Are Crytek on the Verge of Bankruptcy?
Continued reports across various media outlets in the video game industry suggest that developer Crytek, best known for their Crysis games, are in serious financial troubles. This follows recent reports of continued layoffs across multiple studios within the industry, painting a grim picture for the industry as a whole. So are Crytek on the verge of bankruptcy? We’ll have a look at the evidence so far, but initial reports and signs aren’t looking good.
On Saturday, German magazine GameStar reported that the studio was suffering from financial issues, citing “catastrophic” development of XBox One exclusive Ryse: Son of Rome and poor sales of their CryEngine game engine as the major causes. It was also alleged that the studio is struggling to pay its employees on time. Crytek responded to these reports with the following statement to VG247;
“Regardless of what some media are reporting, mostly based on a recent article published by GameStar, the information in those reports and in the Gamestar article itself are rumours which Crytek deny. We continue to focus on the development and publishing of our upcoming titles Homefront: The Revolution, Hunt: Horrors of the Gilded Age, Arena of Fate, and Warface, as well as providing ongoing support for our CryEngine and its licensees.
“We have received a lot of positive feedback during and after E3 from both gaming press and gamers, and would like to thank our loyal employees, fans and business partners for their continuous support.”
Since the original report, Kotaku has reported that anonymous staff members confirm reports that they are not being paid on time, and around 100 staff have left the company since March. Games are rumoured to have been cancelled due to these financial issues, including a sequel to Ryse. The staff members state that Crytek insist they will sort any issues and the company will be fine. Other factors are said to include Crytek’s ventures into free-to-play titles – Warface and its forthcoming MOBA game.
Crytek announced earlier in the year that they were developing open-world game Homefront: The Revolution for next-gen consoles with an expected release date for early 2015 – it’s unclear how this game will be affected, but given that box-art has been shown alongside some polished gameplay footage, it’s likely that the game will ship. Homefront was one of the key IPs that were sold as part of the now-defunct THQ sales – at the time, Crytek said it would be business as usual despite the sale.
If anything further develops from this story we’ll let you know, but it certainly looks like there are very real issues at Crytek. It seems to be a case of if and how the company overcomes these issues now.