Crytek are going to announce a huge license deal. Maybe it will reinstate the studio.

So... basically, what could Crytek offer Amazon for $50-70M that Epic couldn't?

Much closer support/customization specific to Amazon's needs? i.e. Epic is stretched out.

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Amazon Fyre/Kyndle/Pryme. :3
 
Amazon...?

Maybe they want to get into games publishing/development like they did with TV shows competing against Netflix? No idea.
 
Well anything will look like ass in the FireTV's Snapdragon 600, so this is either cloud gaming or something else (hardware-wise) is coming from Amazon.

Needless to say, I don't know how well the FireTV sold, but the hardware (Snapdragon 600 in the year of Snapdragon 801) was a huge letdown.
 
So... basically, what could Crytek offer Amazon for $50-70M that Epic couldn't?

Much closer support/customization specific to Amazon's needs? i.e. Epic is stretched out.

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Amazon Fyre/Kyndle/Pryme. :3
This is quite suspicious. They acquired Killer Instinct developer Double Helix Games some time ago, and now Crytek.... hmmmm... It is a logical step taking into account how much money gaming does generate --and not only from games themselves, but youtube channels and stuff like that.
 
This is quite suspicious. They acquired Killer Instinct developer Double Helix Games some time ago, and now Crytek....
The press release says partnership, not acquisition. This is very different. We'll need to wait until the details are known to determine what this means in terms of ongoing engine support and/or new games on which platforms.
 
$50-70 million doesn't seem like that much. They would generate $60 million revenue from selling 1 million copies of a $60 triple A title. Of course after everybody gets their cut, it's probably less than half that Crytek receives, but still that's like a 2 million selling title, which isn't exactly a smash hit.

I guess they didn't incur the development costs a triple A title would with this theoretical deal, but OTOH dont they still have like 500 people on their payroll?

I guess if we look at it another way $50 million is enough to pay 500 people an average of 100k (salary+benefits+costs) for a year.
 
You only generate $60 million in revenue if you sell 1 million copies during the first 3-6 months, after which the games tend to lower the price unless they're phenomenal blockbusters like Rockstar or Blizzard stuff.
As a reference, Crysis 1 sold 1 million copies in the PC after a full year. 3 years later, with all the Steams sales and whatnot, the game reached 3 million sales.. but for those later 2 million copies we're talking about an average price closer to $10 than to $60.
Crysis 2 and 3 were also released on consoles, but their total numbers were lower than PC-exclusive Crysis.

That said, I doubt any single title from Crytek ever generated a lot more than $60 million in revenue, let alone profits. I wonder if Crytek as a developer ever surpassed a total profit of $60-70 million at all, during their lifetime.
Which makes this $50-70M number really odd, unless we're talking full sale of the whole company.


Oh and don't think for a single moment that Crytek spends "an average of $100k for a year" to their developers. Crytek Germany probably pays less than half of that on average. For their offices in Bulgaria, Turkey, Hungary and Ukraine, counting with pre-graduates and subsidized internships, they're probably spending close to $10k per developer a year.
 
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$50-70 million doesn't seem like that much.
It's the cost of a huge AAA title, no? Maybe Amazon are creating a virtual world (shopping centre!) or somesuch?

More typically, such middleware deals are to provide services to devs on a platform, so perhaps CryEngine will be available for devs on Kindle/Amazon App store?
 
That's another possibility, but why commission Crytek to do that? Is there experience and success in the mobile space that good? Heck, even their console success isn't that great. ;)
 
That's another possibility, but why commission Crytek to do that? Is there experience and success in the mobile space that good? Heck, even their console success isn't that great. ;)
Nothing in the reports state (or suggest) this is related to mobile. I think everybody assuming this partnership is bolster Amazon's mobile (phone/tablet) ecosystems will be kicking themselves when Amazon is ready to make a formal press release.

$50-70 million doesn't seem like that much. They would generate $60 million revenue from selling 1 million copies of a $60 triple A title.
It's a lot of money when you have no money and it's a lot of money to Amazon - you should read their financial statements over the past fourteen years. :runaway:
 
So are we anticipating Amazon entering the home console business then? Perhaps as a competitor standing in for Nintendo, who seems to be off in a corner somewhere doing their own thing?

Maybe Amazon will finally be able to piss more money away than Sony did with the PS3, or MS with the OG Xbox. Seems like its been their goal all along.
 
It's a lot of money when you have no money and it's a lot of money to Amazon - you should read their financial statements over the past fourteen years. :runaway:
They've been losing money because their CEO (forgot his name) embarked into embarrassingly bad ventures he really didn't need to touch. The money they spent developing their phone for example, which three people bought, was a big laugh to him but not anyone else. Amazon has always made a lot of money, which they squandered for very questionable projects. And Crytek might be involved into Amazon's next 'side project' which might only lose them money (Amazon, not Crytek).
 
Amazon has always made a lot of money, which they squandered for very questionable projects. And Crytek might be involved into Amazon's next 'side project' which might only lose them money (Amazon, not Crytek).

Are we talking about the same Amazon? I'm referring to Jeff Bezos' company. Amazon is 20 years old in June and despite being the biggest online retails for most of the last decade, Amazon has made an actual billion dollars net profit exactly once - in 2010. Profits crashed to $600m in 2011, another loss in 2012, slight profit in 2013 (by slight I mean Sony's PlayStation division produces more profit per month) and another loss in 2014. When Sony's gaming division's monthly profits make your annuals look pathetic, you have a problem.

On the big scoreboard of profits and losses, Amazon is running at a loss. Jeff Bezos is second only to the great Steve Jobs (R.I.P.) in getting people to believe in nonsense, like Amazon is about to become really profitable, trust me :yep2: Wall Street like Amazon because of its revenue and growth but Wall Street are clearly idiots - Apple Doom(tm). Their dumb ventures is the only reason Wall Street haven't sunk them - as soon as their growth ceases, Wall Street will gut Amazon like a pig.
 
Well yes I was really talking revenues when I wrote that they always made lots of money. Then I also specified they squandered it all on silly projects.
 
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