Crysis 3/Ryse Producer Leaves Crytek

[Steven Bogos]

Crysis 3/Ryse Producer Leaves Crytek

Ex-Crytek producer Mike Read wishes he could have "done more" with Crysis 3.

Okay. So despite it remaining extremely tight-lipped on the matter, something is definitely going on over at Crytek. According to his Twitter profile [https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=19579904&authType=OPENLINK&authToken=npOE&locale=en_US&srchid=2935601171406070112280&srchindex=2&srchtotal=304&trk=vsrp_people_res_name&trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A2935601171406070112280%2CVSRPtargetId%3A19579904%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary] also states that he is a "former" producer for Crytek.

The news comes in the same month where one lead Crytek programmer has unconfirmed reports [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/136270-Crytek-Lead-Programmer-Joins-ids-Doom-Team] that Crytek staffers are not being properly paid - reports which seem more and more legitimate given the exodus of senior talent.

Read, responding to a fan query on Twitter, stated that he wished he could have done more with Crysis 3. "Some amazing tech behind it for sure," he said. "Wish we could have done more on many fronts."

Mike Read has been with Crytek since April 2012 and was the producer of both Crysis 3 and the Xbox One Exclusive: Ryse: Son of Rome.

Source: DSOG [http://www.dsogaming.com/news/crysis-3-ryse-producer-mike-read-has-left-crytek-wish-we-could-have-done-more-on-crysis-3/]

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[CriticalMiss]

So are Crytek are still insisting that everything is fine at the Offyce despite the conga line of people leaving?

 

[Antonio Torrente]

So are Crytek are still insisting that everything is fine the Offyce despite the conga line of people leaving?

Big name companies don't like admitting they have problems, so what do you expect?

 

[TemperHoof]

Ryse: Son of Rome

Microsoft strikes again. Way to go XBone.

 

[Lightknight]

Good, Crytek hasn't released anything good since Crysis 1. Maybe they'll restructure and do something good or maybe the talent and IPs will go to a better home that will love them and treat them better than Crytek.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Well yt was nyce knowyng you, Crytek.

Spoiler: Yf only you had a franchyse that people would really love

Oh well.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

I've always wondered how they managed to run the company in the first place. Crysis must have cost an insane amount of money and didn't sell squat. Not sure about 2 and 3, but Ryse certainly didn't help matters. Did anyone ever play that thing? Or wanted to?

Crysis sold, like, 3 million units before the console versions were released according to the devs (and they explicitly stated it was profitable) and Crysis: Warhead sold a further 1.5 million. Those are good numbers.

Crysis 2 sold 3 million across all platforms. Dunno about Crysis 3 or Ryse, though. Hard to find numbers except through VG Charts which isn't terribly reliable. It's totally possible, maybe even likely, that they sold too poorly to profit. One or two AAA games failing can sink a company, unfortunately.

 

[Aerosteam]

Don't lose hope yet! We'll see how the next Homefront game is like, then make our judgements.

[small]Wait a minute...[/small]

 

[spartandude]

Ryse: Son of Rome

Microsoft strikes again. Way to go XBone.

I do my fair share of bitching about MS and the Xbone myself but i'm not going to blame Microsoft for this. Crytek accepted the contract and quite frankly made a shit game regardless of how good the Xbone was/wasn't. Also Xbone had a pretty good launch, while not as good of PS4 it was still pretty good.

 

[fix-the-spade]

I've always wondered how they managed to run the company in the first place. Crysis must have cost an insane amount of money and didn't sell squat. Not sure about 2 and 3, but Ryse certainly didn't help matters. Did anyone ever play that thing? Or wanted to?

Crysis sold a lot of copies, it's Crytek's best selling game by quite a margin, three million retail boxes not counting digital sales, or Warhead and the Maximum Edition (which will have been a lot). When the Gamespy shut down came last month there were still north of 10'000 regular players on Crysis Wars, versus a couple of hundred dedicated souls on 2 and 3. There was an initial panic about the massive amount of piracy that came after launch, but that's relative, Crysis kept selling steadily for a couple of years as people's PCs caught up to it, plus it wasn't really any more or less pirated compared to other PC games (and it had nothing on Spore a year later).

For all EA and Crytek's bleating about Crysis 2's launch, it went on to sell less copies across three platforms combined than Crysis did on PC only, whilst for Crysis 3 EA have said only that it sold 'below forecast' although there's evidence that it may have sold under a million copies total in the first six months (this is bad). It took six months to break 100'000 sales in Germany and first month sales in the US of 260'000 rapidly tailed to nothing.

Games with better sales than Crysis 3 include Dead Space 3, Simcity and Aliens: Colonial Marines (no really).

Unfortunately Crytek shat on themselves, with Far Cry and Crysis they gained a fanatically loyal fanbase of PC gaming hobbyists (like me!) who loved the massive, gorgeous levels and infinite mod possibilities. They may never have reached Half Life level sales (because even Call of Duty hasn't got there yet) but they made profitable games.

Then they and EA decided to chase the 'massive' console market with shortened, stripped down to basics sequels and their games turned into small scale corridor shooters which everyone proceeded to not buy, because when your games sell on scale, graphics and mod friendliness and you strip all three out, what exactly are you selling? It's safe to say that Crytek's foray into console land has been a total disaster.

Oh well, another one for the EA meat grinder.

 

[fix-the-spade]

So are Crytek are still insisting that everything is fine at the Offyce despite the conga line of people leaving?

I think it's more that there's no longer anyone left to issue a denial.

 

[iniudan]

I've always wondered how they managed to run the company in the first place. Crysis must have cost an insane amount of money and didn't sell squat. Not sure about 2 and 3, but Ryse certainly didn't help matters. Did anyone ever play that thing? Or wanted to?

Well Crytek also make simulator for both professional market and as military contractor. My guess is that the trouble mainly come from one those contract going south.

 

[Trunkage]

I loved crisis. I don't know how they could have got 2 so wrong. I have never played 3

obviously most of the answer are here but still...

 

[Strazdas]

I've always wondered how they managed to run the company in the first place. Crysis must have cost an insane amount of money and didn't sell squat. Not sure about 2 and 3, but Ryse certainly didn't help matters. Did anyone ever play that thing? Or wanted to?

Crysis 1 was a massive finnacial sucess. It basically kickstarted their AAA gaming and Cryengine. Their financials started crunbling when they started making console ports, and the company is basically bancrupt when it decided to do console exclusive. they clearly dont know how to scam players make money on consoles. also does not help that their CEO is a madman, literally. his statements would fit a marvel universe villian more than CEO.