Post by JaracRassen on Jul 14, 2014 11:52:36 GMT -5
Crytek Shanghai works on the company's free-to-play mobile games, offers CryEngine tech support to licensees and operates free-to-play shooter Warface in China. Around 30 people currently work there. About 10 have left because of the financial pains.
So, why is Crytek in trouble?
Most people connected with the company Eurogamer spoke with said it had expanded too fast and in the wrong areas.
G-Face, a sort of Facebook meets Steam web-based games-as-service platform, hasn't worked out.
Crytek signed a deal with China's biggest online publisher, Tencent, to operate Warface in China, but it has flopped everywhere except Russia.
Attempts to break into the free-to-play market have largely failed. Free-to-play strategy card game The Collectables has been downloaded over half a million times but does not generate significant revenue, one source said.
Its CryEngine is also suffering, apparently, in the face of the success of Unity and Epic's Unreal Engine.
One source said Crytek had simply become too big, with between 900 and 950 staff spread across multiple studios around the world. The huge overhead generated by such expansion meant that the collapsed Ryse 2 deal had an immediate and wide-ranging effect.
The question now is, can Crytek sort itself out? "Maybe Crytek will be sold, not sure," one source said.
So, why is Crytek in trouble?
Most people connected with the company Eurogamer spoke with said it had expanded too fast and in the wrong areas.
G-Face, a sort of Facebook meets Steam web-based games-as-service platform, hasn't worked out.
Crytek signed a deal with China's biggest online publisher, Tencent, to operate Warface in China, but it has flopped everywhere except Russia.
Attempts to break into the free-to-play market have largely failed. Free-to-play strategy card game The Collectables has been downloaded over half a million times but does not generate significant revenue, one source said.
Its CryEngine is also suffering, apparently, in the face of the success of Unity and Epic's Unreal Engine.
One source said Crytek had simply become too big, with between 900 and 950 staff spread across multiple studios around the world. The huge overhead generated by such expansion meant that the collapsed Ryse 2 deal had an immediate and wide-ranging effect.
The question now is, can Crytek sort itself out? "Maybe Crytek will be sold, not sure," one source said.