(Rumor) Problems at Crytek: Ryse sequel cancelled. Staff leaving Crytek UK

With every passing day it really appears that Crytek is having a really tough time. Two days ago we published that the company is apparently suffering from severe financial problems since March. F2P games and Warface have not worked as well as Crytek might have hoped, Crysis 3 and Ryse have not sold as expected, CryEngine did not impress at GDC… GameStar reported that Crytek was nearing bankruptcy.

Certainly, this is no small thing.

As if the above were not enough, today we have known that, reportedly, Crytek is having problems paying employees and more than 30 employees have left Crytek UK since work began on Homefront: The Revolution in 2011. According to Eurogamer, the list of those who have left includes key art, design and programming employees. Crytek UK Managing Director Karl Hilton will change his role at the company as well. One employee goes further and states that approximately 100 people would have left over from all Crytek studios around the world over the past three months.

Kotaku adds that Crytek has been forced to cancel several projects due to this situation. The site reports that, earlier this year, the company cancelled an original game that was set to enter pre-production and, what is more surprising, says that Ryse 2 was dropped off in February. Allegedly, this is because of the conflict between Microsoft and Crytek over who would own rights to the franchise.

Remember that this is, however, unofficial info. Crytek denied they were nearing bankruptcy:

Regardless of what some media are reporting, mostly based on a recent article published by GameStar, the information in those reports and in the GameStar article itself are rumors which Crytek deny. We continue to focus on the development and publishing of our upcoming titles Homefront: The Revolution, Hunt: Horrors of the Gilded Age, Arena of Fate, and Warface, as well as providing ongoing support for our CryEngine and its licensees.

Via | Joystiq, Eurogamer & Kotaku