Crytek Halts Crysis 4, Lays Off Up to 60 Employees

Crytek, the renowned game developer behind the acclaimed Crysis series, has announced a significant round of layoffs, impacting 60 of its 400 employees. This decision comes as the company grapples with challenging market conditions that have affected the gaming industry at large.

In a statement released via Twitter, Crytek cited the growth of Hunt: Showdown but acknowledged that the company could not "continue as before and remain financially sustainable." Despite efforts to shift resources from the paused Crysis 4 project to Hunt: Showdown and to reduce operational costs, layoffs became unavoidable, affecting 15% of Crytek's workforce.

The layoffs have impacted staff across various development teams and shared services. Crytek has committed to providing severance packages to those affected by these changes.

Here is the full statement from Crytek founder Avni Yerli:

Like so many of our peers, we aren’t immune to the complex, unfavorable market dynamics that have hit our industry these past several years. It pains me greatly to share today that we must lay off an estimated 15% of our around 400 employees. The layoffs affect development teams and shared services.

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 1896.

While Hunt: Showdown 1896 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.

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.

Last year, it surfaced that Crytek had been working on a battle royale-inspired project codenamed Crysis Next. Early gameplay footage, which leaked on YouTube, showcased third-person shooting in a basic warm-up arena, featuring the series' signature abilities and sound effects. However, Crysis Next was never officially announced and was eventually canceled in favor of Crysis 4, which was revealed in January 2022.

Crysis is a beloved first-person sci-fi shooter franchise celebrated for its stunning graphics, innovative nanosuit capabilities, and its open-ended gameplay. The original Crysis, released in 2007, set a high bar for PC performance, leading to the popular phrase, "But can it run Crysis?" which became a benchmark for evaluating PC hardware.

The most recent main entry in the series, Crysis 3, was released in February 2013. While Crytek has since released remastered versions of the original games, fans have been eagerly awaiting news on Crysis 4 since its announcement and teaser three years ago.