Hi everyone. So today we have Crytek to talk about.
This is a story that's been developing for the last week and I've been following quite
closely
but was waiting really until we saw something fairly definitive that
couldn't be
denied quite so easily. Now what's happened really with Crytek is
as a studio they've kind of expanded very rapidly over the last year
and unfortunately their games, specifically Ryse Son of Rome
has not met financial expectations in the sell-through.
Ryse Son of Rome you might remember is an Xbox One exclusive
so it was always going to have a difficult time.
Essentially not a huge number of units out there at
launch for the install base. Plenty of other games for gamers to choose from
and it didn't quite hit the critics
where they love. Now personally I think Ryse Son of Rome was an absolute legend of a game.
Really, really fantastically well done and whilst it split the fan base
sometimes that's the best thing for a new property. You don't
kind of want everybody to come on side straight away and
have those expectations for your second game. But obviously it helps your sell through.
Now what's really kind of spurred on
the Crytek problem as it were is that it's not been able to pay
wages on time and potentially even in full
if the rumours are true. This has led unfortunately to the UK development team working on
Homefront: The Revolution
quitting en masse, over 100 of them by the sounds of it have walked out
saying they quite frankly will not work for free. Who can blame them?
Now where this is leading Crytek is in
a terrible muddle. Homefront is shaping up to look like a fantastic game to be
published out there by Deep Silver a publishing house that has really made waves
over the last couple of years with some
pretty good quality titles and seemingly understanding how to actually market these games
out there successfully.
They've put a lot of money and obviously
time into getting Homefront ready for launch later this year
but with the development team walking out presumably
that development has now ceased almost entirely. But that might be somewhat
scuppered by the fact that Sony
is very interested in acquiring Crytek. What we don't know with Sony is whether
they're only interested in the CryEngine or whether they're also interested in picking up
some IP at the same time
for some new first party exclusives. Certainly it would be a very good
defensive move
on Sony's part picking up potentially the world's greatest development studio.
You couldn't ever see them picking up someone like Epic and Unreal Engine for
instance
but here is an opportunity for them to take an engine which is looking quite remarkable
on next-gen consoles
and is already out there proving its worth. For Microsoft's part
it all comes down to how much they really want that Ryse Son of Rome IP
and whether they're willing to put Crytek to the wall to do it. It seems
that
Microsoft are adamant they want that Ryse Son of Rome IP
and they're only really willing to pay Crytek for development time not for
obviously co-ownership. Ryse Son of Rome may very well be tied to an exclusive
with Microsoft systems
anyway so Sony may never be able to pick that particular title up.
What we really have to bear in mind here is Crytek may very well have another
option available to it. There
has been rumour, in fact, Crytek themselves have said that
they're hoping to sign a investment deal imminently
that will hopefully unleash a large chunk of cash
into their development pipeline and allow them to pay wages and so on.
What we don't know is when that deal might be signed or whether that deal has now
been put in jeopardy
with one of its development teams simply walking out en masse.
The next few months for Crytek are really going to be make
or break and I can't help but feel that the Crytek we know and love
may not be the same again after this period of time.
It does seem that Crytek may very well find itself broken up
into a number of smaller studios and sold on. The strength of the Crytek
engine
and the strength of its IP portfolio makes them a hot target for takeover by one of
the bigger players
especially a player who's willing to invest potentially half a million
dollars into getting those games
currently slated out into the real world
for sale. Whoever manages to pull that off is going to make quite a large amount of
money out of
Crytek's IP. It's just a shame in my opinion I don't think it's going to be the current
Crytek
team that will be working on it all. For my mind Crytek will end up being broken up
that does seem to be the only reality now. So what do you think? Is this the
death of one of the great
development teams in the world or do you think this is just a small bump in the
road for Crytek?
Do let me know in the comments and do please throw a like on this video.