Crytek may go bankrupt

fellix

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Crytek may go bankrupt owing to Ryse failure
Crytek has been under constant scrutiny from the PC Gamers side after moving its Crysis series into consoles too but nevertheless it was a studio with great plans and a great mind to innovate especially after making a visually stunning and near perfectly optimised engine ( Cryengine ). But of late, things haven’t gone as planned and German videogames magazine “Gamestar” has reported that Crytek is in big trouble and has deemed positive that the studio may go bankrupt.

According to Gamestar, the adoption of CRYENGINE is not going well and the discussions and agreements at GDC was negative. Strangely enough, CRYENGINE is currently one of the most optimized engines (also critically acclaimed for its graphic fidelity) so Crytek should really look into its subscription prices, otherwise this amazing engine may be lost in the oblivion and be stashed away, never be used by another triple-A developers.

Other than that, Gamestar claims that the development of Ryse was catastrophic for the studio financially. Just mere months before its release, the game was severely behind and was lacking in development. Luckily Crytek was able to complete it with some additional manpower (costing them dearly). And from what we’ve seen thus far, Ryse hasn’t reached Crytek’s expectations in terms of copies sold (especially for a console exclusive). This clearly puts Crytek in a precarious state at the moment.
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They are putting this all on Ryse? I think the fact that precious few companies are licensing their engine had a lot to do with it, with Ryse perhaps tipping them over the edge. They have had years now to get others to use their engine with seemingly minimal success. I don't think this can all be thrown on Ryse although I;m sure their article title is just click bait.
 
If Ryse didn't sell enough as a platform exclusive (launching on a platform with a zero install base) and that's affected their viability, they didn't negotiate well enough with MS. Either MS should have ensured it was going to be a profitable venture, or they shouldn't have gone exclusive. To limit oneself to a single platform with no certainty of worthwhile sales in what is obviously a competitive marketplace (PS4 was launching at the same time so next-gen audience was going to split somewhat) is bad management. Especially when you're wanting to push your cross-platform middleware! A showcase title on every platform is what CryEngine needed; not a niche 3rd person combat adventure on a single machine.
 
It makes me really sad to hear this, Crytek has been one of a relatively few studios to make big-budget flagship, triple-A titles for the PC, and I hope they can salvage the situation.

If Ryse was a problem for them, I'm sure it didn't help that xbone saw a relatively limited launch compared to what MS initially planned. The console still isn't out in places like scandinavia for example (I could have mentioned japan too, but since previous xboxes have done so poorly there it almost doesn't matter.)

Maybe port Ryse to the PC. I'm sure there's a market for the game there. :)
 
If the numbers I heard is right, they're way too large for what they have available in the marketplace; They employ over 800 workers. They'd have to have several gang-buster selling titles to support that size of a company.
 
Ryse actually sold pretty well despite the shoddy reviews. This Gamestar piece is already being discussed in an other thread btw.
 
I've never understood how they are a viable business anyway. How the sale of Far Cry 1+franchise and Crysis 1 could really financed 10 year development of their engine+games? Crysis2+3 sales were afaik below expectation. Why they didn't just make some Crysis1-3 port to next generation I've never understood. Low investment with easy ROI.
 
Crytek's biggest problem has always been that they make great tech demos, but not great games. I don't know why their licensing business never took off.
 
Cost and tools in a competitive marketplace is my guess. IIRC CryEngine 3 had a $1 million licensing fee. That's one helluva up-front cost. Now they've changed to a monthly fee + maybe royalties/'pro' price like everyone else, but they are behind others in popularity. Crytek seem to have spent buckets on their engine before securing a market for it, and they weren't producing enough themselves to pay for it (unlike Unreal), and now they haven't the grass-roots userbase to pay for its maintenance.
 
Crytek's biggest problem has always been that they make great tech demos, but not great games. I don't know why their licensing business never took off.

[strike]Yeah I'm curious why developers feel Unnreal engine 3/4 is superior to Cryengine3/4* has, so much so that there is a 10x licenses for that engine. I'm sure a google search would answer that.[/strike]

The industry would be smart to support a variety so these enginemakers have to compete with one another and give licensees a better deal.
 
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[strike]Yeah I'm curious why developers feel Unnreal engine 3/4 is superior to Cryengine3/4* has, so much so that there is a 10x licenses for that engine. I'm sure a google search would answer that.[/strike]

The industry would be smart to support a variety so these enginemakers have to compete with one another and give licensees a better deal.
That doesn't make much sense. Are a selection of developers supposed to pay more for a license they'd rather not have just to keep the competition healthy? Developers will go with the best product for their money. They're not going to support anyone out of charity, no more than any other business. The industry will naturally select who survives according to the rules of business, which will inevitably lead to fewer, bigger players as is the way with free-market capitalism.
 
Yeah I don't see why devs should feel the need to be charitable at all, it makes much more sense they go the route which makes both financial sense, but equally as import offers them the tools and framework to get the job done. Epic's Unreal engine has been a huge success and clearly delivers on said fronts. Hell it could be a case of it ain't broke don't fix it.

Crytek seem to be a modern day id software, impressive technology showcased by rather weak games, both of which never really got many licensees.
 
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