Crytek – The plot thickens

Crytek – The plot thickens

 

The Turkish Prime Minister has announced that Crytek will be making a $500 million dollar investment in the country. This news comes one week after the company announced the closure of 5 studios, including Crytek Istanbul after financial difficulties that have left developers unpaid for several months. 

with Crytek having no other Studios in Turkey and their recent financial turmoil it seems like a strange time for them to announce major investments in any country, which has left many to assume that the Turkish government will be bailing out the video game developer to save Crytek Istanbul and secure future investment from the company. 

All this news is in direct contrast to Crytek’s recent announcements which states that they would be closing their studios in Hungary, Bulgaria, South Korea, China and Turkey, with their future efforts being focused on Crytek Kiev and their headquarters in Frankfurt. Right now it looks like the company will be selling their other studios to other publishers, with hopes to secure jobs for their existing developers as they transition to different management. 

Turkey’s Prime minister did not mention Crytek on name, but it did heavily focus on gaming and a leading gaming company that was founded by three brothers of Turkish descent, which is a description that fits Crytek perfectly.  

 

(Will the Turkish government be the Hero Crytek Istanbul needs?) 

 

While Crytek was able to get past previous financial issues by selling Crytek UK to Deep Silver, it looks like the company is now back in the red, finding it difficult to pay developers in all of Crytek’s divisions due to the simple fact that the company has failed to make a profit for several years. 

Crytek has had some recent successes licencing their CryEngine game engine for use in Amazon’s Lumberyard game engine and in Film Engine, a movie production will which allows directors to see rendered scenes in real-time. Now it seems that these successes have not generated enough revenue for Crytek to continue running smoothly. 

Below is a statement from Crytek’s Co-Founder and Managing Director Avni Yerli, who states that Crytek wants to focus on its core strengths, which is the development of game technology, with plans to make the company sustainable moving forward.  

 

   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.

 

At this time Crytek has not confirmed their Investment plans for Turkey, though it seems unlikely that they are funding this investment on their own. At the same time, it has not been confirmed that Turkey themselves will be investing in Crytek for increased local investment in Turkey’s technology sector. Hopefully, we will learn more about this in the future, though right now several false reports of this news are circulating online. 

 

You can join the discussion on Crytek’s Turkish investment plans on the OC3D Forums.