Crytek Crisis: Finally Some Good News!

Article after article of bad news and things getting worse, I finally have something good to report about Crytek...

The employees have finally been paid!

After month’s of people walking out of the job, outright quitting, email leaks, game cancelations and several higher ups leaving the company, the staff of Crytek was finally paid this week, according to sources within the company who contacted Kotaku.

While it’s unclear exactly how many people have gone, and how many people will come back, one thing’s for certain: the damage has been done.  One of Kotaku’s contacts said;

"Of course the whole situation has been deeply uncomfortable and has seen trust eroded.  Many people have decided to move on."

As for what caused this, it’s hard to know for sure.  Sources in studios around the world claim that the company has found “relief”, which is why it’s able to make the checks now.  We do know that Wargaming.net was in talks with Crytek over the past few months… was that the source of the relief?  Or was it something else?  Impossible to do anything but speculate at this point.



In other news, Crytek has finally broken it’s silence and spoken about the issue of their apparent financial troubles.  Over the past few weeks they’ve been radio silent on the issue despite the publication of their internal struggles—and even now, they don’t have much of substance to say, but the acknowledgement is welcome.

“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.

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.

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.

We are confident that we will be able to share more positive news on Crytek's progress soon.

So is this really the end of the Crytek Crisis?  Or is this just a single happy road bump in the long road of a company’s fall from grace?  Only time will tell, but I’ll keep you all posted as the story develops.