The future of game developer Crytek remains uncertain, as more staff leave the company amid rumours of financial problems and the collapse of a key franchise agreement with Microsoft.
Over the past year, things have looked rosy for the company best known for the Crysis series and its CryEngine game engine. It hired former Vigil staff, announced planned Linux support, open-sourced its Renderdoc debugger, and even Released CryEngine on Steam under a subscription basis.
In recent months, however, rumours have spread that the company is facing bankruptcy. Its staff are reportedly going unpaid, many of its upper management jumping ship, and most recently it has been claimed that its deal with Microsoft to develop a Ryse sequel for the Xbox One has fallen apart. Now, anonymous sources speaking to Kotaku claim things are falling apart.
The sources state that Hasit Zala, director of the as-yet unreleased Homefront: The Revolution, has resigned from Crytek UK. His departure follows those of development manager Ben Harris, studio head Karl Hilton who has stated he will remain at the company but in a different role, and a number of other employees who have not been named. 'It creates a weird scenario as there are now no upper management [personnel],' an anonymous source told the site. 'Everything is just continuing on a downwards spiral.'
Crytek has not yet responded publicly to the most recent staff departures, nor claims that staff payments have been outstanding 'for a long time.'
Over the past year, things have looked rosy for the company best known for the Crysis series and its CryEngine game engine. It hired former Vigil staff, announced planned Linux support, open-sourced its Renderdoc debugger, and even Released CryEngine on Steam under a subscription basis.
In recent months, however, rumours have spread that the company is facing bankruptcy. Its staff are reportedly going unpaid, many of its upper management jumping ship, and most recently it has been claimed that its deal with Microsoft to develop a Ryse sequel for the Xbox One has fallen apart. Now, anonymous sources speaking to Kotaku claim things are falling apart.
The sources state that Hasit Zala, director of the as-yet unreleased Homefront: The Revolution, has resigned from Crytek UK. His departure follows those of development manager Ben Harris, studio head Karl Hilton who has stated he will remain at the company but in a different role, and a number of other employees who have not been named. 'It creates a weird scenario as there are now no upper management [personnel],' an anonymous source told the site. 'Everything is just continuing on a downwards spiral.'
Crytek has not yet responded publicly to the most recent staff departures, nor claims that staff payments have been outstanding 'for a long time.'
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