After many, many, many reports about Cytek having financial problems the company finally decided to come forward and publicly address just what's going on with the studio. Well, it's about what you might expect from a company still trying to maintain their professionalism in the face of adversity, or something of the sort.
GamesIndustry.biz managed to get a complete statement from Crytek discussing their issues.
The company first made it known to GamesIndustry.biz that they are in a “transitional” phase. This was proceeded by following the statements...
“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.”
This issue has been going on, apparently, since before April. There have been numerous reports from all manner of video game and business related outlets detailing how staff at various Crytek offices have become disgruntled from being over-worked and under-paid.
In fact, just after E3 – when the rumors really boiled to a head – Crytek only came forward to make it known that they were not on the verge of bankruptcy, denying the earlier reports. Just a few days later a few anonymous whistle-blowers spilled more details about the lack of pay and how Crytek had been promising checks to employees but not delivering.
According to Crytek, however, this has all been part of a larger “transitional” period for them, as the statement reads...
“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. “
This is an unfortunate thing, but it's also a strange one. While Crytek may have “secured” capital, they've also lost very key members of their core design team(s). One of which was the game director for Homefront: The Revolution.
It wasn't but earlier in the week that a producer for Crytek games such as Ryse and Crysis 3 also departed from the company.
Even more than that, the core graphics engineer for the CryEngine 3 decided to upchuck and head to id Software to work on the iD Tech 6 for the upcoming release of Doom. Transitional phases are one thing, losing key members of your design team are another.
Nevertheless, the statement rounds out with the following comments..
“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.”
I'm terribly interested to know exactly what the long term future of Crytek will look like without game directors, graphics engineers and producers? Maybe the capital will have secured enough funding for the company to replace key staff and get things back on track.
The full statement from the company ends on a positive note, though, as the company looks toward a brighter financial future...
“We are confident that we will be able to share more positive news on Crytek's progress soon.”
So far, nothing has been said of Homefront: The Revolution, so it's expected to still be on track for a 2015 release.
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