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Crytek bankruptcy watch thread

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-07-25-crytek-addresses-financial-situation
Crytek addresses financial situation
CryEngine creator says it has been enduring "transitional phase," but has secured additional capital for the long term


When reports first spread that Crytek had been missing payroll for months at some of its studios, the publisher dismissed the claims as rumors. However, reports of trouble at the company persisted and expanded, and today, a Crytek representative providedGamesIndustry.biz with its first statement on the situation since the original denial.

In the note, Crytek acknowledges that it "has been in a transitional phase" as it moves from being a developer to an online publisher, one that required significantly more capital. However, the company also said that it has since secured that capital and is now well prepared for the long term, although it added "we won't be communicating further details about our developments and progress."

The full statement follows below:

In recent weeks, there have been repeated reports and rumors relating to financial problems at Crytek. Having already given an update to staff across all our studios, we are now in a position to share more details with members of the press and public.

Internally, we have acknowledged that the flow of information to employees has not been as good as it should have, however we hope you understand that communicating details of our plans publicly has not always been possible.

Like the games industry as a whole, Crytek has been in a transitional phase. Our evolution from a development studio to an Online-Publisher has required us to refocus our strategies. These challenges go along with an increased demand for capital which we have secured.

We can now concentrate on the long term strategic direction of Crytek and our core competencies. We kindly ask for your understanding, that we won't be communicating further details about our developments and progress.

Ultimately, with our organization, capitalization, portfolio and technologies we have now laid the foundations for securing Crytek's future - not just in the short term, but also long term.

Through this period of speculation, we are thankful for the support and encouragement we've received from our community and our partners, and for the contribution all of our staff have made. We remain committed to doing what we are best known for and trying to develop the best interactive experiences and technology possible for everyone who loves gaming.

We are confident that we will be able to share more positive news on Crytek's progress soon.​

WTF is an "Online-Publisher"
 

Dr Tomo

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"has been in a transitional phase" as it moves from being a developer to an online publisher

Summary: executives found some suckers to fund their studio and taking some Orbit chewing gum post meeting to delay the inevitable and continue to chase fads like other "triple A" studios.

Another failed steam competitor.

More like they are going to try and copy Perfect World, Nexon, and NcSoft, but will only chase fads after they have are starting to decline by the 14 month mark. Think thta comment applies more to Trion as they really want to tap into that easy money on being a Steam competitor.
 

Perkel

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Online publisher just means shitty F2P developer IIRC. They don't compare themselves to valve with steam and shit like that.

They compare them-self now to Zynga. Which is fitting i suppose considering their portfolio of shitty games.
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-07-30-deep-silver-parent-company-buys-homefront-from-crytek

Deep Silver parent company buys Homefront from Crytek
Crytek UK becomes Deep Silver Dambuster Studios.

Deep Silver parent company Koch Media has bought the Homefront intellectual property from Crytek and re-purposed Homefront: The Revolution developer Crytek UK into Deep Silver Dambuster Studios.

Koch, whose publishing subsidiary Deep Silver is responsible for Dead Island and Saints Row, has picked up the Homefront brand and all associated assets from Crytek, which had run into high-profile financial difficulties.

Today Koch said development on Homefront: The Revolution would continue at Deep Silver Dambuster Studios based in Nottingham.

Last week, after months of missed payments, Crytek issued a statement saying it had found capital that had "secured" the company's future. But it failed to say where the money had come from.

Staff at Crytek's headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, and at other studios including Crytek UK were then paid.

But before then, the situation at Crytek UK raised question marks over the future of Homefront: The Revolution, slated for release at some point in 2015 for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Crytek UK was once Free Radical Design, creator of the TimeSplitters franchise. Crysis maker Crytek bought the company out of administration back in February 2009 and renamed it Crytek UK. It has worked on the multiplayer portions of Crysis 2 and Crysis 3 and contributed to Xbox One launch title Ryse: Son of Rome.

Crytek UK had been working on the Homefront sequel since 2011 at the behest of publisher THQ. When THQ went bust in 2013, Crytek bought the Homefront IP, had Crytek UK continue its development using the latest version of CryEngine and secured Deep Silver as publisher.

Crytek UK attended E3 last month to present Homefront to press within publisher Deep Silver's meeting room. Crytek UK's goal with the game is to bring guerrilla warfare to the streets of Philadelphia, and get back to Crytek's roots, creating an open freeroam sandbox environment for players to explore.

:hero:
 

Wirdschowerdn

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http://venturebeat.com/2014/07/30/crytek-drops-u-k-studio-and-downsizes-its-team-in-austin/

Austin studio is also downsized and Hunt moves to Frankfurt.

This in particular is curious:

“As we look to cement Crytek’s future, this strategic deal with Koch Media would allow us to continue with our ambitious goals to become an online publisher,” Crytek chief executive officer Cevat Yerli said in a statement. “With Warface, Arena of Fate, and Hunt, we believe we have the perfect portfolio and teams to make that happen. We would like to thank all our staff – past and present – in both Nottingham and Austin for their contributions to the company, and we wish all the very best to anyone who may no longer be under the Crytek banner moving forward.”

michael-jordan-laughing.gif
 

Azalin

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While Crytek is cutting jobs in Austin, the company says it will offer those employees the opportunity to apply for work at its German offices … on another continent.

The developer’s other studios in Budapest, Istanbul, Kiev, and Sofia will continue operating without changes or job cuts.


So they will let their Texan ex employess apply for a job in Kiev
...
..
.

:hmmm:
 

DeepOcean

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While Crytek is cutting jobs in Austin, the company says it will offer those employees the opportunity to apply for work at its German offices … on another continent.

The developer’s other studios in Budapest, Istanbul, Kiev, and Sofia will continue operating without changes or job cuts.
Yeah... come waste all the years of your life on our shitty East European/Turkey studios and crank out F2P shit that nobody cares about but a few cheap ruskie teenagers. Boy, now THAT is a tempting offer, isn't it?:lol:
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth

Best quotes:

When the studio was founded did you not realise the cost of development in Austin would be high?

Cevat Yerli: To be honest, what we had forecast for cost and what we accrued was much higher. The forecast we received back then and the reality were off by a high margin.

I've spoken to a few dozen former and current Crytek developers who were upset about unpaid wages. Can you explain that situation?

Cevat Yerli: How exactly?

Has Crytek been bought or is it an investment?

Cevat Yerli: It's not an investment and Crytek has not been bought. It's revenue. It's purely revenue.

It's a revenue deal?

Cevat Yerli: Yeah.

If it's a revenue deal how did you get the cash injection to pay staff?

Cevat Yerli: It might be a larger revenue deal. Like a big one.

So you got cash up front.

Cevat Yerli: Usually our deals have cash up front. Yeah.

So no Crysis 4 in development right now?

Cevat Yerli: Don't know.

:lol:
 
Last edited:

Gerrard

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By the way, from what I've seen Warface is a piece of shit, who would've thought?
 

Dr Tomo

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My interpretation of this melt down after reading the Glass Door review regarding Crytek.

What's the state of the company at the moment?

Cevat Yerli: We have been undergoing a transformation, just like the whole game industry. Part of the transformation was of a financial nature, part of it was of a strategy nature, and part of it was of a reorganisation nature. The shift from retail products towards a game service, that's the one we are undergoing. As a result of this we have adjusted our entire strategy across the board for each game. We evaluated the games and looked at which do not fit in this strategy. This required additional investment, which led to temporarily diminished capital resources. But we are today fully prepared to deliver a game service. From a strategy perspective we are financially equipped towards that. And we have restructured the studios so we focus on Frankfurt, Sofia, Kiev, our Asian operations, and Budapest, towards delivering our strategy.

Regards to Austin, we have downsized Austin to be our US hub for the engine business, and brought over Hunt to Frankfurt. Then in the UK we sold the Homefront IP as well as the Homefront team, which was pretty much the majority of the team, to Koch Media. That helped us in two ways: it was a strategic sell as well as downsizing costs so we are better equipped towards a future of games as a service.

They were facing insolvency and so they will keep the studios that are cheaper to operate to pursue fads in the hopes of cashing in after it started to decline.

What was the main cause of the financial difficulties Crytek found itself in?

Cevat Yerli: The primary cause was the transformation. We're observing where the industry is going. We knew free-to-play or games as a service - online services in general - will become the future of gaming. We've known this for a while. But we were finishing up our retail games or still had them in development, with Homefront for example.

But that shift required a whole different capitalisation, as well as additional talent pool and different types of spending and forecasting. All of that caused temporarily diminished capital resource, which we have now overcome. This was the main cause of the situation - the whole transformation of Crytek.

Yerli was too busy driving his Lambo around Germany and found out that the studio was in melt down, so he had to find cash quick.

Cevat Yerli: If you look back, we started with one title, Far Cry. Then we moved to Crysis. Then multiple platforms and then multiple studios. In order for the company to transition, we still had to take into account the retail market in the meantime. We couldn't just go 100 per cent full blown into free-to-play immediately.

So in a sense we used these titles to transition out of these markets. And the transitioning out is still not finished. We're still committed to retail this year and some of it will be next year. You'll hear of that soon. But the majority of our game launches this year are already games as a service, and will be more and more so in the coming years.

This transition, even though it was done as soft as we wanted it to be, we underestimated some of the additional investment required for that.

Our first dip into f2p was Warface which was trash and so we released titles like Ryse in the hopes of making tons of monies avoid this situation.

Just so I'm clear, why did you sell the Homefront IP and the team to Koch?
Cevat Yerli: Homefront's timeline, as well as the focus as a studio we would have needed to put behind that, would have been detrimental to the transition to us. That was the comparison: are we delaying the transition further, or are we going to do it earlier than later?

We believe in Homefront. It's a great game and we still believe in it. But we made a deal with Koch we felt comfortable with as a strategic sale of the asset, which everybody comes out of in a win/win position.

Too damn broke to release another Ryse and so forced to sell the IP. :lol:

When the studio was founded did you not realise the cost of development in Austin would be high?
Cevat Yerli: To be honest, what we had forecast for cost and what we accrued was much higher. The forecast we received back then and the reality were off by a high margin.

I am never present and the people I trust or inept at their job and if our other 2 f2p projects fail we are going to be in this crisis again.

've spoken to a few dozen former and current Crytek developers who were upset about unpaid wages. Can you explain that situation?
Cevat Yerli:
How exactly?

Why do I need to give some fucks? Also tried to blow smoke up the dev's asses as my dick sucking would not be enough if the investors realize we are royally fucked if we don't get this money thanks to incompetence. I didn't get paid either during this crisis so developers shouldn't complain so much even though I already have millions in the bank and can take monies out of the studio when I want.

Do you anticipate losing more staff? Do you anticipate further selling of studios or IP?
Cevat Yerli: Selling studios I would think is not going happen any more. But anything else I can't say right now. My gut feeling would be maybe not, but I just can't say.

Please wait for out Hunt and Arena of Fate IP's to fail.
 

Dr Tomo

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By the way, from what I've seen Warface is a piece of shit, who would've thought?

They carefully selected the worst aspects of COD and Asian P2W shooters, and cross-bred the two. The baby is Warface.

Actually worse then that, map design looked like it was done by 14 yr old and the only players I encountered were mostly from the 2nd & 3rd world countries, specifically Russia and China. These are just 2 out of the 30 problems I found with the game in my 15 min play through in comparison to other shooters. If Crytek is going to make a shooter my advice would be for them to bribe a bunch of designers from established studios with a bunch of Jew gold as I never knew it was possible to screw up the fps formula.
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-12-02-crytek-is-shutting-down-warface-on-xbox-360

Crytek is shutting down Warface on Xbox 360
No new players will be able to join as of today.

Crytek is sunsetting its free-to-play shooter Warface on Xbox 360, which is rather surprising as it just launched earlier this year in April.

The game will be shut down for good come 1st February, but Crytek has already closed the gates for prospective new players, the studio announced on Facebook. Furthermore, existing players can keep playing for another couple of months, but they won't be able to purchase new in-game currency "kredits."

"To all our Xbox 360 players, thank you for choosing to spend your time playing Warface," Crytek said. "We hope you'll become part of the vibrant community enjoying regular new content and co-op and versus action - subscription free - on PC."

Crytek saw some significant financial woes earlier this year, but announced in July that it had found additional funding from a mysterious benefactor and that everything was going to be okay - or rather that it would proceed as planned with Homefront: The Revolution and Hunt: Horrors of the Gilded Age.

We've requested comment from Crytek about this closure and what the future of the company looks like. We'll update if anything substantial comes through.

:kfc:
 

chestburster

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But PC is made of pirates!!!!!!

which is why Warface is a gigantic pile of P2W shit.

"You PC non-paying peasants shall be forever pwned by the rich nobles paying us money! Oh you did pay? Well someone else paid more so you'll still be pwned! Take that, PC gamers!"

--Cevat Yerli
 

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