Crytek, the renowned game developer behind the acclaimed Crysis series, has announced a significant round of layoffs affecting 60 of its 400 employees. In a 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 decision comes after Crytek had to put Crysis 4 "on hold" late in 2024, shifting staff to focus on Hunt: Showdown in an effort to reduce costs and operating expenses. However, these measures were not enough to prevent the layoffs, which impacted 15% of the workforce across various development teams and shared services. Crytek has committed to providing severance packages to the affected employees.

Avni Yerli, the founder of Crytek, released a 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 was revealed 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’s 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 beloved first-person sci-fi shooter known for its stunning visuals, innovative nanosuit powers, and open-ended gameplay. The original Crysis, released in 2007, became a benchmark for PC performance due to its high system requirements, leading to the famous phrase, “But can it run Crysis?” This catchphrase became a standard for evaluating PC hardware capabilities in the years following its release.

The last mainline entry in the series, Crysis 3, was released in February 2013. In recent years, Crytek has released remasters of the original games, but fans have been left waiting for updates on Crysis 4 since its announcement and teaser three years ago.