Crytek, the Frankfurt based Crysis developer, is under fire as multiple sources have claimed that the company is on thin ice.
The original report came from German publication GameStar, where it was stated that the company were facing bankruptcy after a slew of financial trouble including the release of Xbox One launch title Ryse: Son of Rome.
This, however, isn’t the only problem at Crytek, which has seen a massive restructuring heavily involving Free to Play models. Another report from Eurogamer is claiming that some employees from the UK and Bulgaria divisions had failed to receive their wages from last month.
Initially, this would be a little hard to believe what with their track history of critically and commercially successful Crysis franchise, a plethora of new IPs being developed in house, including their upcoming MOBA Arena of Fate, the co-op action game Hunt and their acquisition, and expansion of the Homeland universe. However, several anonymous sources from the company have also been in contact with us recently about the happenings within the company regarding multiple concerns. The strength of these comments continue to grow as news regarding Crytek‘s problems continue to spread.
Here’s what we’ve learned:
- A couple of weeks ago, CryEngine 3 was made available through public channels for the first time via the Steam platform. The process of doing was rushed, and as such Crytek are having to work out the business model on the fly. “It was only proposed shortly before being made available and the subscription plan introduced to boost revenue,” our anonymous source said. “There was no long term support plan in place.”
- Warface, Crytek‘s poster free-to-play game, has seen a rocky entry into the market with a player base dwindling more and more every day. “Warface is proving popular in Russia, but we’re losing everywhere else.” This is a heavy hitter considering it’s their first attempt at the model and also the only game currently available through their GFace platform, which is set to receive more games in future but is still in Beta itself.
- Despite having some playable demonstrations on the floor at E3 2014, Crytek had applied to be part of Sony’s press conference, but had done so too late and as such were unable to utilize the sheer publicity power that the live streams had accumulated throughout the event.
- Crytek‘s new MOBA title, Arena of Fate, is also raising concerns internally, as it appears that “the company don’t have much faith in it”. It’s bad enough that the game is entering a genre dominated by League of Legends and Dota 2. “It was initially just conceived to shake the FPS image associated with Crysis.”
As a big fan of the work Crytek has done throughout the years, particularly with the original FarCry and Crysis franchise, I honestly hope that the end for the developer isn’t near.
