Games By Matthew Humphries Jun. 26, 2014 8:11 am
There are thousands of game development studios out there, but only a few handfuls that I would pick out as unlikely to shut up shop. One of those developers is Crytek, due to its track record of producing incredibly popular games including Far Cry and the Crysis series. But Crytek is apparently struggling, to the point where it isn’t paying staff.
Crytek hasn’t made an official statement yet, but a source has told Develop that staff at the UK studio haven’t been paid properly since April. Some have received part of their monthly payment, but all staff have money owning. Crytek is also thought to be in talks with Deutsche Bank to secure more funding.
The knock-on effect of this is people are leaving the studio at a rate faster than Crytek can replace them. Crytek’s UK studio had a team of 90 developers start work on Homefront: The Revolution last year. As many as 40 individuals have left since then, forcing Crytek’s management to promote people to more senior roles without an appropriate pay rise, as well as* adding a clause to contracts stating a resignation must come with a 3 month notice period.
Crytek’s Frankfurt studio is also thought to have been facing problems, especially as it was meant to be the studio handling the now-canceled development of Ryse 2. It is thought a team there is helping out on Homefront development. That means Crytek is working on fewer projects due to the need to push people on to existing projects, or at least spreading its resources more thinly, which is never a good sign. Morale at the UK studio is thought to be very low, which usually leads to even more people deciding to leave.
If Crytek manages to secure new funding from Deutsche Bank then the situation should return to some form of normal quite quickly. But for now, the future for the UK studio at least looks anything but certain.
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Crytek hasn’t made an official statement yet, but a source has told Develop that staff at the UK studio haven’t been paid properly since April. Some have received part of their monthly payment, but all staff have money owning. Crytek is also thought to be in talks with Deutsche Bank to secure more funding.
The knock-on effect of this is people are leaving the studio at a rate faster than Crytek can replace them. Crytek’s UK studio had a team of 90 developers start work on Homefront: The Revolution last year. As many as 40 individuals have left since then, forcing Crytek’s management to promote people to more senior roles without an appropriate pay rise, as well as* adding a clause to contracts stating a resignation must come with a 3 month notice period.
Crytek’s Frankfurt studio is also thought to have been facing problems, especially as it was meant to be the studio handling the now-canceled development of Ryse 2. It is thought a team there is helping out on Homefront development. That means Crytek is working on fewer projects due to the need to push people on to existing projects, or at least spreading its resources more thinly, which is never a good sign. Morale at the UK studio is thought to be very low, which usually leads to even more people deciding to leave.
If Crytek manages to secure new funding from Deutsche Bank then the situation should return to some form of normal quite quickly. But for now, the future for the UK studio at least looks anything but certain.
More...
