"the bulk" of Crytek UK's Staff No Longer Going To Work

http://kotaku.com/sources-crytek-uks-staff-are-currently-on-leave-1599923133

There's still trouble at Crytek, the independent game developer behind games like Crysis andRyse. 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.1

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.

Rumor 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.

That really sucks because Crytek UK is probably the most talented team of people they have there. Those are the original guys behind Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, and Timesplitters, and Homefront 2 looks awesome. One of my most anticipated games.

Somebody needs to don a cape and swoop in like captain save-a-ho and rescue them.

I wonder if I could buy Crytek UK? £200K sound good enough?

Sony wing.

Well that sucks.

I guess Crytek and Ryse might end up this gens Factor 5 and Lair. Ouch.

I can't say I'm not surprised. The quality of the "Crytek" brands games has been dropping since Crysis. They've certainly looked the part but not much else.

It's unfortunate these talented people are at the whim of money grubbing overlords, but at least they'll have the opportunity to move onto something better in time.

I bid $1 for Crytek.

Wait, I thought crytek said the previous news was greatly exaggerated and that it was outed by mad ex-employees.

Crytek UK will always be remembered as the studio that did Crysis 2&3 multiplayer... I guess...

More like this gens free radical design with Haze

What a shame.

The good news is that no 3rd party will ever make an Xbox ONE exclusive game now, so that's a good thing for gamers.

Anyone who buys Crytek would have to buy their debts...

sad, sad situation.....

Insomniac and Remedy are working on Xbox One exclusives as we speak...

Yes, because they expected the Xbone to lead sales this gen. Their decisions were premature and like how RYSE financially crippled Crytek, SSOD and QB will bankrupt Insomniac and Remedy.

Come to think of it, maybe this is exactly what MS wants so that they can easily acquire more 3rd party studios. Pretty disgusting tactic.

I fear for Remedy really. MS totally screwed up with promoting Alan Wake, it sold badly and now there will never be a sequel.

I hope the game does well for them. But I'm not going to buy an Xbone to play it...

The crytek man seems to be buying many studios for years without producing many games.

Ryse/Crisys >Haze >Lair

Lair was complete garbage and so was Haze.

Crytek should have cut staff a long time ago. They have way, way to many employees to pay for the few games they were making. Besides Homefront, what else were all these developers working on?

Yet both Lair and Haze scored better *snickers*

I don't know why idiots keep saying that. Everyone knows launch titles usually don't sell millions of copies, especially if they are new IP's. If Crytek thought they were going to sell 2 million copies of that game, they were nuts. They probably sold between 700K - 800K, which isn't bad with a user base of about 5 million now. That's close to 20%. Even if Microsoft has another 3-4 million in XB1 sales, this game would have only sold about 1 million at best. Crytek crippled themselves by overstaffing with developers and not releasing people after projects were completed. It seems they held on to developers while trying to come up with new properties to develope. That's their own fault. Has nothing to do with Microsoft or XB1. Crysis 2 & Crysis 3 weren't huge sellers either. I think Sunset Overdrive will sell much, much better then Ryse. Don't know about Quantum Break though as we haven't see enough of the game.

5 million shipped, not sold.

In any case, everyone knows that early adopters are the most hardcore of gamers. It's not an achievement when you get high attach rates on a console you just released less than a year ago.

They did?

Haze: http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-3/haze

Lair: http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-3/lair

Ryse: http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-one/ryse-son-of-rome

If you're talking about GS scores, we all know GS are the worse reviewers in the industry. Ryse is no where near a 4 score. The score on Metacritics is a more accurate score then anything on GS. They gave TLOU an 8. lol!!

But Lem tell me MS always let developer keep right to game, and only evil sony demand right for exclusive like Bloodborne. They say this is why Sunset is exclusive lol. Maybe MS and Crytek over who has to keep right, neither of them want because it worth such sht.

Another studio kill by MS, TBlackaceHBO

Crytek had far too much faith in Crysis 3 and Ryse.

Yup. Both sales fell flat. Crysis 3 because they changed their formula so much. Ryse because it was terrible and xboxone sales weren't nearly as high as everyone predicted.

I loved Crysis 1 and Farcry. This is one of the studios that just plain killed itself by having AAA budget for games that were rubbish and signing god awful contracts with publishers.

They just couldn't replicate the success that Far Cry and Crysis had :(

And yeah, the heads of Crytek made some really, really bad decisions.

I hope someone helps bail em out. Well... Crytek UK anyway, I couldn't care less about the rest of Crytek (as a company, I do care about the employees losing their jobs however).

It was 5 million shipped back in April. It's now July. I'm sure they are over 5 million SOLD now. Just like the PS4 is over 8 million sold now, as they were 7 millions SOLD back in April.

Blame the marketing team, these are most likely the people who led them away from pc and told them to chase after Call Of Duty and Microsoft exclusivity.

Microsoft don't own Crytek so I don't know what the shit you're talking about. By this logic Sony killed Free Radical and Factor 5 with Lair and Haze.

inb4 M$ buys them

Sucks to see people lose their jobs.

I guess that's what happens when you make a bunch of shit games. I wish the individual devs well but, really, what has Crytek made that was any good? The original Fry Cry and...and...?

He is talking about the contract disputes not the sales. "By this logic Sony killed Free Radical and Factor 5 with Lair and Haze." doesn't work because it wasn't about contracts on the franchise.

So Ryse is at Fault for Crytek possibly becoming financially unstable, that's what is being said? Surely even the most ardent of Fanboy cant believe that a single game funded or at the very least part funded by Microsoft is to blame for these issues. What about the Crysis multiplat titles and the FTP title Warface, Crysis 2 only sold 3 million lifetime across all platforms, Crysis 3 even less than that. Who knows how much they paid for the Homefront IP or the cost of the studios they bought out. If these rumours are true then its nothing more than poor management on Cryteks part.

I have a feeling Microsoft could either buy them out if these rumours are true and have them develop the cry engine specifically for XB1 and PC or invest in them as they did years ago with Apple.

And if he google Free Radical Design he will be surprise of result...

yep very sad to see. cry engine 3 was a huge achievement - crysis 2 still looks better than the majority of new 360 games. and crysis 1 & far cry are bonafide pc classics. shows how precarious longevity is, even for the bigger studios, when two average games released back to back (c3 and ryse) are enough to send such a talented studio under

Thanks consoles.

They make PC games too. lol!! It's a lose for everyone, not just consoles. Someone will probably buy them out though I bet.

You don't get it.

It's the creation of their console centric titles that killed them. Those games also started scoring lower than their PC centric titles.

No need to fear for Remedy. Quantum Break is 2nd party game. It's owned and funded by MS. If the game does poorly Remedy will only lose some bonuses and probably MS' support. Then they just have to do something smaller.

Crytek UK didn't make Ryse, just saying, people keep saying it so people keep repeating it. Anyhow, Crytek should have never picked up Free Radical, you'd think after the failed "Halo Killer" Haze and the no show of Battlefronts III would been good reason to find another studio elsewhere.

So if, and I really hope it doesn't, QB would flop like Alan Wake did, than it will be MS who loses money and not Remedy ?

Alright, I can live with that.

For crying out loud, please don't repost this Kotau crap.

Jason Schreier got a Gawker style hard on for this "story" after it popped up on a german blog. He's been begging for people to talk to him for over a week now, and if this is his result he hasn't gotten much. This is precisely the kind of shit that gives Gawker sites a bad name.

If Crytek collapses then we have a story. Until then this is distasteful gossip mongering, mixed in with rumor and hearsay.

Sony is buying Crytek, or most likely is going to hire a lot of their staff.

No. Harrison just confirmed yesterday that figure was shipped, not sold-through.

I wish consoles would stop killing devs who were good once.

I know who Free Radical are, the studio is still dead though, they went into administration and let most of their staff go and then they got bought by Crytek.

Anyway, contract disputes and Microsoft aren't what's killing them it's the shitty games they've made, that was my point. Ryse 2 being cancelled doesn't mean shit because they won't have done any work on it, it's not like they've been making the game for years and then MS shut it down.

I think you are right about this one. They killed the appeal of PC gamers with Crysis 2 and 3. The console profit margin wasn't as big as they hoped. They expanded so much after consolifying their games. Now they are over-bloated with staff and are shoveling out mediocre games. It is pretty tragic.