14 DAY TRIAL // Crytek's financial health has recently been the subject of various rumors, claiming the departure of unpaid workers and some key developers, and the company has finally issued a statement addressing their current situation.
"Having already given an update to staff across all our studios, we are now in a position to share more details with members of the press and public. Internally, we have acknowledged that the flow of information to employees has not been as good as it should have, however we hope you understand that communicating details of our plans publicly has not always been possible," the statement starts.
Earlier published reports from anonymous sources within Crytek mentioned missed payroll, unpaid employees fleeing the boat, and key staff members simply walking out the door, which led to many questioning the future of Crytek's UK's current project, Homefront: The Revolution.
"Our evolution from a development studio to an Online-Publisher has required us to refocus our strategies. These challenges go along with an increased demand for capital which we have secured. We can now concentrate on the long term strategic direction of Crytek and our core competencies," Crytek informs.
Crytek has assured gamers that it still intends to ship Homefront: The Revolution, which the company will co-publish with Deep Silver sometime in 2015, and that it is now moving away from the traditional development paradigm, and veering toward self-published free-to-play games like Warface.
"We can now concentrate on the long term strategic direction of Crytek and our core competencies. We kindly ask for your understanding, that we won't be communicating further details about our developments and progress. Ultimately, with our organization, capitalization, portfolio and technologies we have now laid the foundations for securing Crytek's future - not just in the short term, but also long term," the statements concludes.
It's definitely a welcome bit of news for employees fearing that they might never get what they're owed and for fans that were looking forward to Homefront 2. Among the high-profile employees who left Crytek UK are studio head Karl Hilton and Homefront director Hasit Zala, and together with the rumors of missed and delayed paychecks, their departure did not bode well for the future of the game.
It's unclear how many people have permanently left Crytek UK and whether any of them will return now that the studio has finally paid their employees, but it might be tough to recover from the damage.
