Crytek: Reports of Looming Bankruptcy Are False

[Steven Bogos]

Crytek: Reports of Looming Bankruptcy Are False

Reports of Crytek's impending doom have been greatly exaggerated, says the dev.

Earlier this month, a rumor from German magazine GameStar [http://www.gamestar.de/specials/reports/3057060/crytek_krise.html] stated that Cytek, the company responsible for the Crysis series, was in financial dire straights, with bankruptcy looming overhead. Now, a Crytek spokesperson has come out to official deny the rumor.

"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 rumors which Crytek deny," the Spokesperson told Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-06-23-crysis-developer-crytek-claims-bankrupt-report-is-false].

"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," continued the rep.

The initial report from GameStar claimed that Ryse: Son of Rome did not perform as well as Crytek had hoped, and that adoption of the CryEngine was very low, leading the company to consider a buy-out. War gaming, publisher of World of Tanks, was rumored to be considering purchasing the company.

Eurogamer also claims that just before E3, a source said at Crytek's Sofia office in Bulgaria said some employees hadn't received salaries for the past two months.

Source: Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-06-23-crysis-developer-crytek-claims-bankrupt-report-is-false]

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[Denamic]

When these companies are circling the drain, they almost always vehemently deny any such notions, then silently file for bankruptcy a few months later. They pretty much have to, as their stocks will plummet if they admit it.

 

[Vault101]

oh....wyy? am I not too thrilled eather way? I was hoping they'd oay for naming a game "Ryse"
[sub/]d'ya see what I did????[/sub]

EDIT: impending doom is a myth but then THIS:

[quote/]Eurogamer also claims that just before E3, a source said at Crytek's Sofia office in Bulgaria said some employees hadn't received salaries for the past two months.[/quote]

happens?...ok its still a myth but still

 

[Grape_Nuts]

Crytek makes games that are nice to look at, are generally boring and repetitive, and have mind numbingly bad storylines.

 

[Rad Party God]

*sigh* INB4 "Crytek sucks, Far Cry 1 sucks, Crysis sucks, their games are bland, they don't know how to write good stories, snob, snark, et cetera".

I still like the first few games of Crytek up to Crysis 2, even if it wasn't as good as the first one due to console limitations, it still was one hell of a shooter.

Yes, they've done some questionable decisions over the past 7 years, maybe Ryse and Crysis 3 sucks (haven't played neither of them yet), I admit they're a bunch of asshats for repeating how "consoles are inferior" over the past few years and how they utterly fucked up by saying that "PC is nothing but a bunch of pirates".

But I just can't take seriously anyone who says that Crysis was "just a tech demo". I haven't seen that level of freedom on many shooters lately. Or that many colors.

 

[Albino Boo]

Looks like Crytek have a cash flow problem, its not a good sign but not necessarily fatal. The Escapist had one a few years back and is still going strong.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well sadly we can't know either way now, because whenever bankruptcy really is looming everyone will lie their pants off until the bitter end when everything implodes.

But here is a free pro-tip Crytek, cut the fucking Homefront shit and sell it to the first bidder, granted your games are never that well done but this one is plain awful from concept to end product.

 

[NLS]

oh....wyy? am I not too thrilled eather way? I was hoping they'd oay for naming a game "Ryse"
[sub/]d'ya see what I did????[/sub]

EDIT: impending doom is a myth but then THIS:

[quote/]Eurogamer also claims that just before E3, a source said at Crytek's Sofia office in Bulgaria said some employees hadn't received salaries for the past two months.

happens?...ok its still a myth but still[/quote]To be honest, that could just be indicative of sloppy management in the salary department. In my company, there's always some exchange student developer who hasn't received his/her salary or the proper amount, due to fuck-ups with the paper work on either end of the deal. We used to have a very dedicated person taking care of all the numbers, but after she left the company half a year ago, things have been going downhill. Sure, the economy of the company is doing okay I guess, but the handling of salary and reimbursements has turned into a complete mess, since her replacement "doesn't have time for that". It ends up being up to each employee to check their monthly salary for any mistakes done by the administration, because they can't be bothered to check it.
Now that summer came, there's a bunch of people who haven't received their salary, due to some new rules regarding paid vacation that nobody understands. It mostly sums up to: Person X has the right to take the month off and get "vacation money", but no salary (vacation money equals somewhat a monthly salary). But you only get vacation money if you've been working here for a year. Those who haven't, get shafted by not taking out their vacation, and NOT receiving neither salary nor vacation money. Or something like that, nobody really knows the ruling. In addition, the only person who really knows how this shit works, is employed in our danish office. So she neither has time nor the personal interest in helping out people who "just work here and expect to get paid".

Shit I haven't even checked my own salary this month, who knows, maybe I'll be up for an (un)pleasant surprise?

So yeah: Sometimes, shit just goes down the drain because of poor management, yet the company continues to work just fine in other departments. For all we know, CryTek is just having one of those periods.

 

[karloss01]

They better not go under before finally greenlight a new Timesplitters, Crisis never appealed to me and I'll be annoyed if they gave me false hope when they bought Free Radical and then did nothing with them.

 

[Unknower]

It's a real shame if Crytek goes under. They're definitely one of the better developers out there.

Unfortunately, looking at their upcoming games, their future doesn't look promising. Homefront? Everything about that game just sounds stupid.

Only the HUNT: Horrors of the Gilded Age looks like it could be something.

 

[josemlopes]

I really dont get why everyone was saying that Crytek wasnt being able to sell their engine when with the exception of the Unreal Engine the CryEngine has been in plenty of games.

There are around 45-ish games since 2011 that use CryEngine, idTech 4 and 5 combined have 11 games since 2004 (idTech 2 and 3 were a lot more popular).

The Source engine his mostly used by Valve and modders that dont have to pay, there are still plenty of recent games with it like Titanfall, EYE and Insurgency but even then there are a lot more with the CryEngine.

Its mostly Unreal that has the biggest slice (not counting more indie friendly engines like Unity) when it comes to AAA, Frostbite is also used a lot but if I am not mistaken its exclusive to EA. With all that the CryEngine is still used a lot.

 

[Lictor Face]

Hey. As long as my Lovecraftian co-op shooter Horrors of the Gilded Age comes out before they go belly up, I couldn't care less.

Cthulhu better be in it though. Deep ones as well.

 

[Something Amyss]

I really would hope a single game couldn't sink an entire company.

[quote/]Eurogamer also claims that just before E3, a source said at Crytek's Sofia office in Bulgaria said some employees hadn't received salaries for the past two months.

happens?...ok its still a myth but still[/quote]

Maybe they're not broke, just assholes.

 

[Alfredo Jones]

Such is the fate of companies who prioritize graphics over gameplay. I just hope that a decent company gets a hold of the Timesplitters license so that we may have a chance at it being revived.

 

[Strazdas]

I highly doubt it. Crysis game series are usually very sucesfull financialy, and they are basically promotions for their engine that gets licenses. Its not very popular, but its popualr enough to keep them in profit. And a single "not the best selling but ok" game wont sink a company like Crytek.

War gaming, publisher of World of Tanks, was rumored to be considering purchasing the company.

The company is called Wargaming Public Company, Ltd
As in, wargaming is a single word.
http://wargaming.com/en/about/

Such is the fate of companies who prioritize graphics over gameplay.

Im not FPS guru, but from what FPS i played id say that Crysis games have one of the best gameplay. You have suit modes which mean you can preference different gameplay styles easily and are not put on track like most games. you can also go around objectives in many ways. you cna go rambo and shoot them all, you cna stealth through most of the game. you can create diversions. you can sneak up and kill silently almost everywhere (even the boss mosnters). not to mention suit costumization introduced with Crysis 2. I know its popular to hate on Crysis, but they actually are pretty good games.

 

[Donzacuceron]

oh....wyy? am I not too thrilled eather way? I was hoping they'd oay for naming a game "Ryse"
[sub/]d'ya see what I did????[/sub]

EDIT: impending doom is a myth but then THIS:

[quote/]Eurogamer also claims that just before E3, a source said at Crytek's Sofia office in Bulgaria said some employees hadn't received salaries for the past two months.

happens?...ok its still a myth but still[/quote]

Yeah but this happens all the time in Bulgaria (trust me I'm Bulgarian) you never get payed for anything you do.Even Ubi Sofia kept me waiting mounts for my internship money (payed internship)So yeah means nothing every company does this over here because they can get away with it.Safe to say I do mostly freelance work now.