Crytek Halts Crysis 4, Lays Off Up to 60 Employees

Crytek, the developer behind the renowned Crysis series, has recently announced a significant round of layoffs, affecting 60 of its 400 employees. This decision impacts 15% of its workforce and spans across the company's development teams and shared services. In a tweet, Crytek stated that despite the growth of their game Hunt: Showdown, the company could not maintain its current operations and remain financially viable. As a result, they had to put Crysis 4 "on hold" in late 2024 and shifted staff to work on Hunt: Showdown to reduce costs and operating expenses. However, these measures were not enough to prevent the layoffs, which Crytek described as "inevitable."

Crytek founder Avni Yerli released a full statement addressing the layoffs:

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 codenamed Crysis Next. Early gameplay footage surfaced on YouTube, showcasing third-person shooting in a basic warm-up arena, complete with Crysis' signature abilities and sound effects. However, Crysis Next was never officially announced and was eventually canceled in favor of Crysis 4, which was announced in January 2022.

The Crysis series is a first-person sci-fi shooter franchise celebrated for its stunning visuals, innovative nanosuit powers, and open-ended gameplay. The first game, released in 2007, became a benchmark for PC performance due to its high system requirements, leading to the iconic phrase, "But can it run Crysis?" This phrase became a popular way to gauge a PC's capabilities in the years following the game's release.

The latest mainline entry in the series, Crysis 3, was released in February 2013. In recent years, Crytek has released remasters of the original games, but there has been little news on Crysis 4 since its announcement and teaser three years ago.