Crysis 4 Development Paused, Crytek Cuts Up to 60 Jobs

Crytek, a renowned game developer, has announced a significant round of layoffs affecting 60 out of its 400 employees. In a recent tweet, the company stated that despite the growth of their popular game, Hunt: Showdown, they could not "continue as before and remain financially sustainable." This difficult decision comes after Crytek put Crysis 4 "on hold" in late 2024 and attempted to shift staff to Hunt: Showdown, aiming to reduce costs and operating expenses. However, these efforts were not enough to prevent the layoffs, which impacted 15% of their workforce across various development teams and shared services. Crytek has committed to providing severance to the affected employees.

Here is the full statement from Crytek founder Avni Yerli:

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 me 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.

Last year, it came to light that Crytek had been working on a battle royale-inspired project called Crysis Next, with early gameplay footage surfacing on YouTube. The footage showcased third-person shooting in a basic warm-up arena, featuring Crysis' signature abilities and sound effects. However, Crytek never officially announced Crysis Next, and the project was eventually canceled in favor of Crysis 4, which was announced in January 2022.

The Crysis series, known for its first-person sci-fi shooter gameplay, stunning visuals, and innovative nanosuit powers, has been a benchmark for PC hardware since the release of the first game in 2007. The game's demanding nature led to the popular phrase, "But can it run Crysis?" used to gauge the capabilities of PC specifications. The last mainline installment, Crysis 3, was released in February 2013. While Crytek has released remasters of the original games in recent years, fans have been eagerly awaiting updates on Crysis 4 since its announcement and teaser three years ago.