Crytek UK Staff Haven't Been Fully Paid Since April, Says Report

A new report has come to light indicating that things aren't quite rose gardens and vanilla ice cream sandwiches in the land of Crytek. Sources supposedly close to the matter have stated that proper wages haven't been paid to the staff since April.

Develop, an industry-related gaming site, issued a report noting that those close in the matter have stated that full wages haven't been paid to the staff since April 21st of this year.

According to the report, the staff at Crytek's U.K., offices were only paid £700 in the previous month. They were told that they would be paid in full after a deal would be secured from the Deutsche Bank, however that never came to fruition.

Another small bit of payment was issued on June 16th following this year's E3 event. However, the report notes that the source claims that payments since then seem unlikely.

One of the most damning things made clear in the article relates to the turnover rate at the studio, with the article stating...

“Develop understands that since work on the game began, 40 staff have left, and the issues with salaries “has added to that number”. While there has been high turnover with new recruits coming in, it was said that the team cannot hire as fast as people are leaving.“It was also claimed that a number of staff have been promoted to senior roles recently, with such employees required to hand in three months notice if they choose to resign. These staff have also allegedly not been given pay rises “equivalent to the job role”, leading to suggestions it was a tactic to ensure staff stay on at the studio.”

That seems unreasonably cruel.

Nevertheless, this further falls in line with talks of Ryse 2 being cancelled, as reported by Total Xbox.

Supposedly, staff is being reorganized to finish work on the upcoming Homefront: The Revolution, the sequel to the Red Dawn-esque first-person shooter from Kaos Studios and THQ that released way back in 2011.

This report also comes close on the heels from another, completely separate report from German site GameStar who first brought similar claims to the table in a detailed article about the situation.

When reached for comment about the dire financial state of the company by Eurogamer, a spokesperson denied the reports from GameStar and called them “rumors”. However, most times when something fallacious like that is printed there are calls for retractions, which didn't happen in this case.

It appears that the opposite is actually transpiring, with more news and information coming out that indicates that Crytek could be in serious financial trouble.

A lot of these issues are cited as being attached to a lack of an attachment rate to CryEngine licenses, as well as the under-performance of games like Ryse. Recently, Crytek started a new subscription model for the CryEngine in an attempt to bolster sales but apparently it still hasn't been enough to correct the ship at Crytek UK.

Will Usher

Staff Writer at CinemaBlend.