenue.
It may not be the parent company that is going under, but the UK subsidiary or branch.
Have they bought out anything decent lately? Crysis 2 & 3 were major letdowns. They F2P is a … F2P (I dont have experience with it, seems to be okay though). Ryse is a divided front.
I think if Crytec were to be purchased by Deep Silver, they would be in very capable hands. Over the last few years Deep Silver have really stepped up their game.
At least they were not working on something people were actually looking forward to. Silver lining.
i was actually interested in homefront 2 just because it was going to be an open world fps which is very very rare
Speak for yourself – I found that while short, I thoroughly enjoyed Homefront and would very much like to see where the story/world/IP heads.
Microsoft should just buy them out while they are vulnerable.
i was thinking something similar
they are a graphics powerhouse and could help xbox one games in general look better than ps4 (maybe).
buh-bye Crytek. It was nice while it lasted.