Crysis 4 / Crytek
The legendary developer of Crysis and Far Cry games is not in the best of health right now. Crytek is laying off people, halting development of Crysis 4 and focuses on the live action shooter.
Crytek announced about the layoffs of about 60 developers due to the suspension of Crysis 4 development to focus on its 2019 online retro shooter Hunt: Showdown 1896.
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There has been little information about Crysis 4 since its announcement in 2022: a year later, vacancies for a lead producer, a lead artificial intelligence programmer, and a lead environment artist appeared. The hiring attempts hinted at stable development, which was confirmed by Crytek CEO Avni Yerli, who in 2024 stated that the game had entered an early stage of development. It seems that it will remain there for the time being.
«Like many of our peers, we are not immune to the challenging, unfavorable market dynamics that have plagued our industry over the past few years. It is very painful to announce today that we are forced to lay off approximately 15% of our approximately 400 employees. The layoffs affect development teams and services,» the statement said.
In fact, Crytek remains an online game support company and its own engine. In a statement, the studio hopes that this will lead to future development.
«We strongly believe in the future of Crytek. Thanks to Hunt: Showdown 1896, we have a very powerful gaming service and remain fully committed to it. We will continue to expand and develop Hunt: Showdown 1896 with great content and develop the strategy of our CRYENGINE» engine.
The studio tried to find work for the Crysis 4 team in the online game. But the difficult financial situation did not allow it.
«This decision was not an easy one to make, as we greatly appreciate the hard work of our talented teams. After suspending development of the next Crysis game in the third quarter of 2024, we tried to transition developers to Hunt: Showdown. While Hunt: Showdown 1986 is still in development, Crytek cannot continue to operate as before and remain financially stable. Even after ongoing efforts to cut costs and reduce operating expenses, we have been able to and have decided that layoffs are unavoidable in order to move forward. Crytek will offer affected employees severance packages and career development services».
Crysis 4 could have been the first new game in the franchise since 2013, excluding the remade trilogy. But given the news of its team’s dismissal, the future of the series is in doubt.
Source: TheGamer