[Update 2]: The troubling story surrounding Crytek's finances and inability to pay employees continues with a new report from Develop stating that employees at the United Kingdom branch of the developer haven't been properly paid since April 21st. Develop's source states that employees have received small payments, though those haven't come close to working salaries and about 40 staff members have left.
Homefront: The Revolution is in development at Crytek UK, which gives us the impression that the brand might have an even rockier future ahead of it following the break-up of THQ and Crytek's purchase.
[Update]: Crytek employees have spoken with Kotaku regarding the situation at the studio, saying that the company has had trouble paying employees and has also canceled several different projects, including a sequel to Ryse: Son of Rome.
"One employee estimates that some 100 people have left over the past three months" while "all of these sources, speaking anonymously in order to protect their careers, describe a company that has been frequently missing payments and regularly assuring employees that everything will be fixed in the future, only to continue sending out checks late."
Kotaku spoke with ten Crytek employees who corroborate this story, with different combinations of these employees agreeing on late payments, the cancelation of Ryse 2, the cancelation of an original game, and that the company remains "reluctant to lay people off" despite a plague of late paychecks.
Most of this remains rumor and heresay, though a company of Crytek's size without the success to show for the manpower probably couldn't stave off restructuring forever. We'll continue to update this story as the situation develops.
[Original]: While Ryse: Son of Rome earned a modest three out of five from GameRevolution last year at the launch of Microsoft's Xbox One console, reports around developer and engine-builder Crytek suggest the company could face some deepening financial woes though it has already denied these claims.
A German game magazine called GameStar apparent claims to have heard that Crytek was in financial trouble. Eurogamer employees translated the report which said:
'The vultures are circling already,' so says a leading employee of one of the large publishers. Companies like this have already started making offers to the most talented people at Crytek, to hire them away. Such a brain drain can become dangerous for any studio, even a financially stable one.
A takeover of Crytek would be interesting for a company, that could use the development-experience of the Crytek and doesn't want to build up such experience itself. That is why the Belarus F2P-giant Wargaming is rumoured to be a potential buyer.
When you are reading this, there is hope that Crytek has managed to avoid disaster. A new source of money, said Avni Yerli [one of the managing directors], is in sight. When we called him in early June, the contract had not yet been signed, but will be in a short while. 'Not all is good. Our transition to become a F2P-studio had been painful. But all that is now behind us.
When asked, Crytek dismissed the report and told Eurogamer that these are rumors that the studio would like to deny. Crytek is currently working on a new game in the Homefront franchise, in addition to Hunt: Horrors of the Gilded Age, Arena of Fate, and Warface (one of the developer's major free-to-play efforts). You can read our preview of Homefront: The Revolution here.
We have received a lot of positive feedback during and after E3 from both gaming press and gamers, and would like to thank our loyal employees, fans and business partners for their continuous support.
While Crytek's products have always impressed me visually, it's not hard to see that the developer lacks a core pillar to lean on despite the funds used to develop Warface. We'll update this story with more as it breaks.
