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Crytek Addresses Financial Problems, No Comment On Hunt Or Homefront

by Mike Futter on Jul 25, 2014 at 07:41 AM

Crytek has addressed some of the concerns regarding its current financial position and its relationship with employees, who have reportedly walked off the job after not receiving pay. The Crysis and Homefront studio has issued its first statement since news of its troubles broke last month.

Immediately prior to E3, Crytek announced a new free-to-play title called Hunt: Horrors of the Gilded Age (our E3 preview). The studio also announced that it is developing Homefront: The Revolution, which is slated for publication by Deep Silver.

A representative provided the following statement to us via email:

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.

We followed up to inquire about the status of ongoing projects including CryEngine 3, Hunt: Horrors of the Gilded Age, and Homefront: Revolution. The company declined to comment at this time. We’ve also reached out to Deep Silver for comment on Homefront and will update should we receive a response.

Update: Kotaku reports that, according to sources close to Crytek UK, employees are now being paid again. There is no information yet on which of the departed employees have decided to return.

[Source: Crytek via GamesIndustry]

 

Our Take
Crytek’s statement acknowledges the problems it has had with employees, but doesn’t provide much by way of assurance that things are getting better. The statement suggests that something has changed for the better, but without details (or confidence that the staff that has reportedly departed has been reemployed and compensated appropriately), I don’t think it’s safe to say the company is out of the woods yet.