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Crytek haven't paid their employees in Bulgaria in 3 months

B

Bollocks

Member
Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13140938
Unconfirmed, but I guess with all the past reports there is a good chance this is legit.

This was just posted on the popular news.ycombinator.com board by user "cryteksofia" which was registered 30min ago.


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.
Click to expand...

Again, slight chance this is fake, I can't confirm it, just thought I would share it.
 
Y

Yudoken

Member
There were rumours about this and now it looks like it's true.
On reddit there was a claim that Crysis didn't pay their staff and more and more sources claim that in the last few months.
It's really sad what they've become. =/

I remember how proud I was when I've read what Far Cry and especially Crysis 1 was globally recognised as one of the finest fps.
The technology of Crysis 1 is still incredible to this day.

For me personally they become mote and more uninteresting with the launch of Crysis 2.
A major disappointment what could've been if they've stayed on pc but sadly they decided to do console versions too. Financially that was the right decision but I still was disappointed when I saw how much Crysis 2 was a step back technically.
 
O

OrbitalBeard

Member
I feel as if I read stories similar to this regarding Crytek a few times every year. How on earth are they still in business. They're like the K-Mart of the gaming industry.
 
C

Chubzdoomer

Banned
It's sad how far Crytek has fallen since the original Far Cry and Crysis. Back then, they were the shit.

Another EA casualty, perhaps? Not that they aren't at least partially responsible for their fate... after all, they haven't worked with EA in quite some time.
 
T

theWB27

Member
Chubzdoomer said:
It's sad how far Crytek has fallen since the original Far Cry and Crysis. Back then, they were the shit.

Another EA casualty, perhaps? Not that they aren't at least partially responsible for their fate... after all, they haven't worked with EA in quite some time.
Click to expand...

EA were a partner. Don't see how they have anything to do with what's going on with Crytek. At all.
 
A

Akuun

Looking for meaning in GAF
That's incredibly depressing.

...I suppose this also means that Star Citizen is about to get a whole lot more staff on their hands.
 
F

fronn

Member
Why would people stay... I realize there's probably extenuating circumstances for a lot of people (finding another job is not always the easiest, especially when you aren't in the epicenter of the industry).

At this point the chances of them getting paid at all is nearly zero.

Super disappointing and if this ends up true (which it's sounding like it could be true, based on several reports of this now over the last couple months), I think Crytek doesn't deserves to be supported at all after doing that. You find capital or furlough these people - be honest with them.
 
I

infinityBCRT

Member
Chubzdoomer said:
It's sad how far Crytek has fallen since the original Far Cry and Crysis. Back then, they were the shit.

Another EA casualty, perhaps? Not that they aren't at least partially responsible for their fate... after all, they haven't worked with EA in quite some time.
Click to expand...

IMO they turned around Crysis 3 way too early (just under 2 years). It should've been a launch title for next-gen. Given how much slim pickings there were at PS4/XB1 launch, it would've sold gangbusters IMO.
 
C

CertifiedFP

Member
infinityBCRT said:
IMO they turned around Crysis 3 way too early (just under 2 years). It should've been a launch title for next-gen. Given how much slim pickings there were at PS4/XB1 launch, it would've sold gangbusters IMO.
Click to expand...

Crysis 3 had far worse problems going for it that holding off for 8th Gen launch wouldn't have been able to save.

Chiefly, Crysis 2 burnt out Crysis 1 fans that were disappointed by all the changes (Especially the De-Battlefieldized, and instead CoDized multiplayer), whilst it failed to impress console gamers who had no interest in the sequel. Crysis 3's doom was Crysis 2's mediocrity.

Shame I never got to experience Crysis multiplayer properly. When it was still alive my PC was too weak, and by the time I had a true gaming PC, GameSpy's new owners decided to repurpose their master-servers for mobile garbage.
 
M

Mr. Tibbs

Member
I can't believe this is happening again. I feel so sorry for the employees. Does Crytek have anything big in the works? They're licencing their tech for Prey and Star Citizen; is HUNT still in the works?

Crytek Black Sea's MOBA, Arena of Fate, was announced shortly after their first public troubled period back in 2014, but apparently its creative director left in September.
 
S

Servbot24

Banned
3 months without pay? That's horrible. If I was one of those employees I'd be spending my work day sending out resumes.
 
E

Evolution of Metal

Member
Akuun said:
That's incredibly depressing.

...I suppose this also means that Star Citizen is about to get a whole lot more staff on their hands.
Click to expand...

Sofia studio is not the type of staff that should work on a top tier game. They cobbled an unimaginative MOBA clone...

Crytek is collapsing, but it is not like we are losing something valuable in this specific instance.
 
X

Xadjim

Banned
Not sure about bulgaria but I had a few insider information the last time someone was saying this. People get paid at crytek, maybe a few days late but as far as I know, they get their payment quick enough.
 
X

xptoxyz

Member
Despite whatever history the company has, there should be "rumor" somewhere in the title. And has the source post been deleted? Bad link?
 
R

Rodney McKay

Member
CertifiedFP said:
Chiefly, Crysis 2 burnt out Crysis 1 fans that were disappointed by all the changes (Especially the De-Battlefieldized, and instead CoDized multiplayer), whilst it failed to impress console gamers who had no interest in the sequel. Crysis 3's doom was Crysis 2's mediocrity.
Click to expand...

The funny thing is that for me, I actually liked PLAYING the single player of Crysis 2 better than the first game. It felt like a Halo game with the open combat areas that you could tackle in a variety of different ways. It felt like a smart refinement on the pure openness of the first game (which I know fan of the first game missed in 2).

But I do agree that Crysis 2 did kill my interest in the series, and mainly because of the story. Crysis 1 had a really simple story, but Crysis 2 just went up its own butt trying to expand the mythology of the world. Making a giant conspiracy around the aliens, turning the exosuit into some kind of alien/earth-tech super weapon, etc. It was just so dumb that I didn't care at all about returning for Crysis 3.
 
Outrun

Outrun

Member
Evolution of Metal said:
Sofia studio is not the type of staff that should work on a top tier game. They cobbled an unimaginative MOBA clone...

Crytek is collapsing, but it is not like we are losing something valuable in this specific instance.
Click to expand...

SC is top tier?

Anyone losing a job is devastating for them.
 
S

Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew

Banned
Why are people still sitting there working their ass off? Look for another job, hire a lawyer who will go after them to collect the money your owed, and work in a more productive environment.

Crytek has fallen very far from the tree.
 
Z

Zukkoyaki

Member
How on earth is Crytek still in business? I'm shocked they haven't either gone bankrupted or been bought out and restructured by somebody.
 
G

Gitaroo

Member
guess star citizen dev can buy out their engine and engineers for future development, or is there any mega publisher that doesn't have their own engine yet? SE? Since they are having so much trouble with luminous and still has to use UE4, buy out crytek they will have open world capable engine on the get to. I am a huge fan of farcry 1 and crysis 1 but they don't seems to know how to make good games anymore.
 
H

heyf00L

Member
After Crysis, they publicly said they were moving to console because of PC piracy, and that they'd make a lot more money on console. However true that might be, PC gamers took it as an insult. That's just bad PR.

It turned out to not be true anyway. They had to make a dumbed-down version of Crysis, which neither console nor PC players enjoyed and ended up selling less across PC, Xbox, and PS3 than Crysis 1 did on PC alone.
 
E

Evolution of Metal

Member
Outrun said:
SC is top tier?

Anyone losing a job is devastating for them.
Click to expand...

SC requires high-quality art, assets, animations and effects. The game is so much more complicated and elaborate than a LoL clone.

Yes, SC requires game developers who can build complex game systems and realistic assets. There aren't many projects which are as complicated as SC right now.

I played Arena of Fate, it wasn't a complete garbage but nobody in their right mind would choose it over other options. People losing jobs is never good, but perhaps some of them are going to join better projects making gaming better instead of working on the dead-end one.
 
M

MaLDo

Member
heyf00L said:
After Crysis, they publicly said they were moving to console because of PC piracy, and that they'd make a lot more money on console. However true that might be, PC gamers took it as an insult. That's just bad PR.

It turned out to not be true anyway. They had to make a dumbed-down version of Crysis, which neither console nor PC players enjoyed and ended up selling less across PC, Xbox, and PS3 than Crysis 1 did on PC alone.
Click to expand...

This.


Looking back, I dodged a dangerous bullet.
 
P

Protome

Member
And history repeats itself.
It's insane that Crytek does this over and over and keeps getting away with it.

Literally every year or two towards the end of the year stories come out about them not paying employees at one or more of their studios.
 
E

Evolution of Metal

Member
Protome said:
And history repeats itself.
It's insane that Crytek does this over and over and keeps getting away with it.

Literally every year or two towards the end of the year stories come out about them not paying employees at one or more of their studios.
Click to expand...

They probably find a way to pay their debts from time to time. Contracts, MS, CIG, Amazon all brought a lot of revenue over the recent years.
 
D

darscot

Member
I don't know anything about this situation, but I have been directly involved in this kind of shit. In my situation the big company contracts or outsources work to lost cost studios, in places like this. Its the shady fucks that run the low cost studios that fuck over their workers and the big company has paid the bill. I've seen this first hand. No idea if it happened here but it wouldn't surprise me.
 
A

Archaix

Drunky McMurder
Xadjim said:
Not sure about bulgaria but I had a few insider information the last time someone was saying this. People get paid at crytek, maybe a few days late but as far as I know, they get their payment quick enough.
Click to expand...


If it's a few days late, it is 100% not quick enough.
 
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