GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble

German site GameStar.de reports (in German) that German developer Crytek is in financial trouble, and may be facing bankruptcy. Most of the story is behind a paywall, though we can see they say that the company secured additional funding in April, but there are questions about how long they will remain viable. DSOGaming summarizes more from the story in English, saying the recently released new version of CryENGINE is not selling well, that development of Ryse was catastrophic, and that there have been delays in making payroll for the 800 employee company.
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24.
 
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble
Jun 22, 2014, 17:32
24.
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble Jun 22, 2014, 17:32
Jun 22, 2014, 17:32
 
Far Cry was nice gameplay wise (and excellent visually), everything after that just big tech demos that looked great and played terrible to decent, depending on the game. And that was if you had the rig to move it.

If things go south, I'll be sad to see those employees go. I'll make an exception for Cevat "We would have sold 20 million copies if not for piracy" Yerli. He is one of those fucking huge mouths that doesn't belong in the industry.
23.
 
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble
Jun 22, 2014, 17:24
23.
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble Jun 22, 2014, 17:24
Jun 22, 2014, 17:24
 
Frags4Fun wrote on Jun 22, 2014, 16:29:
TangledThorns wrote on Jun 22, 2014, 14:24:
Clever Caviar wrote on Jun 22, 2014, 14:04:
I've been playing through the first this year also (never played it at the time) and hats off, even considering the age of it, it's an amazing looking game to behold. I don't like saying "best ever!!!" but those jungles are pretty astonishing. Yet to try the others, but am aware of the negativity surrounding them.

Right on about the jungle. I was playing BF4 last night and was amazed that DICE has yet to allow plants to move when walk through them. In fact, I can't think of another non-Crytek game that does this.


Actually, BF4 does have this ability but it was removed from the game shortly after release with the promise that it would be reimplemented in the future. I doubt that it will ever be re-enabled since DICE removed features from BF3 in the beginning and they were also never re-enabled. Dice doesn't fix things, they put bandaids on everything.

Meh. Call of Duty has accurate fish swim patterns, too, but, you know what? Battlefield has destructible terrain and buildings, and that is superior to fish physics or grass swaying.
22.
 
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble
Jun 22, 2014, 16:29
22.
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble Jun 22, 2014, 16:29
Jun 22, 2014, 16:29
 
TangledThorns wrote on Jun 22, 2014, 14:24:
Clever Caviar wrote on Jun 22, 2014, 14:04:
I've been playing through the first this year also (never played it at the time) and hats off, even considering the age of it, it's an amazing looking game to behold. I don't like saying "best ever!!!" but those jungles are pretty astonishing. Yet to try the others, but am aware of the negativity surrounding them.

Right on about the jungle. I was playing BF4 last night and was amazed that DICE has yet to allow plants to move when walk through them. In fact, I can't think of another non-Crytek game that does this.


Actually, BF4 does have this ability but it was removed from the game shortly after release with the promise that it would be reimplemented in the future. I doubt that it will ever be re-enabled since DICE removed features from BF3 in the beginning and they were also never re-enabled. Dice doesn't fix things, they put bandaids on everything.
“We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.” William Casey, CIA Director 1981-1987
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21.
 
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble
Jun 22, 2014, 16:16
21.
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble Jun 22, 2014, 16:16
Jun 22, 2014, 16:16
 
HorrorScope wrote on Jun 22, 2014, 14:07:
bhcompy wrote on Jun 22, 2014, 13:13:
Dagnamit wrote on Jun 22, 2014, 13:03:
NeOCidE wrote on Jun 22, 2014, 12:52:
Them darn pirates!!!!!


Star Citizen will save them.

It would be funny if Chris Roberts ended up buying Crytek.
Avatar 6174
20.
 
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble
Jun 22, 2014, 16:05
20.
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble Jun 22, 2014, 16:05
Jun 22, 2014, 16:05
 
This is a huge bummer. Despite the big mouth of Cervat, I really enjoyed the Crysis games.
Avatar 55889
19.
 
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble
Jun 22, 2014, 15:32
19.
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble Jun 22, 2014, 15:32
Jun 22, 2014, 15:32
 
Kajetan wrote on Jun 22, 2014, 15:10:
wtf_man wrote on Jun 22, 2014, 14:46:
That said, it seems more like everyone is either going Unity (Especially indies), or Unreal. iD has no Tech 5 sales to speak of, and Cry Engine has a handful compared Unreal and Unity.
As far as i know, Unity and the UE are very easy to learn and to master in comparison to the CryEngine, which is the most powerful engine available at the moment, but requires a LOT of work.

cryengine isnt that much more powerful than UE, on top of that its far less optimized, far less open, and doesnt have a fraction of the same size community working on it

in terms of "whats possible" its actually just about equivalent.. and in many ways much more cumbersome to do the exact same thing - at the end of the day, that lack of workflow efficiency is a HUGE issue

UE itself can be modded to do anything cryengine can, even if its not natively supported - the opposite is not really that true
18.
 
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble
Jun 22, 2014, 15:10
18.
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble Jun 22, 2014, 15:10
Jun 22, 2014, 15:10
 
wtf_man wrote on Jun 22, 2014, 14:46:
That said, it seems more like everyone is either going Unity (Especially indies), or Unreal. iD has no Tech 5 sales to speak of, and Cry Engine has a handful compared Unreal and Unity.
As far as i know, Unity and the UE are very easy to learn and to master in comparison to the CryEngine, which is the most powerful engine available at the moment, but requires a LOT of work.
17.
 
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble
Jun 22, 2014, 14:46
17.
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble Jun 22, 2014, 14:46
Jun 22, 2014, 14:46
 
bhcompy wrote on Jun 22, 2014, 13:13:
Crytek's games always seemed like glorified tech demos. The problem is that they could never sell their engine for any decent game, as the market is essentially build your own engine or use Unreal(with a few rare instances of Source or id). Monolith ran into the same problem with Lithtech after FEAR played itself out.

I think the First Far Cry was pretty good, compared to what other engine developers put out after iD's peak of Quake 3 engine sales. Crysis on the other hand... haven't owned one of them... especially when they started crying that everyone was pirating. I tried the fist crysis demo when it came out and it didn't grab me (obviously).

That said, it seems more like everyone is either going Unity (Especially indies), or Unreal. iD has no Tech 5 sales to speak of, and Cry Engine has a handful compared Unreal and Unity.
Get your games from GOG DAMMIT!
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16.
 
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble
Jun 22, 2014, 14:29
16.
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble Jun 22, 2014, 14:29
Jun 22, 2014, 14:29
 
HorrorScope wrote on Jun 22, 2014, 14:07:
bhcompy wrote on Jun 22, 2014, 13:13:
Dagnamit wrote on Jun 22, 2014, 13:03:
NeOCidE wrote on Jun 22, 2014, 12:52:
Them darn pirates!!!!!

not surprised. They've never even made a game that I would consider anything more than above average. And it's not like they've ever blown the roof off in selling the decent ones.

$60 million stretch goal. Cloud Imperium buys Crytek.

Crytek's games always seemed like glorified tech demos. The problem is that they could never sell their engine for any decent game, as the market is essentially build your own engine or use Unreal(with a few rare instances of Source or id). Monolith ran into the same problem with Lithtech after FEAR played itself out.

And Unity. There is no denying they have made a massive dent.

Star Citizen will save them.

Yeah... not really. Crappy performance with 3 ships on screen in a vacuum, thats cry-engine for ya.
Avatar 54727
15.
 
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble
Jun 22, 2014, 14:25
15.
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble Jun 22, 2014, 14:25
Jun 22, 2014, 14:25
 
At first these guys did great. Far Cry 1 was pretty good, and then when they went over to EA, both Crysis 1 and Crysis Warhead (and the MP Crysis Wars) were also pretty good, too. But when they suddenly decided that PC piracy was too rampant for them to continue and they branched out to consoles to compensate, suddenly things went awry. Crysis 2 and 3 were more just like CoD than anything else (and now the new CoD is copying them). Wareface fell flat, and Ryse (though I didn't play it) has been universally panned for its awfulness, and I'm now kind of glad it was only on the Xbone where originally I wanted it on PS4.

Hunt kind of looks interesting but I'm not getting my hopes up. Homefront is kinda meh. I couldn't care less about Arena of Fate. I guess this is why Crytek's in trouble these days...
14.
 
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble
Jun 22, 2014, 14:24
14.
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble Jun 22, 2014, 14:24
Jun 22, 2014, 14:24
 
Clever Caviar wrote on Jun 22, 2014, 14:04:
I've been playing through the first this year also (never played it at the time) and hats off, even considering the age of it, it's an amazing looking game to behold. I don't like saying "best ever!!!" but those jungles are pretty astonishing. Yet to try the others, but am aware of the negativity surrounding them.

Right on about the jungle. I was playing BF4 last night and was amazed that DICE has yet to allow plants to move when walk through them. In fact, I can't think of another non-Crytek game that does this.

13.
 
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble
Jun 22, 2014, 14:22
13.
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble Jun 22, 2014, 14:22
Jun 22, 2014, 14:22
 
I don't suppose Star Citizen's licensing fee is public knowledge? I'm curious how these deals are typically structured now that the F2P model is becoming more prevalent... Percentage of revenue?
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12.
 
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble
Jun 22, 2014, 14:17
12.
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble Jun 22, 2014, 14:17
Jun 22, 2014, 14:17
 
For awhile, all they did was open new studios everywhere, but no extra games seemed to be coming out of the company. So really not that surprising.
Avatar 15604
11.
 
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble
Jun 22, 2014, 14:07
11.
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble Jun 22, 2014, 14:07
Jun 22, 2014, 14:07
 
bhcompy wrote on Jun 22, 2014, 13:13:
Dagnamit wrote on Jun 22, 2014, 13:03:
NeOCidE wrote on Jun 22, 2014, 12:52:
Them darn pirates!!!!!

not surprised. They've never even made a game that I would consider anything more than above average. And it's not like they've ever blown the roof off in selling the decent ones.

$60 million stretch goal. Cloud Imperium buys Crytek.

Crytek's games always seemed like glorified tech demos. The problem is that they could never sell their engine for any decent game, as the market is essentially build your own engine or use Unreal(with a few rare instances of Source or id). Monolith ran into the same problem with Lithtech after FEAR played itself out.

And Unity. There is no denying they have made a massive dent.

Star Citizen will save them.
Avatar 17232
10.
 
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble
Jun 22, 2014, 14:04
10.
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble Jun 22, 2014, 14:04
Jun 22, 2014, 14:04
 
TangledThorns wrote on Jun 22, 2014, 13:45:
I just played all the Crysis games this year and the first Crysis still looks amazing. Crytek can develop amazing graphics, they just need a awesome story to go with it.

I've been playing through the first this year also (never played it at the time) and hats off, even considering the age of it, it's an amazing looking game to behold. I don't like saying "best ever!!!" but those jungles are pretty astonishing. Yet to try the others, but am aware of the negativity surrounding them.
::
Rockstar made $1 billion in 3 days with GTAV, yet they can't find the budget to port RDR to PC.
9.
 
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble
Jun 22, 2014, 13:54
9.
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble Jun 22, 2014, 13:54
Jun 22, 2014, 13:54
 
harlock wrote on Jun 22, 2014, 13:15:
cryengine is being DESTROYED by UE4 in the prefab engine market

If only because UE4 is much, much easier to work with. Epic clearly put more time and effort in to the workflow process to make it easier for first time users to just jump in and start creating, learning as you go.
"Just take a look around you, what do you see? Pain, suffering, and misery." -Black Sabbath, Killing Yourself to Live.

“Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains” -Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Purveyor of cute, fuzzy, pink bunny slippers.
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8.
 
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble
Jun 22, 2014, 13:45
8.
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble Jun 22, 2014, 13:45
Jun 22, 2014, 13:45
 
I just played all the Crysis games this year and the first Crysis still looks amazing. Crytek can develop amazing graphics, they just need a awesome story to go with it.
7.
 
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble
Jun 22, 2014, 13:18
7.
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble Jun 22, 2014, 13:18
Jun 22, 2014, 13:18
 
Crysis and Crysis Warhead were great IMO but they lost me when they moved to consoles with Crysis 2 and 3. This is sad news though.
“We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.” William Casey, CIA Director 1981-1987
Avatar 57016
6.
 
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble
Jun 22, 2014, 13:18
6.
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble Jun 22, 2014, 13:18
Jun 22, 2014, 13:18
 
bhcompy wrote on Jun 22, 2014, 13:13:
Dagnamit wrote on Jun 22, 2014, 13:03:
NeOCidE wrote on Jun 22, 2014, 12:52:
Them darn pirates!!!!!

not surprised. They've never even made a game that I would consider anything more than above average. And it's not like they've ever blown the roof off in selling the decent ones.

$60 million stretch goal. Cloud Imperium buys Crytek.

Crytek's games always seemed like glorified tech demos. The problem is that they could never sell their engine for any decent game, as the market is essentially build your own engine or use Unreal(with a few rare instances of Source or id). Monolith ran into the same problem with Lithtech after FEAR played itself out.

That's how I feel about it too. I don't like seeing anyone lose their job but these guys made very average games with pretty engines. Crysis for example is a series that never really hit its potential despite 3 entries.

I've had the misfortune of playing Ryse at a friends house too and its readily apparent it was initially a Kinect game, it has clunky written all over it.
Avatar 57682
5.
 
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble
Jun 22, 2014, 13:15
5.
Re: GameStar: Crytek in Financial Trouble Jun 22, 2014, 13:15
Jun 22, 2014, 13:15
 
cryengine is being DESTROYED by UE4 in the prefab engine market

crytek going down is pretty much inevitable.. they dont make nearly enough to fund their costs, and its been like this for a long while
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