Crytek Crisis: It's Happening Again!

It’s been quite some time since we’ve last brought up the ol’ Crytek Crisis, largely because we thought the “crisis” had been avoided: payments were made, games were launched, and while a few people were laid off and/or quit, the company still seemed to churn along as if nothing had been wrong in the first place. More than two years have passed since then, and now, not only have I realized how painfully long I’ve been writing for this website, but the Crytek Crisis has reemerged.

The news came to us via Imgur, where an alleged Crytek Employee published a series of images and text claiming that Crytek has failed to pay them, and their co-workers, for six months and counting.

An exert from the (admittedly small) imgur post:
 

“The last time this happened we were told it would be the last time and yet it is happening again. Many of my co-workers moved from out of the country to work here and are unable to leave because they cannot afford to get back home due to their wages being withheld for so long. People are afraid to speak out because we are continuously told ‘Thank you for your continued efforts through this difficult time’ and ‘You don’t understand because you don’t see the whole picture like we do— wages are coming soon.’ The brothers had a meeting a few months ago and assured everyone that the issue was finally fixed and there should be no more problems. That is not the case. People are still working without pay. This isn’t just here in Germany, this is in all of our offices as far as I can tell. Upper management refuses to speak to any of us and our managers have no answers. We have never been apologized to, and they refuse to talk to us.”

They also posted on Reddit. Basically just a copy-paste of the Imgur post, clearly designed to draw attention on as many fronts as possible. It’s questionable how well it’s working, as Crytek themselves haven’t commented on the issue.

Another source spoke with letsplayvideogames, and collaborated with the story circling social media, stating that the team at the Black Sea branch hasn’t been paid in three-and-a-half months. Not quite as long as the others, but still unforgiveable. The source says the explanation behind the lack of pay is pretty straightforward: Crytek hasn’t been earning any money, so they don’t have anything to pay employees with.

The source also claimed that Crytek was up for sale, and that a big name company was looking to purchase them.

There’s a lot of rumor and speculation going around this particular matter, and there’s not a lot we can know, even if Crytek does decide to speak up on the subject. What is interesting to note, however, is that not long ago, Crytek was actively looking to hire level designers and QA folks. So… whatever’s going on at Crytek is more complicated than it would first appear.

We’ll update this story as we learn more.