Summary
- 15 percent of Crytek employees were just laid off as the studio announced that development on the new Crysis game has been paused.
- The studio claims that “While Hunt: Showdown 1986 is still growing, Crytek cannot continue as before and remain financially sustainable.”
Crytek just announced that it has laid off 60 developers as it pauses development on Crysis 4 to focus on its live-service extraction shooter Hunt: Showdown 1896.
“Like so many of our peers, we aren’t immune to the complex, unfavourable market dynamics that have hit our industry these past several years,” the statement reads. “It pains us greatly to share today that we must lay off an estimated 15 percent of our around 400 employees. The layoffs affect development teams and shared 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.
“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. While Hunt: Showdown 1986 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.”
Crysis 4 Was Announced Three Years Ago
We haven’t heard much about Crysis 4 since it was announced in 2022. The year after, job listings appeared for a lead producer, lead AI programmer, and lead environment artist, hinting at a steady development, corroborated by Crytek CEO Avni Yerli who said in 2024 that it had entered “the early stages of development”.
It would have been the first new Crysis game since 2013, not counting the remastered trilogy. But with today’s news that the game is on ice for the foreseeable future, it’s unclear who was laid off or when, if at all, Crytek will return to the series.
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