17 replies to this topic

[Hawk819]

I got this off the web blog, For the Record

Here's the link to the website: ftr.wot-news.com


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Hello everyone,
an article appeared on DSOGaming portal about the bad prognosis for the developer of Cryengine, Crytek. Apparently, Crytek is in deep trouble, with its latest game (Ryse – console exclusive) not doing as well as they hoped and with the danger of bankrupcy looming over the developer, the proverbial sharks smelled blood in the water and are starting to close in, expecting to get intellectual property and manpower out of the failing studio soon. Allegedly the studio is already in the stage of paying some of the salaries late and with employees senting applications to other companies.
The article has one very interesting part for us though:[indent]
For what is worth, Wargaming is listed as a possible buyer of Crytek. If Wargaming does buys Crytek, we can kiss goodbye to all of the studio’s single-player games (as Wargaming is best known for its Free-To-Play games). In short, this may be the end of the Crytek we knew.[/indent]

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If this has even a hint of truth to it, then I believe Piranha Games and Infinite Games are in for a wake-up call. But what will happen to MechWarrior Online?

[Egomane]

Don't know where I've seen it, but there already was a statement that financing for Crytek is secured for the next year, in response to that article.

I believe it is no wonder that they are in financial troubles. With nine studios all over the world, but only one or two projects at a time and their free to play title warface failing miserably, they simply overextended themselfs.

[Goose]

Sort'a like what I was seeing: http://www.evilavata...ad.php?t=212748

[Rebas Kradd]

CryTek is pretty poorly optimized for multiplayer. They've got a lot of work to do.

[Hawk819]

I hope this doesn't effect us. That's all I have to say. other than that, so much for another title in the Crysis series.

[9erRed]

Greetings all,

There may be some hope with that statement, we could see PGI gather direct Crytec engineers into their teams?
- It does not hurt and is somewhat of a bonus to have actual game engine engineers working and modifying there own engine.

You have probably heard that some of these same evangelists/engineers are working at RSI/Star Citizen. There ability to correctly modify, build and repair there own engine has saved months and possibly longer with incorporating designs into that game.
- Perhaps PGI should look into some of these individuals market job offers, or put out some offers.

Just saying, it couldn't hurt.
9erRed

[Hex Pallett]

Egomane, on 22 June 2014 - 01:26 PM, said:

I believe it is no wonder that they are in financial troubles. With nine studios all over the world, but only one or two projects at a time and their free to play title warface failing miserably, they simply overextended themselfs.

Yet Epic is sitting quite comfortably on a growing pile of cash from all those licensing fees.

Yeah...as cool as CryEngine is, CryTek doesn't really seems to have a grasp on game development... and it seems like they finally wrapped their head around it and is pushing CryEngine licencing aggressively for the next-gen console, trying to take back what was basically dominated by Unreal Engine.

[Vassago Rain]

9erRed, on 22 June 2014 - 06:12 PM, said:

Greetings all,

There may be some hope with that statement, we could see PGI gather direct Crytec engineers into their teams?
- It does not hurt and is somewhat of a bonus to have actual game engine engineers working and modifying there own engine.

You have probably heard that some of these same evangelists/engineers are working at RSI/Star Citizen. There ability to correctly modify, build and repair there own engine has saved months and possibly longer with incorporating designs into that game.
- Perhaps PGI should look into some of these individuals market job offers, or put out some offers.

Just saying, it couldn't hurt.
9erRed

PGI are barely using the cryengine at this point.

[Thorqemada]

Crytek games to me were more Tech Demos than successfull games and for an exclusive Player Base with High End Computers - i do not wonder at all.

Edited by Thorqemada, 23 June 2014 - 12:01 AM.

[Lily from animove]

CryEngine, amazing but hardly runs its possibilities on standard rigs. Not even suited for Multiplayer stuff.
Releasing a game for console only? Fail No.1
They live basically by selling their Engine, their games have been more or less just a Showcae for the Engine. But I doubt the Engine itself is ready for the average market, or it will at least lose most of its potential. Many game studios do have a lot of trouble optimising their game performance. The Term "garbage collection" seems also be a relic of the ancient. Sometimes Games eat ressources far beyond what they really would need. These are just bad optimisation routines.

Edited by Lily from animove, 23 June 2014 - 04:33 AM.

[S3dition]

A lot of stuff in that article is plain untrue. Cryengine is a pig of a system and difficult to work with. Not highly optimized. The only reason game developers jumped on it recently is its firesale pricing. I'm fairly convinced that the sole reason PGI went with it was the pricing scheme. As far as visuals, UE has blown past them as far as I'm concerned and has a far better toolset and workflow. CE makes level building less painful, but I wouldn't consider marginally better level building tools to be worth the price of admission.

Sure you can show off pretty movies made on a $10,000 computer, but it's how the game works on a machine running 5 year old hardware that counts. UE has a record of running on budget systems far better than CE. Honestly, I wouldn't be sad to see Crytek go. Their games are marginally good and I don't see anything spectacular about the engine except the for the water effects.

[Vassago Rain]

Lily from animove, on 23 June 2014 - 04:31 AM, said:

CryEngine, amazing but hardly runs its possibilities on standard rigs. Not even suited for Multiplayer stuff.
Releasing a game for console only? Fail No.1
They live basically by selling their Engine, their games have been more or less just a Showcae for the Engine. But I doubt the Engine itself is ready for the average market, or it will at least lose most of its potential. Many game studios do have a lot of trouble optimising their game performance. The Term "garbage collection" seems also be a relic of the ancient. Sometimes Games eat ressources far beyond what they really would need. These are just bad optimisation routines.

http://en.wikipedia....using_CryEngine

List does not include the billion korean cashgrab MMOs or military projects using it.

[S3dition]

Marack Drock, on 23 June 2014 - 08:09 PM, said:

Is this why they made the engine available to subscribe to use on Steam a few weeks back?

No. The subscription model has been in place for months now. They were trying to capitalize on the free-to-play and indie markets.

It would really suck for unreleased games. The developers are counting on the current pricing model. If Crytek is bought and the terms are changed, you could see a lot of games getting cancelled. I wonder if MWO would survive such a thing. I don't know what the profit margins are, but if they are narrow enough, a kick to the same price as UE (25%) could be disastrous.

Edited by S3dition, 23 June 2014 - 08:24 PM.

[Bryan Ekman]

Cytek's financial "woes", real or not, do not affect MWO. We no longer take code drops as we have branched the source code significantly now.

Having shipped products with both Unreal and CryEngine, I can say both have strengths and weaknesses. Moving from a game company to an engine developer is a big shift. Epic has just now fully embraced this concept, as you can see by their big push into the consumer market. CryEngine is still figuring this out. If the rumours are true, it's a sad day for PC gaming, as CryTek was a champion for pushing PC hardware. War Gaming has already acquired their WOT engine developer BIgWorld, so the move wouldn't come as a surprise. They continue to upgrade their technology package, and CryEngine does have some solid rendering tech.

[Adridos]

That would suck for a lot of talented people working over at CryTek. Just off the top of my head:

Warpgazer, the guy behind Lord Inquisitor... just recently released another teaser for the fan movie done in a yet to be announced CryTek RL renderer Cinebox (think Source Film Maker on steroids).

The lead guys behind MW:LL, who were hired by CryTek and work over there.

And many more...


It would be interesting what would happen afterwards when it came to stuff like that CE-using WoT clone still in development set in modern era, or a big title like Star Citizen, which could get into a lot of troubles if Wargaming folk wanted a slice of the success cake.

[S3dition]

Bryan Ekman, on 24 June 2014 - 06:28 AM, said:

Cytek's financial "woes", real or not, do not affect MWO. We no longer take code drops as we have branched the source code significantly now.

Having shipped products with both Unreal and CryEngine, I can say both have strengths and weaknesses. Moving from a game company to an engine developer is a big shift. Epic has just now fully embraced this concept, as you can see by their big push into the consumer market. CryEngine is still figuring this out. If the rumours are true, it's a sad day for PC gaming, as CryTek was a champion for pushing PC hardware. War Gaming has already acquired their WOT engine developer BIgWorld, so the move wouldn't come as a surprise. They continue to upgrade their technology package, and CryEngine does have some solid rendering tech.

That's good to know. I imagined you would still have contractual agreements to pay, but I guess if they try to change the terms with a new contract, but you don't need what they're offering, you can tell Wargaming to shove off.

Adridos, on 24 June 2014 - 08:46 AM, said:

That would suck for a lot of talented people working over at CryTek. Just off the top of my head:

Warpgazer, the guy behind Lord Inquisitor... just recently released another teaser for the fan movie done in a yet to be announced CryTek RL renderer Cinebox (think Source Film Maker on steroids).

The lead guys behind MW:LL, who were hired by CryTek and work over there.

And many more...


It would be interesting what would happen afterwards when it came to stuff like that CE-using WoT clone still in development set in modern era, or a big title like Star Citizen, which could get into a lot of troubles if Wargaming folk wanted a slice of the success cake.

Anyone with that level of talent won't have too hard of a time finding work. It seems like a lot of engine developers are expanding. I'm sure UT and Epic wouldn't mind hiring people who don't want to stay with Wargaming.

[Anjian]

Wargaming buying Crytek would be a good fit. One has plenty of money the other doesn't. World of Tanks alone brought in $376 million last year, and I expect them to hit over $400 million this year.

Recently though World of Tanks just moved to the Havok engine (also used with Inglorious Second Son) as per patch 9.0 last April. I have to say it really looks nice.

But not as nice as their rivals in War Thunder. Gaijin Entertainment uses their own game engine, called Dagor, and the physics, the graphics, the FX, that game engine just looks great and still able to squeeze equal to better performance compared to their competitors. Gaijin also licenses the Dagor game engine to others if they wanted to. Considering that War Thunder runs on the PS4 using this engine, the Dagor can also be a great platform for next gen console games.

As the competition between the two companies sharpen, I would think Wargaming picking up Crytek is logical as a competitive edge, means first dibs on that game engine for a future release on World of Tanks, as well as World of Warplanes and World of Warships.

Edited by Anjian, 26 June 2014 - 12:00 AM.