Things aren't looking very good for Crytek right about now. It was only a little more than a week ago that saw a rumor pop up that the company was failing to pay employees for the second time in 2 years, and today has brought the unfortunate news that the company will be shuttering all but their Kiev and Frankfurt studios; totaling 5 studio closures in all. The news comes from a press release the company sent out earlier this morning. The company explained that they were "[outlining] a series of changes to its future business plans that will see the company refocus on its core strengths of developing innovative games and game-development technology", which in layman terms means that they plan to focus on their Kiev and Frankfurt studios for video game development, while maintaining their use of CryEngine as a "core pillar of Crytek’s overall strategy".

Certainly, today's news is sad, especially for all the employees that reportedly hadn't been paid for months and have now been let go. The company has pledged to make the transition as smooth as it possibly can be, but needless to say that is yet to be seen following the troubles that the publisher has incurred over the last few years. Crytek Co-Founder Avni Yerli said as much alongside the company's press release, stating that "Undergoing such transitions [are] far from easy," and that he'd "like to sincerely thank each and every staff member - past and present" for their "hard work and commitment to Crytek."

We'll be sure to update you on the situation as more information about the companies' internal re-shuffling come to light.

Quick Take

As sad as today's news is, it shouldn't be in any way surprising considering the publisher's constantly shifting priorities. Back in 2013 the company stated that Free-to-Play was the future, but this last year they had focused primarily on VR gaming. The two studios they retained, Kiev and Frankfurt, have worked on those priorities in recent years with Kiev doing Warface and Frankfurt, doing The Climb and Robinson: The Journey. Regardless, my thoughts go out to all those affected by today's announcement.