14 DAY TRIAL // Independent game developer Crytek hopes that its upcoming high-quality games will improve its reputation and ensure that it can continue to make a profit after the rocky financial problems that have plagued it in recent months.
Crytek is one of the biggest independent game developers out there, partnering with plenty of publishers for different titles, including Far Cry or the Crysis first-person shooters.
In recent years, the company bragged about a transition towards the free-to-play market, thanks to titles like Warface, but still worked on regular full-price games, such as Homefront: The Revolution or last year's Ryse: Son of Rome.
Unfortunately, this balance act didn't work out all that great and the company ran out of liquid funds in recent months, leading to unpaid employees, departures, and plenty of problems.
Ultimately, the studio secured funding and returned to normal, and according to co-founder Avni Yerli, the future plans are looking quite good.
He has talked with MCV and attributed the recent problems to the free-to-play transition, as it had some unforeseen challenges that were pretty hard to overcome.
"The transition to an online company took much more time than we had anticipated," Yerli says. "This was the biggest cause of the problems. It took longer and cost more than we had anticipated. We now have a framework and a foundation where we can prioritise and move forward with our business plans for 2014 and 15."
However, Yerli also admits that the recent issues have affected Crytek's reputation, both with actual developers that might want to work with the studio and with fans who might want to try out or even buy its future products.
In order to change this perception, the studio is going to focus on its core skills of delivering high-quality games. Achieving this is the only way people will change their mind and see Crytek in a better light.
"I am sure it has damaged our reputation, but for Crytek it is about focusing on our core competency, which is making really high quality games. When we deliver those games we will hopefully be back on track, and people will see Crytek in the way that it deserves to be seen."
Crytek is currently focusing on its existing Warface free-to-play shooter and on upcoming projects like Arena of Fate or Hunt, which are set to appear in the next 12 months. Its other major project, Homefront: The Revolution, was sold to publisher Deep Silver, alongside the actual Crytek UK development team.