Crytek bankruptcy watch thread

[Azrael the cat]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-07-30-deep-silver-parent-company-buys-homefront-from-crytek

How can you have a surname like Koch, found a company called Koch Media, and not invest any of your money into being a porn mogul?

 

[Bubbles]

Because "Koch" isn't pronounced like that in German. Also, it means "cook".

 

[Infinitron]

Also, they don't have anything to do with the Kochs from the United States (lots of librul Americans get butthurt whenever they read about Deep Silver until they figure that out)

 

[Azrael the cat]

Thing is, the market analysts are always half right when they say the future is in console, then Facebook games, then android etc. They just miss the important half - that the skills and corporate culture needed for success in AAA gaming industry is not the same as that which is needed for success in the 'copyright trolling, shakedown-purchasing of IPs, market dozens of clones under different names through rapidly discarded subsidiary enterprises, spend nothing on tech, research or development so you can jump to the next fad at minimal cost' industry.

Zynga has some impressive skillsets, but none of them involve making games (in fact, that's one of their skill-sets - copying existing games and copyright-trolling the original creators into bankruptcy if they don't sell Zynga their IP for a pittance). They're closer to that of a corporate raid-and-downsize enterprise than a game development company.

 

[Durandal]

If only had VR been fully popularized in the Age of Incline.
Dizzying enviroments for Descent, fully immersive enviroments in Arx Fatalis, feeling like a true operator in SWAT 4, feeling like a true pilot in MechWarrior, being amazed by the stars in space sims, being even further immersed in Thief.....
Yet now all we get is pre-baked 'cinematic experiences' like Robinson and casual mech games like RIGS, where you are literally in a rollercoaster ride.
Despite all the mini-game maker shit, why is nobody making a 'VR Cinematic Experience Maker' game yet? People could even recreate 9/11 for people to experience it in first-person.

 

[Telengard]

It would end with everyone getting sick from not knowing what they're doing, ending in a potential PR and medical suit nightmare. It would be funny, though.

 

[Astral Rag]

Crytek's virtual reality game Dinosaur Island is on Steam now - and it's a free download.
By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 18/11/2015


The Oculus Rift tech demo begins with you as a baby dinosaur in a nest. You're then free to explore the jungle environment, interact with eggs and a dragonfly, before meeting a huge dinosaur. The video, below, gives you an idea of what it's about.

Be warned: the system requirements are pretty steep:

Minimum:

OS: Windows 7, 8 or 10 (64bit)
Processor: Intel Core i7-2600K CPU @3.40GHz
Memory: 16 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 980 or AMD Radeon R9 290
DirectX: Version 11
Hard Drive: 2 GB available space

You also need an Oculus Rift DK2 to run it.

Crytek said the system requirements are such because, as a virtual reality game, Back to Dinosaur Island requires a high frame-rate to guarantee a comfortable experience (Crytek's aiming for 75 frames-per-second rendered twice for an "optimal experience"). If you run it on weaker hardware, you'll have lower frame-rates, and thus a poorer experience.

 

[DawnrazorDCLXVI]

Pity. I've always thought Cryware is worth a huge, open ended RPG. I hope they continue their engine development, at least.

Does anyone want to fill me in on how a small European developer suddenly has multiple branches? I always assume Crytek internally developed Far Cry, and had one division. Their Cryengine was a remarkable feat from out of Europe, but Far Cry came from nowhere, now they are a chain dev? Enlighten me.

 

[Doktor Best]

Well its fuckcheap to employ developers and programmers in foreign countries, especially in eastern europe. In germany they worked hard on getting a certain reputation of exploiting employees, and still they underperformed on the last games, so they simply cut back extremely on their staff in germany and outsourced their workload.

 

[DawnrazorDCLXVI]

Well its fuckcheap to employ developers and programmers in foreign countries, especially in eastern europe. In germany they worked hard on getting a certain reputation of exploiting employees, and still they underperformed on the last games, so they simply cut back extremely on their staff in germany and outsourced their workload.

No wonder they went F2P. Most major devs have their selling point. The bar starts pretty low.

I actually hope Kickstarter puts them out of business, just so innovation in gaming can continue. Not likely, though.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12853270

What a joke of a company Crytek has become.

 

[racofer]

Who would have thought that making benchmarks for a living wasn't a good investment.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Those Yerli bros just completely lack any sense of business acumen, let alone common sense. Expanding and acquiring companies abroad like crazy but hardly ever ship anything was a recipe for disaster. I already knew after they shipped Crysis that they were going down the wrong path.

Wonder what's gonna happen to the CryEngine though.

 

[toro]

Those Yerli bros just completely lack any sense of business acumen, let alone common sense. Expanding and acquiring companies abroad like crazy but hardly ever ship anything was a recipe for disaster. I already knew after they shipped Crysis that they were going down the wrong path.

Wonder what's gonna happen to the CryEngine though.

Amazon something something.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Those Yerli bros just completely lack any sense of business acumen, let alone common sense. Expanding and acquiring companies abroad like crazy but hardly ever ship anything was a recipe for disaster. I already knew after they shipped Crysis that they were going down the wrong path.

Wonder what's gonna happen to the CryEngine though.

Amazon something something.

You mean Lumberyard? That's a CryEngine branch, and I'm not sure what the license agreement with Crytek was, but Amazon has full control and the source code of Lumberyard and a Crytek demise wouldn't affect them.

 

[toro]

Those Yerli bros just completely lack any sense of business acumen, let alone common sense. Expanding and acquiring companies abroad like crazy but hardly ever ship anything was a recipe for disaster. I already knew after they shipped Crysis that they were going down the wrong path.

Wonder what's gonna happen to the CryEngine though.

Amazon something something.

You mean Lumberyard? That's a CryEngine branch, and I'm not sure what the license agreement with Crytek was, but Amazon has full control and the source code of Lumberyard and a Crytek demise wouldn't affect them.

Lumberyard is 99.8% stock CRYENGINE 3.8 tech. They removed Scaleform and replaced it with some basic UI thingie. The stock netcode is gone and replaced with something else. Lumberjack is also bound into Amazon Cloud thingie.
Make sure you read Amazon's Terms of Service BEFORE you start using it. Amazon is even covered against a zombie invasion in there. Well at least legally (not that that would do much good).

Yeah. The engine will probably be bought by somebody if Crytek hits the ground.

Anyway, that engine was worth $50+ millions in 2014. Which probably was spent on booze and shit.

 

[Morkar Left]

Probably will be bought by Chris Roberts

 

[Perkel]

What a joke of a company Crytek has become.

It was joke after they were done with Crysis 1.
I was never huge fan of Crysis 1 (i liked Far Cry better) but at least it provided something different.

AAAAnnndddd then they flushed out everything and they tried to make standard shooters.

 

[Burning Bridges]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12853270

What a joke of a company Crytek has become.

Normally if a company misses 3 months paying employees it's usual practice in Germany that one of the employee or his lawyer files insolvency for the company. I know because I have been in such a situation many years ago, we were for a short time one of the hottest irons in 3d scanning software in 2000-2001 but after the fourth month of not getting paid someone went to the Amtsgericht (a court) and one week later no one appeared to work. There is also a nice legal term for that: "Insolvenzverschleppung" = "delay in filing for insolvency", which is considered criminal. It had consequences for the CEO of that said company, and though he did not go to jail, he could not found another company for 7 years (but I know that his wife did eventually).

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

More scumbaggery from Crytek:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13140938

Crytek haven't paid their employees in Bulgaria in 3 months and all workers in that office are currently owed 3 full salaries. The company is not looking to pay these salaries any time soon and have spent the last few months lying about the availability of this money in order to keep as many employees as possible.
The Yerli brothers (Avni, Cevat and Faruk) are now looking at the second delay in the last 6 months (after finishing up a delay of 2 months just before the current one) and the third payment delay in the last two years.

The former director of the Sofia studio, Vesselin Handjiev, left several months ago and the studio is entirely at the mercy of Crytek Frankfurt's leadership, which has proved to be unsuccessful in stemming the current bleeding for 6 months.

Anyone who has an offer or is otherwise considering joining Crytek is advised to steer their ship elsewhere, as the current situation is rumored to apply to all studios within the company, even after the closure and selling off of several of the Crytek studios around the world.

Austerity for everyone.

 

[A horse of course]

This wouldn't have happened if those nasty PC gamers hadn't pirated Crysis

 

[Burning Bridges]

After their "our games will not be on PC" announcement they made games on PC and then they were not making them again. I never could take this company serious after this. Seems like they wanted to take consoles into their bed and make babies with them.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

This wouldn't have happened if those nasty PC gamers hadn't pirated Crysis

This wouldn't have happened if those lazy and shortsighted Yerli brothers hadn't been swayed into the Call of Duty craze.

 

[Turtle-Zone 3000]

This wouldn't have happened if those lazy and shortsighted Yerli brothers hadn't been swayed into the Call of Duty craze.

They're were better off doing waifu companion simulators?
http://www.dsogaming.com/news/cryte...ooked-similar-to-naughty-dogs-the-last-of-us/

I remember how they whinged in an interview that they were beaten to the punch by the Last of Us.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

I'd have played that waifu escort sim over the insipid F2P and VR shit that followed, yes.

As a developer, Crytek has become irrelevant. Same with Epic Games. Nice engines tho.