German game company Crytek, best known for the Crysis series and the development of the CRYENGINE engine, has announced that it is laying off 60 of its employees. It has also suspended development of Crysis 4 to focus on supporting the shooter Hunt: Showdown 1896.
German game company Crytek, best known for the Crysis series and the development of the CRYENGINE engine, has announced that it is laying off 60 of its employees. It has also suspended development of Crysis 4 to focus on supporting the shooter Hunt: Showdown 1896.
«Like many of our colleagues, we are not immune to the challenging, adverse market dynamics that have hit our industry over the past few years. It is with great sadness that we announce that today we are forced to lay off approximately 15% of our approximately 400 employees. The layoffs affect development teams and shared services,» Crytek said in a statement.
The company noted that thanks to Hunt: Showdown 1896 they have a «strong game service» and the developers remain fully committed to its work. Work on the CRYENGINE engine will also continue, writes The Gamer.
«This decision was not easy for us, as we deeply appreciate the hard work of our talented teams. After suspending development of the next Crysis game in Q3 2024, we sought to shift developers to Hunt: Showdown. While Hunt: Showdown 1986 is still in development, Crytek cannot continue to operate as before and remain financially sustainable,» the company said.
It is noted that despite cost savings and operating cost reductions, the layoffs were inevitable in order for the company to move forward. Crytek will offer affected employees severance pay and career development services.
Crysis is a series of science fiction first-person shooters known for their advanced visuals, interesting nanosuit features, and open-world gameplay. The first game in the series, released in 2007, was often used as a benchmark for PC graphics, given the demands it placed on computers at the time. Crysis was so demanding that it gave rise to the famous phrase «But can it run Crysis?», which was used as a benchmark for PC performance.
The last game in the famous Crysis series was released back in 2013. In 2022, Crytek announced that it was working on a new part. But from the company’s job postings, it became known that Crysis 4 only reached the «early stage of development» in 2024.
