Crytek issued today a press release, outlining a series of changes to its future business plans that will see the company refocus on its core strengths of developing innovative games and game-development technology. As part of the changes, Crytek will concentrate on development in its Frankfurt and Kiev studios and continue to develop and work on premium IPs.
CRYENGINE will remain a core pillar of Crytek’s overall strategy, with enterprise licensees and indie developers alike continuing to be served by regular engine updates. All other development studios will not remain within Crytek and management has put plans into action to secure jobs and to ensure a smooth transition and stable future.
In other words, Crytek is closing its studios in Hungary, Bulgaria, South Korea, China, and Turkey.
Crytek Co-Founder and Managing Director, Avni Yerli, said:
“Undergoing such transitions is far from easy, and we’d like to sincerely thank each and every staff member – past and present – for their hard work and commitment to Crytek. These changes are part of the essential steps we are taking to ensure Crytek is a healthy and sustainable business moving forward that can continue to attract and nurture our industry’s top talent. The reasons for this have been communicated internally along the way. Our focus now lies entirely on the core strengths that have always defined Crytek – world-class developers, state-of-the-art technology and innovative game development, and we believe that going through this challenging process will make us a more agile, viable, and attractive studio, primed for future success.”
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
Contact: Email
-Crytek
-Innovative games
BAHAHAHA i am enjoying this actually, when crysis came out there were alot of fanboys saying that crytek is expanding faster than any other studio…Well there you go, good riddance crytek.
Kinda sick enjoying something that was great having a dragged out death.
This is why you don’t f*ck with the PC master race.
Hey, Cryteck. You gotta nice business over here in the PC lounge. Be ashame if you only focused on the console market.
Might have a chance if they return to making good PC games.
The casual industry, such as consoles is overly saturated with too many shooters and such, so despite that appearing to be the obvious answer for a quick buck, unless you come out with something magnificent people will not buy your brand new generic FPS.
Instead focusing on that dedicated bunch of hardcore PC gamers that still crave another significant jump like the one Crysis 1 brought to the industry might prove to be very profitable.
How big is the market for games that can only be run on powerful PCs? Don’t get me wrong, I would love another Crysis like jump, that’s always exciting. but I don’t think it would be very profitable for a company with such financial problems.
ask the Star Citizen team.
Star Citizen’s funding was from hardcore PC gamers that wanted a PC game with high end visuals for high end PC’s. I’d say with all those millions they got, that there are quite a lot out there, they just aren’t recorded the same way low end users are on Steam. Also you don’t even have to participate in the Steam/Origin and other client’s hardware survey, I don’t and that’s why my specs aren’t even registered into their databases and why I don’t show up.
Now try saying that on a site like Eurogamer and you’ll be getting a lot of thumbs down. Even pointing out facts that Crytek have been struggling since their transition to the console market would be seen as a hate comment.
Oh Crytek, you were supposed to be one of the greatest. Such potential.
But then again, the guys on top were complete fools, chasing the magical F2P market. “It is the future” they’ve said.
This is sad.
Oh, and pay you f*cking workers you bunch of jabronis.
They haven’t done anything of note in over 10 years, good riddance!
You don’t like Crysis do you
opps Crysis came out Nov of 2007, edited the original comment.
I’m more sorry for those who worked at the mentioned studios rather than Crytek itself, since those guys lost a job… I guess they can be hired at another studio, hopefully…
Crytek may have a solid game engine and talented programmers, but when it comes to game design… oh boy how they’ve fallen. Speaking of game design, I like to include current Naughty Dog here, 2009 to present Naughty Dog to be exact (they aren’t going bankrupt anytime soon…), for the simple fact they also have talented programmers, solid game engines, yet fail so hard at game design. And they are an example in the gaming industry too. Just look at the new God of War game. Taking cues from The Last of Us like no other game…
Every time I see a new game Naughty Dog game, I go: “Gee, I sure loved it when Naughty Dog videogames were less videos and more games…”. What’s that? They’re remaking The Crash Bandicoot Trilogy for PS4? Well that would be fine and dandy, except they’re reusing the same levels and level design of the old games. ND will only remake the graphics and sound and that’s it, so the point still stands…
I really got off tangent here… Oh yeah, Crytek. Nobody will miss you.
Tbh, we seem to be repeating the same content we made decades ago, same goes for the movie and music industry. We seem to forget after a period of time and mixed with nostalgia we wanted, we end up remaking the same content over and over.
That and ND is kept under Sony, so they are more than likely to keep making the same level of content until Sony throws them out back like they did with the team behind Wipeout some years back.
Although I agree with you on some aspects, the mass majority would find that statement ridiculous since they see games like Uncharted 4 and the upcoming PS4 exclusive titles to be natural and healthy evolution in gaming as a whole. I guess it is when you look at it from a console enthusiast’s point of view, but realistically progression has been super slow and it’s unfortunate PC gamers have to suffer along with them in the cause.
I remember at one point during a Q&A with the Naughy Dogs’ team they were asked if they wished the hardware on the PS4 during the develoipment of U4 could be more powerful and their response was a yes but they just have to deal with the limitations they’re given. Goes to show no matter how no matter how talented a team can be and how new the console is they’re always going to be cutting corners in order to meet that realistic goal on a limited hardware. People don’t see the point of future proofing games on an open platform but games like Crysis are a fine example of it. Almost 10 years later and the game still holds up really well. Especially with mods. By now it wouldn’t have aged the same way if it was a console exclusive.
Here’s the thing. You can blame the hardware in the PS4 all you want… but… good game design has nothing to do with hardware, especially since the power present in the PS4 (and PS4 Pro) is still waaaaay better than previous generations. A vast majority of PS2 games are more enjoyable to play than the majority of games present on the PS4, save for a couple of exclusives… and it ain’t TLOU or Uncharted…
Also I like to mention the fact that the PS2 is still the most sold console to date… in a time were gaming wasn’t even as popular… also the PS2 was the weakest in terms of hardware in the 6th gen compared to the Gamecube, Xbox and even Dreamcast (RIP Dreamcast, you died way too young…). Why? Because great games. Right now I’m playing Klonoa 2 on my slim PS2 (emulating it on PCSX2 isn’t good since it’s buggy, regardless of hardware config… Ratchet and Clank is even worse…) and I’m having a blast. It’s simple, yet elegantly designed.
As for Naughty Dog themselves… I’m still baffled how they’ve got their ungodly popularity, since… they really haven’t innovated or even refined in gaming with pretty much anything, save for Crash Bandicoot (and even Crash came in a time where animal mascots like Sonic the Hedgehog were all the rage). Jak and Daxter was pretty much a in the vein of Banjo Kazooie, Uncharted was a Hollywood-esque popcorn spectacle game in the spirit of Indiana Jones or Tomb Raide and TLOU is probably my least favorite out of the bunch, because it took the most overused premise for a video game and took the worst parts of Uncharted (scripting and slow walking for no reason) and made it even worse, not to mention the slower pace only accentuates those problems… But the story at least gives you the feels, so 10 outta 10, amirite guys?
And now I have to listen to fanboys and critics praising TLOU like it’s to be all end all game. Those guys wouldn’t know a good game even if it hit them in the face. And worse… even games that I was really interested in like GOW are now following the succes of the TLOU… God knows why… and are even praising it too, some even saying the change is “for the better”. I check the comments on that GOW video, only to cough up blood while I read in disbelief… And I do it again and again and again…
This paragraph is for 7thGuest if he reads this stupidly long comment… Hey buddy, remember the gun I mentioned in another comment? I found it. :D. Should I pull the trigger? I’m really half-tempted at this point…
Can’t argue with that. Those were the times when people tried to outdo each competition and strived for utmost in the industry. Those technical limitations were part of those challenges but never stopped them from making what was possible. I was always a Nintendo kid growing up so I missed out all those great Playstation exclusives. I did own a PS1 at one point but never the PS2 and onwards.
But the reason why I’m kinda less okay with the way things are right now, is because unlike back then technology seemed to have felt like it was moving a decent pace with how long each console life cycle lasted. It allowed for more refreshing experiences and opened up opportunities for newer, never before seen genres or ideas.
I can’t comment on Uncharted 4 but I have played the previous ones to a great extent, besides number 3. And felt graphically they managed to outdo themselves each time. Especially since they were all on the same platform. Uncharted 4 was another great step up I think. With maybe a lot more chaos happening on the screen with all the gameplay demos I’ve seen before launch. I’ve seen some of the complains about The Last of Us but my issue with it unlike most others is how it didn’t really play like the early footages. They made the AI seem very intelligent and can adapt to various scenarios and allow them to blend into those accordingly. One example had an NPC who was able to hear when you’ve ran out of bullets and react to that in a believable way. Obviously it was scripted but was intentionally placed to make us believe that their AI was that great and dynamic. I was told by a friend the game plays nothing like that E3 footage. It’s quite like how you described it as.
But yeah, hype sure has its ways of manipulating mindsets into thinking something can be the greatest thing ever, no matter how shallow or mundane a gameplay can be. As long as it has a solid presentation, but that’s not to say The Last of Us is all of those bad things, since I never played it. My main gripe with Sony exlusive games of this generation is that their titles seem to be more movie-like than a conventional gaming experience. I don’t mind the feeling they wanna give to the player, making them feel like badass hero from a movie but if it involves a lot of moments, like you say, when it slows down your character’s movement speed to make you take in how hard they worked on all these assets it can be a pain.
This is what happens when you turn your back to your most loyal fanbase to go for a amateur crowd ( console peasants race) from crysis 2 onward ive predicted your downfall….i hope you close down crytek…imagine now in alternate universe you created crysis 2 on cry engine 2 heavy modified just for PC…you will had bilions by now.
Looks like Crytek is soon goimg to have a Crytrek.
Here, let me fix it for you;
“Looks like Crytek is soon going to become a Crywrek at this pace.”
;D
Ayyyyyyyyyyy
You are dreaming. The console market will always be bigger, whether we like it or not. Poor PC sales must have been what made then migrate to consoles in the first place.
You do realize that the PC market is much much bigger than consoles right!
Also, while sales on launch will generally be lower on PC, the games generally tend to sell better than any *one* console most of the time. I think EA went on record stating just that two or three years ago. And two to five years down the line the PC will continue to be profitable while the consoles chase after the next big thing.
Crysis 1 sold quite well on PC and so did warhead. Crysis 2 sold less and Crysis 3 did poorly, and for that blaming the consoles is appropriate as the game wasn’t the same.
Chasing after the console market sacrificing quality of the original PC game usually doesn’t yield all that positive results. F.E.A.R 2 comes to mind, what a disappointment that was. From the best shooter I’ve ever played to ugh!
Ughh … DAMN! what a shame on F.E.A.R
That game was fuc*ing awesome T_T
Stop making things up, F.E.A.R. 2 doesn’t exist. The series ended with Extraction Point.
AND I’LL FIGHT ANYONE WHO SAYS OTHERWISE.
But I don’t wanna lose my fight money D=
Otherwise.
LISTEN HERE YOU LITTLE SH*T!
I’m all ears with tiny legs and hands.
Extraction what? I only remember FEAR and FEAR 2. People keep talking about expansions and other games like FEAR 3 but I think they are delusional.
Oh, don’t you start Dukku.
F.E.A.R. then Extraction point.
ALMA WINS, YOU LOSE, WORLD IS F*CKED, END OF DISCUSSION.
I don’t even think he’s seen the global revenue yet lol.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3b866e35ae3ff8c0a36e324c04226f348d99fc344f2a8bdab7e266a02f0de8fd.png
Sure, PC now is bigger. But we’re talking about games from 6-9 years ago.
It was a big market back then too. The fact that a game like Crysis which costs $22 million and was profitable for its time speaks volume. I guess you keep missing out all the comments that keep saying that Crysis 1 was a success and it used to be a PC only title. There was always a huge market in the PC, prior to Steam, and just like consoles they’ve increased over time. I’m sure some would argue that the PC market is increasing at a much faster rate.
So? Ignore the “PC Gaming is Dead” propaganda. PC has been, is, & always will be a standing, viable market responsible for 1/3rd of each multi-platform AAA’s sales, with few exceptions – like IP’s with little to no history on the PC, or sh*t ports like the ones were were being constantly given 6 years ago.
Bullsh*t.
Crysis sold just fine on PC, but Crytek saw the console money & got greedy, citing “PC Piracy” as justification for why “Crysis 2 just has to be multi-platform.”
Yeah…. apparently “PC Piracy” is also why Crysis 2 is a Call of Duty clone, rather than a proper Crysis game, too. Look it up, Cevat Yerli is one hell of a two-faced assh*le in this regard.
“Sold fine”
Sure… But no one in their right mind is OK with “fine”.
The first game outdoing the sequels is not much of a talking point because it is pretty common for that to happen. Software sales aren’t exactly skyrocketing and sales are a bit stagnant overall
….. What?
– Crysis released in November 2007, as a PC-exclusive, & sold extremely well; “By May 2010 the game has sold over 3 million units (and its standalone expansion about 1.5 million units) making it one of the best selling PC games of all time.”
– Crysis 2 released in March 2011 as a multi-platform, & sold less than the PC-exclusive, across 3 platforms; “As of June 30, 2011 over 3 million copies of the game have been sold across all platforms, which is less than Crysis on PC only.”
– Crysis 3 released in February 2013 as a multi-platform, & sold jack sh*t; “During its debut release week and the next, Crysis 3 was the best-selling retail game in the UK closely followed by Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. It sold 205,000 copies in 12 days in North America during its debut month. The title, along with Dead Space 3, another EA title that was released in the same month, failed to meet the company’s sales expectations. Cevat Yerli, Crytek’s CEO, was also disappointed by the sales of Crysis 3.”
I don’t know what world you live in, but between 2006 & 2015, it was quite routine for AAA sequels to outsell their predecessors, actually – especially with PC-exclusive IP’s moving to a multi-platform approach. Hell, it was expected, even, as the industry was an ever-growing behemoth, & titles were expected to expand their audiences with every iteration, not shrink them the way Crysis did. It wasn’t until Fall 2015 when AAA’s started under-performing that people switched perspectives.
Crysis was the only game out of the 3 to clear noteworthy sales numbers, & (by Cevat Yerli’s own words) it actually cleared a profit, paving the way for Crysis 2. Crysis 2 made bank based on Crysis 1’s reputation, but less than it should have (by a long shot, needless to say), & by Crysis 3, that reputation was shot to sh*t, so the sales followed.
Consoles didn’t kill Crysis, Crytek did with short campaign in Crysis 3
I’d say consoles are a part of it. The reason why Crysis 2 and 3 didn’t sell is because Crytek changed the gameplay drastically going from open world stages to narrow corridor and pseudo open world stages. Crytek had to make corridor-esque stages because they’re making the games with consoles in mind and consoles cannot handle open-world stages like Crysis 1 as proved by Crysis 1 port
BS consoles are just computers sold to masses with custom OS. They just made what they thought will be cheaper maybe.
Not BS, actually go and check out the Crysis 1 port for last-gen consoles. It took them 4 or 5 years and after all that they still had to cut SPEED MODE from the game because performance would dip too much. They had to cut plenty of NPCs as well. Crysis was too advanced to run on last-gen console hardware, especially in terms of memory.
That’s their excuse
It’s not an excuse. Do you even realize that the last-gen consoles both had 512 MB of memory in total? The Xbox 360 had an additional 10 MB fast video memory. Other than that, 512 MB were it on both systems. Meanwhile 512 MB weren’t enough RAM to launch the game on PC. You had to have at least 2 GB to run it properly, and 512 MB of just video memory on top. Ever tried shrinking your memory needs from 2,5 GB down to 512 MB?
Explain how Rise of Tomb Raider runs on damn thing then
Extreme compression, & seriously low-res textures? >.>
Still runs.
Completely linear level design + few enemies active at a time = very controllable scale. Crysis has large, open maps that you can travel any which way you want and encounter a hundred NPCs per map or more. At the very least Crysis has to spawn opponents early enough that there is no vantage point from which you could try to snipe and notice noone’s there. Fun fact: The original Uncharted supported less than 8 enemies at a time. I forgot the exact number, maybe 5 or 6. And Uncharted is a good comparison for recent Tomb Raiders as it was the inspiration for every aspect of their gameplay 🙂
Yes, & no.
Going into Crysis 2, the developers were told that management wanted a more “Modern Warfare-equse” game, so that’s exactly what they made; a Call of Duty clone.
I’d say going multi-platform & moving away from the open-world sandbox towards a CoD clone were two decisions both made for the same simple reason; maximising profits – i.e. greed.
After all, let’s not forget Crysis 2 was developed & released during the ever-increasing pinnacle of Call of Duty’s popularity.
Crysis 2 was a bad COD clone. Consoles killed Crysis.
nope. they kill the franchise much earlier than that. Crysis 2.
If EA had faith for them to make another one after C2, then C2 didn’t do as bad as you are claiming.
Crysis 2 sold, it just didn’t sell what it was supposed to sell. When a multi-platform sequel makes FAR less than its PC-exclusive predecessor, you’ve done something terribly wrong.
Crysis 3 was their last chance to make things right with the fans, & they blew it, trying to compromise with us instead of just giving us what we wanted – period.
AFAIK the contract with EA was to make trilogy of the series for EA. even if C2 was bad they need to make C3 to complete their contract with EA. C2 probably fine as another generic modern shooter but it still does not change the fact they kill the franchise with the C2 when they make a lot of changes to the game will fit into console design better.
It was a mix of both poor management and working with consoles, while moving away from PC.
So much success after Crysis 1 blinded them
This will not save this s*** of company though.
It’s dead, Jim.
That’s what I’m talking about.
You know, I kind of enjoyed Ryse for the nonsense it was. It was a short ramp of short gratifying blood and violence, its a guilty pleasure.
One of the first games I played in 4k on pc, Looked stunning.
Hope they make a sequel, Enjoyed the main game and soloing arena.
Had they just stayed with PC and managed things better, then the outcome today would have been very different.
I’ve come to notice that over time, studios that were once PC only, crave that mobile style cash flow, that’s easy to obtain with little work to output for, but the majority that go for that model, end up crashing and burning after a few years and they end up either dying out or staying small and owned by someone else until they are put out back like old yeller.
Agreed, Crytek bit much more than they could chew.
It was crazy, by the time Warhead came out they had already expanded to three studios IIRC. Then Crysis 2 streamlining much of the former gameplay (still different enough, but not in the same league as the classic) and the licensing cost for the engine.
Then comes Cervat looking at the Asian market and F2P outright saying that it was the future.
Ryse (blatantly showing its origins as a Kinect title) remains a just another “meh” with pretty graphics. Now the VR stuff and f*ck…
It’s just a snowball of poor management and bad decisions.
I always also find that a dev that likes to aim big, but aims for way more platforms than they can chew, ends up selling themselves short or just screwing up their game in general. Yeah devs have multiple specs to adhere to on PC, but that’s a single platform with nothing else to stand in the way, nor water down for, no marketing deals to take or push away etc.
Far Cry and Crysis were nice shooters, not the best, but fine. With Crysis 2 and 3 they went after CoD style of gameplay thinking that’s what sells. Tough luck, I’d say. They had the tech and the people to build what they wanted, but didn’t hired some talent in the gameplay department or at least have a vision of pushing things forward like Crysis did (it wasn’t just pretty graphics, but physics and open levels as well).
I think at some point they wanted like $1mil for licensing their engine (Crysis 2 time frame). Stupid move.
Yeah, CryEngine 3 cost a straight-up $1 million in licensing fees, but had no royalty fees attached to it, unlike Unreal 3 which you could get a license for with only (if I recall correctly) $99, but then you’d have to negotiate with Epic Games for royalty fees once you made more than $50,000, so it was a good deal for AAA’s, just not indies.
What about UK (Free Radical)? Were they already sold?
And “future success” with what? You haven’t made a game since Ryse. The Climb doesn’t count.
Wikipedia says it better than me (>.<);
Dambuster Studios was founded on 30 July 2014. Its predecessor, Free Radical Design, was a subsidiary of Crytek. Crytek in 2014 suffered a financial crisis due to internal structuring, and was unable to pay wages to the staff members at the UK studio. The company at that time was working on Homefront: The Revolution, but Crytek decided to sell the franchise to Deep Silver and closed down the studio. Most of its staff members were moved to Dambuster Studios, a studio founded by Deep Silver in accordance with British law (see "Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006") Homefront: The Revolution's development. Dambuster Studios is the third Deep Silver in-house development team, following Volition and Fishlabs Entertainment.
Oh, right. The Homefront debacle. So they’re part of Deepsilver now. At least Crytek can’t assign them to stupid projects anymore.
>Seems like rampant overexpansion to me.
Yup. They bought a studio in Eastern Europe who went on to make Warhead. They bought Free Radical and assigned them the multiplayer of Crysis 2 for no good reason. They just kept buying more and more studios without really increasing their output. They went into consoles and failed to make a dent there. They went after free2play with Warface, they still make content for it so I guess it’s alive but barely. They went after mobile that some game called flick and roll. They tried to jump onto every bandwaggon at once instead of continuing to do what already worked for them. Scarface-like megalomaniac management, if you ask me. I don’t know how they kept scamming investors with one trainwreck after another.
So…… Crysis remaster coming out in time for its 10th anniversary after all?
Or does “refocusing” mean more console manufacturer bribes for sh*tty exclusive games designed around moronic, overpriced gadgets?
Nice to see them being (allegedly) responsible, & ensuring the studios don’t just shut down & throw everyone out into the street, by the way. That was really my second thought (first thought: who could have ever seen this coming…..) when I read the header. After all, it always sucks when a studio shuts down & everyone gets tossed into the street just like that.
Love them or Hate them light a candle [*] R.I.P.
Showing off the size of Cevat Yerli’s ego, & his blatantly delusional ideologies about what “the future of the industry” was going to be all about (repeatedly).
Best I ever managed to piece together, about 3 of the Eastern European &/or Asian studios were/are working on Warface, one of the Asian ones was working on that social media thing of theirs a few years ago that crashed & burned (G-Face) (posibly the Chinese one, I forget), Frankfurt did Crysis 2 SP, & then all of Crysis 3, whereas UK did Crysis 2 MP, & then got to work on…. nothing, I guess, until they bought Homefront & put them to work on that.
Oh, & Ryse went from Crytek Budapest to Crytek Frankfurt, probably around when they scrapped the Kinect exclusivity portion to it, & turned it into an Xbox One launch title. Before that, Crytek Budapest also did Warhead seemingly by themselves, so it’s a shame to lose them, really.
Seriously, they either sh*tcanned A LOT of projects over the years, or they had A LOT of downtime, honestly. Though, I suppose a certain portion of their workerbase was also dedicated to supporting their CryEngine licensees – or, well, the high-profile ones, at least.
They are actually closing 5 studios and keeping 2.
Yeah, and?
Forcus on developing innovative games! yay, Climb 2 confirmed.
“Will refocus on its core strengths of developing innovative games”
So, what they should have done eons ago.
Rtards…