Crytek is the latest game developer in a seemingly unending list that is laying off a substantial portion (around fifteen percent) of its workforce. The announcement came this morning with the following message shared on X:
Like so many of our peers, we aren't immune to the complex, unfavorable market dynamics that have hit our industry these past several years. It pains us greatly to share today that we must lay off an estimated 15% of our around 400 employees. The layoffs affect development teams and shared services. This has not been an easy decision to make, as we deeply appreciate the hard work of our talented teams. After putting the development of the next Crysis game on hold in Q3 2024, we have been trying to shift developers over to Hunt: Showdown 1896.
While Hunt: Showdown 1896 is still growing, Crytek cannot continue as before and remain financially sustainable. Even after ongoing efforts to reduce costs and cut operating expenses, we have determined that layoffs are inevitable to move forward. Crytek will offer affected employees severance packages and career assistance services.
We firmly believe in the future of Crytek. With Hunt: Showdown 1896, we have a very strong gaming service and remain fully committed to its operation. We will continue to expand and evolve Hunt: Showdown 1896 with great content and drive our strategy for our engine CRYENGINE.
Unfortunately, it doesn't look like a new Crysis will be in the cards for several years. On the other hand, Hunt: Showdown fans will be happy to know the horror-themed first-person extraction shooter game continues to thrive following the big 1896 update, which brought several technical improvements, such as DirectX 12 support, NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR support, HDR support, multi-bounce global illumination, and a full 3D audio pipeline. The game also joined Xbox Game Pass (on consoles) in December, opening up to a larger audience.
