Crytek Halts Crysis 4, Lays Off Up to 60 Employees

Crytek, the renowned game developer behind the iconic *Crysis* series, has recently announced a significant round of layoffs that will affect 60 out of its 400 employees. In a tweet, the company cited the need to remain financially sustainable despite the growth of their popular game, *Hunt: Showdown*. Crytek had previously put *Crysis 4* "on hold" in late 2024 and attempted to shift staff to work on *Hunt: Showdown*, aiming to reduce costs and operating expenses. However, these efforts were not enough to prevent the layoffs, which impacted 15% of the workforce across development teams and shared services. Crytek has committed to providing severance packages to those affected.

In a full statement, Crytek's founder, Avni Yerli, elaborated on the difficult decision, emphasizing the broader industry challenges:

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*' trademark 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 celebrated for its first-person sci-fi shooter gameplay, stunning visuals, and the innovative nanosuit powers that offer players a range of tactical options. The original *Crysis*, released in 2007, became a benchmark for PC performance due to its high system requirements, leading to the popular phrase, "But can it run Crysis?" This catchphrase became a standard for evaluating PC hardware capabilities in the years following the game's release.

The most recent mainline entry, *Crysis 3*, was released in February 2013. Since then, Crytek has released remasters of the original games, but fans have been eagerly awaiting updates on *Crysis 4* since its announcement and teaser three years ago.