14 DAY TRIAL // The bad situation at Homefront: The Revolution developer Crytek UK has been a rumor circulating on the Internet for quite a while, and now it seems that the studio has just received another blow, in the form of Game Director Hasit Zala leaving the company.
The evidence that there is something amiss at Crytek UK is mounting, and Crytek has not been very forthcoming about the entire affair. Although the company has denied the reports that the Crytek UK staff hasn't been paid in months, it has provided no official response to the mounting evidence that its employees are starting to leave en masse.
The news that Homefront's game director Hasit Zala has left the company comes from Kotaku, that also claims that inside sources corroborate the rumors that everything is continuing on a downwards spiral.
Hasit Zala began his carrier back in 1999, at Free Radical Design, and stayed there until the studio was acquired by Crytek, in 2009. He was in charge of the development of the multiplayer modes for both Crysis 2 and Crysis 3, and has now been appointed to the position of Game Director on Homefront: The Revolution, announced at E3 2014 in June, the only known project that Crytek UK was working on.
Crytek UK Development Manager Ben Harris also left the studio earlier this month, and as much as 100 other people have also reportedly filed a formal grievance against the company over unpaid wages, leaving the company's future uncertain, especially given the lack of upper management and the failure of the Crytek mothership to address the constant rumblings.
Ben Harris is now employed as solutions manager at Switch Concepts, which is unclear whether his departure was a direct consequence of the alleged bad situation at Crytek UK or merely a personal choice.
Studio head Karl Hilton also joined the senior management exodus two weeks ago, when he confirmed that he was leaving his role, although he mentioned that he planned to stay within the company.
Given the numerous reports that have been popping up over the last few weeks, and both Crytek and publisher Deep Silver's refusal to offer any official comment on the matter, the future of Homefront: The Revolution looks bleak.
The open-world first-person shooter was slated for a 2015 release for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with the action taking place in 2029, four years after the Greater Korean Republic's invasion of the United States, and two years after the events of 2011's Homefront.