Crytek has announced a round of layoffs affecting 60 of its 400 staff.
In a tweet, Crytek said that while Hunt: Showdown is growing, the company could not “continue as before and remain financially sustainable.” The developer put Crysis 4 “on hold” late 2024 and had worked to shift staff over to Hunt, reducing costs and operating expenses in the process, but the layoffs became “inevitable,” affecting 15% of its workforce.
The layoffs hit staff across Crytek’s development teams and shared services. The company said it will offer severance.
Here’s the statement, from Crytek founder Avni Yerli, in full:
Like so many of our peers, we aren’t immune to the complex, unfavorable market dynamics that have hit our industry these past several years. It pains me greatly to share today that we must lay off an estimated 15% of our around 400 employees. The layoffs affect development teams and shared services.
This has not been an easy decision to make, as we deeply appreciate the hard work of our talented teams. After putting the development of the next Crysis game on hold in Q3 2024, we have been trying to shift developers over to Hunt: Showdown 1896.
While Hunt: Showdown 1896 is still growing, Crytek cannot continue as before and remain financially sustainable. Even after ongoing efforts to reduce costs and cut operating expenses, we have determined that layoffs are inevitable to move forward. Crytek will offer affected employees severance packages and career assistance services.
We firmly believe in the future of Crytek. With Hunt: Showdown 1896, we have a very strong gaming service and remain fully committed to its operation. We will continue to expand and evolve Hunt: Showdown 1896 with great content and drive our strategy for our engine CRYENGINE.
Last year, it emerged that Crytek had worked on a battle royale-inspired Crysis project codenamed Crysis Next when very early gameplay hit YouTube. The footage revealed third-person shooting in a basic warm-up arena, with Crysis’ trademark abilities and sound effects layered on top.
Crytek never announced Crysis Next, which was canceled in favor of Crysis 4 ahead of its announcement in January 2022.
Crysis is a first-person sci-fi shooter series known for its impressive visuals, cool nanosuit powers, and open-ended gameplay. The first game in the series, released in 2007, was often used as a PC benchmark given the demands it would make of PCs at the time. Crysis was so demanding that it spawned the now infamous catchphrase, “But can it run Crysis?” which was used in the years following the game’s release to deliver a verdict on a PC spec.
The last mainline game in the series, Crysis 3, came out in February 2013. Crytek released remasters of the originals in recent years, but fans hadn’t heard more about Crysis 4 since its announcement and teaser three years ago.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
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