Report: Crytek Not Paying its Employees (Again)

munx13

Some guy on the internet
Dec 17, 2008
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RJ 17 said:
Unless there's a clause in the contract stating "You agree to be fine with the fact that you won't always get paid"...
I don't think there is a single country within the EU which allows you to sign away your rights
 

Silentpony_v1legacy

Alleged Feather-Rustler
Jun 5, 2013
6,760
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RJ 17 said:
Silentpony said:
Who would continue to come into work for six months without getting paid?
My guess would be that employees are under some kind of contract so they can't just up and quit (which is what any sensible person would do after not getting paid for 6 months).

However if that's the case, I would have to assume that Cry is in a massive breach of contract on their end for not paying them, so I'd have to wonder why the employees aren't suing Cry into oblivion. Unless there's a clause in the contract stating "You agree to be fine with the fact that you won't always get paid"...
Yeah, the often overlooked "Slave Clause" in the contract. "You hereby agree to not be a paid employee of Cyrtek Studios, and forfeit all civil and legal rights to become an unpaid slave belonging to Cyrtek Studios. In the event your manager believes you the slave to be deserving of gratuity such gifts shall not exceed $5 US currency, to be delivered in a 12-month window at the manager's discretion."
 

RJ 17

The Sound of Silence
Nov 27, 2011
8,687
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munx13 said:
RJ 17 said:
Unless there's a clause in the contract stating "You agree to be fine with the fact that you won't always get paid"...
I don't think there is a single country within the EU which allows you to sign away your rights
Silentpony said:
RJ 17 said:
Silentpony said:
Who would continue to come into work for six months without getting paid?
My guess would be that employees are under some kind of contract so they can't just up and quit (which is what any sensible person would do after not getting paid for 6 months).

However if that's the case, I would have to assume that Cry is in a massive breach of contract on their end for not paying them, so I'd have to wonder why the employees aren't suing Cry into oblivion. Unless there's a clause in the contract stating "You agree to be fine with the fact that you won't always get paid"...
Yeah, the often overlooked "Slave Clause" in the contract. "You hereby agree to not be a paid employee of Cyrtek Studios, and forfeit all civil and legal rights to become an unpaid slave belonging to Cyrtek Studios. In the event your manager believes you the slave to be deserving of gratuity such gifts shall not exceed $5 US currency, to be delivered in a 12-month window at the manager's discretion."
Hey, I'm just spit-balling explanations as to why every employee hasn't quit and/or filed a lawsuit. :p
 

Arnoxthe1

Elite Member
Dec 25, 2010
3,391
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To everyone wondering why they haven't been sued, it's because you can't sue something that's going or about to go bankrupt.

Hawki said:
Ubisoft's trying to avoid being taken over by Vivendi, you really think they want to carry out acquisitions of their own right now?
Are you kidding me? They're part of the studios which are so well known, people will pay them money for whatever game they churn out, whether it's decent or not.
 

bladestorm91

New member
Mar 18, 2015
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I bet it's EA trying to buy them, ironically there's nothing for EA to ruin about Crytech anymore since the latter did that itself splendidly.

Crytech has been in a spiral of ruin ever since Crysis 2, when they dumbed it down for consoles and ruined the design from the original you knew that this was a dead company walking. All you have to do is compare Crysis (1/Warhead) with 2 and you'll see how they fucked up.

From there their descent to mediocrity and irrelevancy was inevitable, you could see that the company had no vision or idea how to design games and all of their best personnel must have jumped ship because of it.
 

RaikuFA

New member
Jun 12, 2009
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I have no sympathy for the higher ups of this company. They make cookie cutter shooters with its only claim to fame was if your computer could run it it was considered a badge of honor, keep wanting single player games to die off and get the rights to timesplitters and refuse to do anything with it.
 

karloss01

New member
Jul 5, 2009
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I think it's bullshit that they've dragged Free Radical (Now Crytek UK) through this as well. They buy them up, toss them scraps to work on and do nothing with the Timesplitters rights despite the interest. If they wanted a cash grab they should've made a digital only Timesplitters collection (with or without HD textures, I wouldn't care) and just worked the code so it would run on the current gen and have online play.
 

Eclipse Dragon

Lusty Argonian Maid
Legacy
Jan 23, 2009
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Silentpony said:
Who would continue to come into work for six months without getting paid?
My theory would be upper management has been stalling. "Oh you'll get paid next month, I promise" and because these people are "doing what they love", they deal with it just a month longer (and then another month and another), holding onto that sliver of hope until eventually they can't deny it any longer.

Game development is a passionate business, I wouldn't be surprised if the company is taking advantage of that. There's also the uncertainty of having no job at all vs sticking around, hoping beyond hope that things will get better. It can be hard to give up that "safety" even when it's a total illusion and they're just denying the inevitable.

Also companies that are dying will do some shady things, what reason do they have not to? What's the worst that can happen, the company dies?
 

hermes

New member
Mar 2, 2009
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Eclipse Dragon said:
Silentpony said:
Who would continue to come into work for six months without getting paid?
My theory would be upper management has been stalling. "Oh you'll get paid next month, I promise" and because these people are "doing what they love", they deal with it just a month longer (and then another month and another), holding onto that sliver of hope until eventually they can't deny it any longer.

Game development is a passionate business, I wouldn't be surprised if the company is taking advantage of that. There's also the uncertainty of having no job at all vs sticking around, hoping beyond hope that things will get better. It can be hard to give up that "safety" even when it's a total illusion and they're just denying the inevitable.
That is likely to be the real explanation. It is sad, but as long as game development are mostly young, passionate and gullible, they will be taken advantage of by the higher ups. At least until they get pissed of and replaced by a bunch of new young and gullible grad students... and that is how you end up delivering nothing for the last 9 years.

They could be bought by a different company, but why would they if their track record is almost nonexistent and their management is on fire.
 

Blitsie

New member
Jul 2, 2012
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RaikuFA said:
I have no sympathy for the higher ups of this company. They make cookie cutter shooters with its only claim to fame was if your computer could run it it was considered a badge of honor, keep wanting single player games to die off and get the rights to timesplitters and refuse to do anything with it.
Agreed! Especially the Timesplitters part, I hope a decent company buys the IP off of them at least when they finally kick the bucket and actually put it to some use, its been too long since we got a new Timesplitters game and it would be perfect nowadays especially with how we've gotten a lot of "return to form" FPS games like Doom, Wolfenstein and Shadow Warrior and so.