Crytek closes 5 of its 7 studios.

[Deleted member 13524]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-12-20-crytek-breaks-silence-lets-go-of-multiple-studios

Staying are Frankfurt and Kiev, all the others are closing.


Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems Crytek is closing all the studios that were working on F2P crap except Kiev (who apparently made the only F2P title that didn't tank hard called Warface, out of the dozens of similarly failed projects). There are talks of the Kiev Studio being sold to a russian company which is probably why it's not getting disbanded.
Budapest is also a shame because they made Crysis Warhead, but it seems ever since then the Yerli visionaries put them working on forgettable mobile games.


Frankfurt are the ones responsible for Far Cry 1, Crysis 1 + 2 + 3, Ryse, and most recently the VR titles The Climb and Robinson.
Frankfurt was also supposed to be working on yet another F2P crap but hopefully it's shelved by now.

• Undergoing such transitions is far from easy, and we'd like to sincerely thank each and every staff member - past and present - for their hard work and commitment to Crytek.
• These changes are part of the essential steps we are taking to ensure Crytek is a healthy and sustainable business moving forward that can continue to attract and nurture our industry's top talent. The reasons for this have been communicated internally along the way.
• Our focus now lies entirely on the core strengths that have always defined Crytek - world-class developers, state-of-the-art technology and innovative game development, and we believe that going through this challenging process will make us a more agile, viable, and attractive studio, primed for future success.

 

[milk]

It's not like EVERYBODY who talked about all latest crytek escapades had not predicted that. Took them long enough.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

An entire year leading their employees on without paychecks. How can these guys not get huge lawsuits up their asses?

https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/5jdyow/notes_from_a_former_crytek_employee/

I was informed today by management here at the South Korea studio that we were shutting down and to go ahead and leave. Crytek is a company that has burned me beyond belief. Here's my story.

Things started getting rough for me around February. I didn't receive my auto deposit for my check that month. I thought maybe it was a mistake at the bank or something. Nope. They informed me that they wouldn't be able to pay me because of shifts in the company but that I would receive it in March. March came, no check for either month. I became worried but knew that me being a loyal employee for 5 years that it would be best to stay. April came. Nothing. I had to borrow money from my family to stay afloat and pay bills. I thought about leaving but getting a job here isn't exactly easy. I kept asking about my pay but they persisted that it was coming. Apparently, nobody here was getting paid. Broken promises every time. Last month I had my notice ready that I was leaving. They gave me $500 to stay another month and promised that my checks were arriving very soon. Then today arrived. We all lost our jobs. I'm not sure what to do now. I've cried for 4 hours straight. I need a job. My money is running out. I should've left earlier.

That ends my rant. Thank you.

 

[BRiT]

I didn't know they had that many studios left.

 

[homerdog]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-12-20-crytek-breaks-silence-lets-go-of-multiple-studios

Staying are Frankfurt and Kiev, all the others are closing.


Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems Crytek is closing all the studios that were working on F2P crap except Kiev (who apparently made the only F2P title that didn't tank hard called Warface, out of the dozens of similarly failed projects). There are talks of the Kiev Studio being sold to a russian company which is probably why it's not getting disbanded.
Budapest is also a shame because they made Crysis Warhead, but it seems ever since then the Yerli visionaries put them working on forgettable mobile games.


Frankfurt are the ones responsible for Far Cry 1, Crysis 1 + 2 + 3, Ryse, and most recently the VR titles The Climb and Robinson.
Frankfurt was also supposed to be working on yet another F2P crap but hopefully it's shelved by now.

Remember the correct term is Pay To Win. Free To Play makes it sound like a good thing.

 

[Lightman]

Pay to Win is a type of game I plan on not winning or in most cases not even playing! Crapitalism got Crytek what they deserved!

 

[milk]

An entire year leading their employees on without paychecks. How can these guys not get huge lawsuits up their asses?

https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/5jdyow/notes_from_a_former_crytek_employee/

Very sad story. Sad to know crytek employed free to play concepts in their sallary structure. FoP: Free of Pay.

 

[BRiT]

That certainly wasn't PTW, pay to work.

 

[Albuquerque]

An entire year leading their employees on without paychecks. How can these guys not get huge lawsuits up their asses?

The original posting has been pulled / deleted so I can only comment based on my interpretation of events from the other comments.

I understand it's an unforgivable dick move on the company's part, but I could never find myself in this position. I work because I need money. If you can't pay me money, then I'm going to find an employer who can. Promises of future whatever don't pay the bills, especially from a company which has (over the last several years) demonstrated serious problems generating revenue.

If I were to build my own business, it's a different story because I have my own stake in my destiny. As a cog in the wheels of a failing company, there's zero incentive for me to stick around.

As such, I feel sorry for him losing his job, yet I feel no sorrow for his election to stay for months without pay.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

From what I could understand, the guy did look for other jobs but between being very hard getting something game-related occupations in Seoul and their HR constantly promising the paychecks would come very soon, he ended up in that situation.

But yeah, he's at least a bit guilty for not seeing it coming.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

From what I could understand, the guy did look for other jobs but between being very hard getting something game-related occupations in Seoul and their HR constantly promising the paychecks would come very soon, he ended up in that situation.

But yeah, he's at least a bit guilty for not seeing it coming.

It's strange that he had such a hard time getting looked at by another software developer as PC development is very strong in S. Korea. I'm wondering if maybe his skills just weren't good enough. Alternatively he maybe wasn't looking nearly as hard as he claimed he was.

Regards,
SB

 

[Davros]

Alternatively maybe there were no vacancies.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

He stopped getting paychecks in Feb. 2016, ~10 months ago. Even assuming he didn't start looking for a job right away, it's likely he'd presumably been looking for at least 6 months. I find it hard to believe that no software engineers were hired in S. Korea during that time.

I'd also be surprised if many of the former employees at the S. Korean development studio haven't already received offers from other companies in the country.

Then again, how many employees at that development house were working there for no pay purely because no other software company in the area felt they were good enough to hire and how many truly felt that they'd eventually get their paychecks.

I'm not saying that the situation is anything but bad. But there are a lot of opportunities in S. Korea for game programmers. It isn't like the employees are in a country where there actually are few opportunities for game programmers.

Regards,
SB

 

[Davros]

I find it hard to believe that no software engineers were hired in S. Korea during that time.

Do you also find it hard to believe there may be more software engineers looking for jobs than vacancies ?

 

[Otto Dafe]

Seven studios seems an awful lot. By comparison Dice has 2, Blizzard 9, iD 2, and Epic 6. I tried to think of more besides Epic that weren't wholly owned or backed by a publisher but drew a blank.

 

[Jupiter]

Now they are going to rid the relatively unimportant studios which should have closed years ago when the companies condition is viewed.

Warface was a success and the Kiev Studio probably generated a surplus with it. Crytek keeps the studios in Frankfurt and Kiev.

With the VR games Crytek has invested too much work and made too little money. In addition many extermal studios have not delivered anything. In Sofia, Arena of Fate was developed for many years. Nothing has come of it.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Do you also find it hard to believe there may be more software engineers looking for jobs than vacancies ?

Sure but that's the same situation as the US, UK, Japan, etc. But good game programmers with years of experience are still in high demand.

For someone just out of college it may be tough, but for someone with experience in the work place, there's quite likely some company that'd pick up them up.

Regards,
SB

 

[tuna]

I understand it's an unforgivable dick move on the company's part, but I could never find myself in this position. I work because I need money. If you can't pay me money, then I'm going to find an employer who can. Promises of future whatever don't pay the bills, especially from a company which has (over the last several years) demonstrated serious problems generating revenue.

I have always worked on the promise/assumption I would get paid for my work in the future. If my employer would not fulfil his promise I would be screwed (although I have saved up quite a good cushion by now).

You really should try to be more compassionate, it can be faster than you think to get into situations you never imagined yourself in.

 

[Davros]

There does seem to be a trend here at B3d to always defend corporations.
Someone buys a game and its broken, it's not the publishers fault its the users fault for not being more vigilant and not doing their research
nvidia charges money for nothing, hey it's ok because they can
The minimum wage debate, companies shouldnt have to pay people a wage they can live on
I see it all the time.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Some things corporations do are bad. Crytek not paying their employees is obviously an example. They may have tried to get funding so that they could keep the studios afloat and still pay them, but in the end it was a bad situation.

That said, the employees are also at fault for staying. They had a choice. They didn't have to stay.

Companies releasing a broken game is obviously bad. But users who enable that behavior by pre-ordering games, are also at fault for encouraging that behavior.

Yada yada. Not everything is black and white and blame for things going wrong can't always be laid on one person/corporation's head.

Don't like how a company does things? Don't buy their stuff. If some people keep buying their stuff and encouraging that company's behavior then I have no empathy for those people when they complain.

It could be a little tougher for an employee to leave, but the employee's always have the option. It's amazing how little you actually need to live on if you have any amount of self discipline (IE - you aren't always eating out, buying extravagant toys, and aren't up to your neck in debt from doing the those things). If you aren't happy with your employer, suck it up, make a few creature comfort sacrifices and start saving your money and then leave. I've done it in the past when I was younger. After doing that I always lived with enough budgeting discipline to ensure that if I had to be jobless for an extended period of time that I could do so for multiple years if I had to (combination of saving money from every paycheck and making sure I never went over budget or used credit if I didn't have to).

Meh. Just me. I get tired of people bitching about how tough they have it when they make far more money than they need to live a basic life. But then I grew up in real poverty, not the extravagant levels of money that the US government considers poverty.

Regards,
SB