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[enzo_gt]

I sort of wondered how they kept themselves afloat with all they've been doing TBH.

 

[MutonCommander]

I never liked Crytek games. They always value graphical effects above gameplay.

Not always. Far Cry and Crysis are amazing games.

 

[Instro]

Terribly managed company, and they didn't have the talent or IPs to go whole hog on consoles like they did.

 

[maniac-kun]

Not always. Far Cry and Crysis are amazing games.

One game from 2004 and one from 2007 is not enough. And the gameplay part of Crysis got worse with each installment while the graphics got better and better.

 

[funkystudent]

Not always. Far Cry and Crysis are amazing games for the first 3 hours before everything went wrong.

Fixed for accuracy.


That early part of crysis is still great though. Its a shame they never took the series down that road more but those games completely fall apart once you are fighting aliens / mutants

 

[LordBaztion]

So, I suppose MS is one of those vultures waiting things to get worse to het the best deal from the Ryse IP. Also, I suppose, if the development of Ryse was troublesome it is because of the shift on the develppment focus from kinect, which I suppose was MS' decision. It seems it was a bad deal for both parties.

 

[whitemex88]

Damn. Never gonna see that homefront 2

 

[GHG]

This is what they get for trying to become too big too quickly and forgetting the kind of games that made them money in the 1st place. All their games since the 1st Crysis have been of questionable quality.

 

[GameAddict411]

They can brag about their advance rendering engine all theyvwant, but in reality they haven't made a great game since the original far cry.

 

[Grisby]

Didn't know they were in that rough of a spot.

 

[burgerdog]

Maybe they want to keep Ryse to release Ryseface f2p / expansion. Kidding aside, I hope they make it through.

 

[finley83]

That early part of crysis is still great though. Its a shame they never took the series down that road more but those games completely fall apart once you are fighting aliens / mutants

I only finished Crysis 1 yesterday but it seemed to me the aliens only took up a relatively small portion of the game. In all honesty it didn't seem as bad as many made it out to be.

 

[chubigans]

Can't say I'm really shocked or saddened by the idea of Crytek going under.

It's always sad to see nearly 800 people lose their jobs, regardless of what you think of the company's output.

 

[fader]

Fixed for accuracy.


That early part of crysis is still great though. Its a shame they never took the series down that road more but those games completely fall apart once you are fighting aliens / mutants

but at least the game looked great.

 

[sleepykyo]

Wait.... Are you really blaming this on console development? Seriously?

well they went from being able to sell a benchmark to being unable to clone cod so I guess I can see it. Despite being tech gods they were unable to work within fixed confines. Both crytek and ninja theory can't resist trying to be prettier than their peers and their game play suffers unless they can command higher specs than their peers to compensate.

 

[Hip Hop]

Chasing that COD Cow has/had major repercussions. I imagine Ryse being completely remade didn't help either. Homefront should do well though. Open world + Co-op is a good combo.

I'd say the opposite about Homefront 2 doing well. The biggest draw of the original was the competitive multiplayer. It will be hard for them right out the gate just because of this. It's like COD coming out with a co-op only game. A big mistake.

I believe it's just another sign of the troubles with Crytek as to why there is no multiplayer.

(Too big of a budget? not enough time,? a mishandled vision of the title with development restarts?)

 

[MegalomaniacWR]

I read the latest published financial report from Crytek GmbH which also serves as the parent for all sub companies. It came out in April 2014 and it was about 2012 mainly and also covering early events from 2013. Its horrible. They have a negative cash flow, more than 50 MEUR dept, the auditor gave a limited endorsement and there were statements about bank agreements that if the bank wants they can take all their income.

Under that circumstances it looks crazy that Koch Media/Deep Silver gave them money for Homefront 2 unless they want to put them in the best position to take them over like they did with THQ (they signed guarantee agreements for Saints Row and Metro for distribution in Europe Mid 2012 so before THQ was bankrupt).

Wargaming could make sense but I am not sure if they want to take on their liabilities which is even for them quite a lot. Turning it around themselves seems also hard - they would really need to have a runaway hit which seems hard as F2P is totally crowded and it seems no one of the big guys wants to work with them (while Crysis 2 did well, Crysis 3 didnt do that good for EA). Also it seems that Cry is going towards core F2P games in niche segments. I am not sure if that works.

 

[The Inventor]

I could hardly imagine the situation was this bad, ever. Not coming from Crytek.

 

[endresults]

Such painfully generic games. I could run Crysis 3 on ultra if I wanted to but I don't want to play a Crysis game ever again no matter how good it looks.

It sounds like the employees know what's up and I hope they land on their feet somewhere they can make some real games.

I hope they aren't throwing too much into Homefront because that game will be $14.99 within three months no matter how good it is. It has the scarlet letter.

 

[kmg90]

I would play Warface more on PC if it actually added controller support (one would think it would have controller support with it being released available one Xbox 360 but nope!)

Gforce has to be one of the worst game services I've used in the past 6-8 years.

 

[Kazuma Kiryu]

I'm blaming it on Crytek abandoning what put them on the radar while chasing whatever is en vogue at the time and outputting mediocre games in the process.

I'd argue Crytek have always put out relatively mediocre games, average at best, but I already know I'm going to be crucified by the Crysis defense force.

 

[Nethaniah]

I'd argue Crytek have always put out relatively mediocre games, average at best, but I already know I'm going to be crucified by the Crysis defense force.

It did things better than most other shooters at the time and is remembered fondly because of that, it has flaws but those flaws don't make it a bad game by any means.

 

[Cave Johnson]

Wait.... Are you really blaming this on console development? Seriously?

It's quite obvious that Far Cry, Crysis and Warhead are far better received on PC than on consoles. The flexible, ever-evolving nature of the PC gave them more headway into delivering the games they want and CAN make.

The "console" generation is far different: Not only did they have to work on PC but they have to build teams "optimizing" and working their tech on 2 other machines, which would build up in budget overtime while receiving LESS sales than in was on PC alone. Going by their track-record on PC, this could be established as the "what-if" had they continued in that path.

So clearly their golden goose's eggs doesn't have the push power it once had, and any other IP stemmed from their studio are mediocre in output and sales reception. Both are bad for the future of prospective publishers or buyout. A clear example of a studio that got too big, too fast and (like the AAA-failed studios before it) is now paying that price.

 

[fred]

Over 800 people and no one is working on this?

Idiots...

This This This This This ^^^^^^^

All they need to do is approach one of the three platform holders and get TimeSplitters 4 moneyhatted as a console exclusive.

Same goes for Ubisoft and Beyond Good & Evil 2 as well.

 

[Tagg9]

I don't understand how they ballooned up to ~800 employees. Where did they get the money to pay that many people?!

 

[VisceralBowl]

I don't understand how they ballooned up to ~800 employees. Where did they get the money to pay that many people?!

Outside contracts for CryEngine. Military sims, Architecture, etc.

 

[Steverulez]

That Ryse 2 info is very disappointing as I loved the first and was hoping they would have moved into development of the second :/
Also, in regards to Ryse's sales, Phil Spencer said it sold "really well" to Metro and you'd have to think releasing a new AAA IP (budget wise) was never probably going to be a huge seller at launch anyway, surely expecting it to have good sales up front then a decent tail, get the IP out there then make a sequel that can reach a higher install base would have been more reasonable expectations?

 

[R3TRODYCE]

That Ryse 2 info is very disappointing as I loved the first and was hoping they would have moved into development of the second :/

Agreed.

 

[simplythebest]

I guess the curse of Homefront Might actually be real.

Hopefully Crytek can pull through this

 

[Miles Quaritch]

That Ryse 2 info is very disappointing as I loved the first and was hoping they would have moved into development of the second :/
Also, in regards to Ryse's sales, Phil Spencer said it sold "really well" to Metro and you'd have to think releasing a new AAA IP (budget wise) was never probably going to be a huge seller at launch anyway, surely expecting it to have good sales up front then a decent tail, get the IP out there then make a sequel that can reach a higher install base would have been more reasonable expectations?

I'm sure MS will get get the IP one way or another.

Still, it would he disappointing if Crytek didn't develop the sequel, they did a surprisingly decent job with the first.

 

[flaxknuckles]

Fixed for accuracy.


That early part of crysis is still great though. Its a shame they never took the series down that road more but those games completely fall apart once you are fighting aliens / mutants

They just don't fucking get it. I don't want to fight any goddamn speechless bland ass aliens Crytek! Crysis 1 only had them around the end so it wasn't as bad, but Crysis 2 and 3 gave them the most focus and shitted up the whole experience. That's why I'm excited for Homefront 2, no bitch ass extraterrestrials.

 

[scitek]

I wouldn't really call that a fair comparison. I mean, even back in 2007, CoD was a highly established IP, and Modern Warfare is a multiplatform game. Crysis was a new IP at the time, with much less marketing behind it than CoD. Furthermore, at the time, Crytek was aiming at the PC enthusiast niche, so if they were expecting anything close to MW level of sales, their expectations were highly unrealistic.

I'm not saying they expected that level of sales from Crysis 1, but Crysis 2 saw the series redesigned and refocused as a multiplatform game. I definitely think they were hoping to see similar success.

EDIT: Wasn't the presentation like 90% of the reason Ryse was prasied? I don't know many other developers that could do that as well.

 

[Steverulez]

Were I Crytek I would sell Microsoft the license for Ryse given it's a worthless brand as is

What about it is worthless? Especially as already said, sold well (according to Phil Spencer) and people liked it? The IP has a lot of life in it if they can make a bigger and better sequel and they aren't confined to the time period of the first one anyway, they could easily have each game set somewhere else.

 

[Cosmozone]

Can't say I'm overly sad about it. Teaming with EA or MS were unsympathetic moves, also too graphics and shooter centric.

 

[blakep267]

What about it is worthless? Especially as already said, sold well (according to Phil Spencer) and people liked it? The IP has a lot of life in it if they can make a bigger and better sequel and they aren't confined to the time period of the first one anyway, they could easily have each game set somewhere else.

Ryse is just an easy target for people to hate on even if they haven't played it, just because the metacritic score isn't amazing.

 

[cuyahoga]

What about it is worthless? Especially as already said, sold well (according to Phil Spencer) and people liked it? The IP has a lot of life in it if they can make a bigger and better sequel and they aren't confined to the time period of the first one anyway, they could easily have each game set somewhere else.

Well, I have explicitly heard the first one didn't make back its money hence no interest in a sequel.

 

[King_Moc]

800 employees is crazy for a company with such a low output and with such relatively low selling franchises as them.

 

[Kinyou]

Isn't the new cry engine doing much better than the one before? I mean, this time people are actually using it for their games. Though I guess they're also giving it away for a lower price

 

[Faith]

800 employees is crazy for a company with such a low output and with such relatively low selling franchises as them.

Military contracts and developing awesome tech like Ambient Occlusion and SMAA.

 

[Hawkeye 131]

Well that's unfortunate, as much as I don't like Crytek and consider them to be mid-tier developer anyway a lot of their stuff has been mediocre. Aside from the original Crysis everything they've made since has been pretty forgettable.

Sure Crysis 3 is without a doubt still one of the best looking games on PC (followed closely by Metro: Last Light & Witcher 2) but just like Ryse they both suffer from the same problems. I always got the impression that Crytek were too busy count pixels and particle effects to care about creating innovative, fun and engaging experiences.

 

[FlutterPuffs]

They had a good structure for a gaming franchise with the first Crysis. It was what people wanted, a quasi open-world shooter.

.....then they decided to scrap that and went for a run out of the mill, more linear based shooter with the 2 sequels instead. Crysis 1 probably didn't sell well as they hope it could, and felt the need to build a blockbuster based on COD4 instead, but I really felt if they stick to their guns, they might be a much better AAA studio then they are now.

Imagine a shooter with Skyrim based freedom. I really think it could have been possible if they kept doing what they have done with the first Crysis, and sell as many copies as Skyrim had too. The buying power of the PC Master Race has increased so much since the first Crysis.

Instead now they're a studio with one of the best engines available, and instead might go down thanks to their game development division. Sad really.

 

[Charcoal]

Did anyone not see this coming when they announced their future, financial plans? Deciding to go free to play will/has ended them.

 

[Chobel]

Well, I have explicitly heard the first one didn't make back its money hence no interest in a sequel.

Let me guess, you're an insider?

 

[Duxxy3]

Sell Crysis to EA, Ryse to MS. Finish Homefront 2, and if that sells poorly, dump the games division and stick to the engine.

 

[NullPointer]

That Ryse 2 info is very disappointing as I loved the first and was hoping they would have moved into development of the second :/

This. Ryse was a really big surprise for me.Always thought it looked bad, but maybe "my kind of bad" if you know what I mean. But its actually a really nice package (including the colisseum of course) with real potential. It doesn't surprise me that Crytek would want control over it.

 

[abadguy]

Ryse is just an easy target for people to hate on even if they haven't played it, just because the metacritic score isn't amazing.

Pretty much. I thought it was decent for their first try at a hack n slash. Since they have most of the guys from Vigil i was hoping they could work on a sequel.

By the way wasn't MS interested in buying Crytek at one point?

 

[Kordelle]

Sell Crysis to EA, Ryse to MS. Finish Homefront 2, and if that sells poorly, dump the games division and stick to the engine.

Sounds like a plan.

 

[seg7]

Crytek did the exact same thing id software did, forsake PC gamers thinking console gamers were gonna lap their output up no question.

Hard to know what iD did wrong but i think consoles did very well for Epic Games who at the time had very few engine licenses, fewer that Quake tech.

 

[Steverulez]

Well, I have explicitly heard the first one didn't make back its money hence no interest in a sequel.

Well, it was in development for 7 years and had at least two different versions (Kinect and final version) which were very different and was a AAA new IP released at a console launch as I said.
I'd like to think given those conditions - sure they could have chosen a time to count the costs towards the final version and used that, but it doesn't make sense to decide that its not worth pursuing after 6 months~ with a much smaller install base than you'd get for a sequel that had a smoother and quicker development process and already has an established fan base to sell the sequel too.

Im not suggesting it made money but you can't give up on a new IP like that after one try at launch. And as said, Phil Spencer seemed happy with its sales and reception from gamers, so I hope something is done to move forwards on a sequel.

 

[Lord of Castamere]

I'd say the opposite about Homefront 2 doing well. The biggest draw of the original was the competitive multiplayer. It will be hard for them right out the gate just because of this. It's like COD coming out with a co-op only game. A big mistake.

Only because of how garbage the SP was. Unlike CoD and BF this isn't a franchise with an established format. Clearly they are going to lose some sales from the the Muti market, but there is somewhat of a demand for open world co-op games done well. There is no demand for Competitive Muti FPS's. The market is over saturated we have two mega publishers releasing yearly sequels with a constant stream of DLC. There is no room to co-exist anymore. I'm not expecting this game to break records in any case.