Crytek closes five of its seven game studios

Recently there were a number of rumors about financial problems at Crytek, including reports about employees not getting paid. As Kotaku wrote a couple of days ago, it sounded a lot like what the company was going through just two years ago. At the time, the cash bleed was resolved by selling Homefront and entering a license deal with Amazon.

With the company in trouble again, a new round of restructuring is put in motion that will return the game developer to its core competencies. The Crytek studios in Frankfurt, Germany and Kiev, Ukraine will remain, but the five other studios in Bulgaria, China, Hungary, South Korea and Turkey will be closed.

Rumors are also flying around that Crytek sold the rights of its free-to-play game Warface to a Russian company.

Here's the official PR from Crytek:

Crytek today outlined a series of changes to its future business plans that will see the company refocus on its core strengths of developing innovative games and game-development technology.

As part of the changes, Crytek will concentrate on development in its Frankfurt and Kiev studios and continue to develop and work on premium IPs. CRYENGINE will remain a core pillar of Crytek’s overall strategy, with enterprise licensees and indie developers alike continuing to be served by regular engine updates. All other development studios will not remain within Crytek and management has put plans into action to secure jobs and to ensure a smooth transition and stable future.

Crytek Co-Founder and Managing Director, Avni Yerli, said: “Undergoing such transitions is far from easy, and we’d like to sincerely thank each and every staff member – past and present – for their hard work and commitment to Crytek. These changes are part of the essential steps we are taking to ensure Crytek is a healthy and sustainable business moving forward that can continue to attract and nurture our industry’s top talent. The reasons for this have been communicated internally along the way. Our focus now lies entirely on the core strengths that have always defined Crytek – world-class developers, state-of-the-art technology and innovative game development, and we believe that going through this challenging process will make us a more agile, viable, and attractive studio, primed for future success.”