Crytek In Deep Trouble

[f1sherman]

According to Gamestar, the adoption of CRYENGINE is not going well and the word-of-mouth at GDC was negative.
Strangely enough, CRYENGINE is currently one of the most optimized engines, so Crytek should really look into its subscription prices otherwise this amazing engine may never be used by other triple-A developers.

In short, Crytek is currently in deep trouble and we don’t know whether the studio will be able to recover.
And yes, PC gamers can now say to Crytek “We told you so, you had to keep Crysis exclusive to the PC and keep pushing the graphical boundaries.”

So yes, today you have the right to say that you told them so. And let me conclude this article with a small tribute to Inon Zur’s amazing score for the first Crysis game!





http://www.dsogaming.com/news/cryte...ngine-not-good-ryse-development-catastrophic/

 

[futurefields]

If all these companies are having such trouble including behemoths like Ubisoft to where they need to rush released buggy games then maybe the industry as a whole needs to rethink how it does business.

One thing they could start with is no longer paying for tv time, its a waste of money.

 

[Paul98]

It's not surprising when you compare what Crytek is doing and with what else is out there.

Just look at the horrid EULA

Then look at the support, documentation, and overall helpfulness that is all lacking.

Then compare that to what Epic is doing with Unreal Engine 4, it's night and day.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Unity for the low end, Unreal for the high end. Between those two it's hard to see other engine vendors doing well, especially with a clause like this:

"5.1. You may distribute and sell UGC but only on the UGC Marketplace designated by Crytek"

So, no Steam, GoG, Amazon, Green Man, or using your own website? No KickStarter games unless you can somehow get bulk UGC codes for your rewards?

Also, with Unity you can create games for Android, consoles, even the PS Vita.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Bloat and Greed are what destroy companies. When you are only ever worried about the bottom line and shareholders, you are destined to fail, sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly, but it will happen (oh..wait unless the government is going to bail you out).

Very few companies/boards have the vision to turn a company around on their own.

 

[f1sherman]

"5.1. You may distribute and sell UGC but only on the UGC Marketplace designated by Crytek"

5.1. You may distribute and sell UGC but only on the UGC Marketplace
designated by Crytek. You are obliged to use the UGC Marketplace for trading
UGC, use the designated payment methods and follow all further guidelines set
forth by Cryek on the UGC Marketplace from time to time.

Please... use the 80 chars wrap like in original

(wth I can barely read that :biggrin

 

[BrightCandle]

Then there is the courting of the console market with Crysis 2 and 3 ultimately making them less a leader in PC games technology. They did make a series of bad business decisions that have hurt their game sales, their engine sales and ultimately hurt their time to market.

Its made worse by the fact that some of the games based on the Crysis engine look horrible and run worse, Mechwarrior online being a great example of a game that looks pretty bad and yet runs awful. These are not good show pieces for their engine for other developers and its the sort of thing that happens when support isn't any good.

The shame is they aren't the worst developers for PC right now, with any justice Ubisoft and EA would be going under and Crytek would be surviving, but Crytek presumably don't have the cash reserves to treat their customers like dirt for a long time like the other big players in the market. Can't say I will miss them too much, many of the games on their engines weren't great and their own games have been console dumbed down ports for a while. I doubt that is what did it but frankly I don't mind seeing ex PC turned console developers go under after abandoning their customers base, it might scare the others enough to stop making rubbish console ports.

 

[futurefields]

I still think Crysis 3 has the best graphics/performance of any game out there, so it's a shame the engine hasn't been utilized much.

 

[gorcorps]

According to Gamestar, the adoption of CRYENGINE is not going well and the word-of-mouth at GDC was negative.
Strangely enough, CRYENGINE is currently one of the most optimized engines, so Crytek should really look into its subscription prices otherwise this amazing engine may never be used by other triple-A developers.

In short, Crytek is currently in deep trouble and we don’t know whether the studio will be able to recover.
And yes, PC gamers can now say to Crytek “We told you so, you had to keep Crysis exclusive to the PC and keep pushing the graphical boundaries.”

So yes, today you have the right to say that you told them so. And let me conclude this article with a small tribute to Inon Zur’s amazing score for the first Crysis game!





http://www.dsogaming.com/news/cryte...ngine-not-good-ryse-development-catastrophic/

That's a pretty stupid conclusion to reach. For all we know they could have folded even faster if they stuck with PC

 

[sxr7171]

Isn't the next Sonic game using Cry Engine?

I know that's only one but maybe enough to keep them alive for a while.

 

[sxr7171]

That's a pretty stupid conclusion to reach. For all we know they could have folded even faster if they stuck with PC

Yeah probably true. What would have helped them is better documentation and support. And frankly a "loss leader" mentality. Perhaps a royalty if a game sells more than 250,000 copies.

 

[Elixer]

They got Homefront from the fire sale... and I wonder if they will manage to get something out of that series ?

 

[Markbnj]

Unity for the low end, Unreal for the high end. Between those two it's hard to see other engine vendors doing well, especially with a clause like this:

"5.1. You may distribute and sell UGC but only on the UGC Marketplace designated by Crytek"

So, no Steam, GoG, Amazon, Green Man, or using your own website? No KickStarter games unless you can somehow get bulk UGC codes for your rewards?

Also, with Unity you can create games for Android, consoles, even the PS Vita.

Basically this.

 

[Dankk]

They got Homefront from the fire sale... and I wonder if they will manage to get something out of that series ?

They are actively working on Homefront 2.

 

[escrow4]

ROFL most optimized engine:

http://kotaku.com/5986908/ah-so-thats-why-crysis-3s-first-level-is-so-bad

"When the ropes are stationary, everything's fine and dandy at 60fps. If they move in the wind or are shot at, though, things can drop to under 40fps (that's the rate recorded by MaLDoHD... for me, it was much, much lower)."

Remember that? And those physics that basically wanted a hexa core? There isn't really an engine out there that is really super flexible (except apparently UE4). Frostbite 3? Red Engine v?

 

[StinkyPinky]

Didn't help that Crysis 2 was boring and Crysis 3 so boring that I actually enjoyed installing the game more than playing it. Seriously, Crysis 3 has to be the most dull game in existence.

 

[lamedude]

You got to pay for audio middleware too.

 

[Grooveriding]

Crysis 3 is a tour de force in PC graphics. There is no game that is as impressive visually. They still deliver on providing the apex of what is available visually in PC gaming.

You're also mixing Crytek, a developer, up with companies like EA and Ubisoft - both publishers. EA is is Crytek's publisher.

I don't know what sort of legs are left for Crytek personally. The Crysis franchise may not have much steam left in it. I hope not, Crysis 3 was a big improvement over Crysis 2, and I'd still pay for a Crysis 4 if they put one out. Considering how impressive Crysis 3 is visually, it confirms that the Crytek engine can deliver the goods better than the likes of the other heavy-hitter game engines like FB3 or 4A Engine. Perhaps it is the amount of work required to get that sort of end-result out of the engine that is hard for other developers to replicate or the engine not being as intuitive and easy to work with for 3rd parties as it is for Crytek.

I'm not sure if you've seen any of the UE4 demos, but they're not too impressive, certainly nothing that put Cryengine to any sort of shame. The one game we've seen using it so far, Daylight, is pretty piss-poor in the visuals department.

 

[DarkKnightDude]

Didn't they announce that Homefront game the other day? And a MOBA? How are they doing this and almost bankrupt?

 

[Anteaus]

Didn't they announce that Homefront game the other day? And a MOBA? How are they doing this and almost bankrupt?

THQ was the same way up to the point where they filed Chapter 13. I guess they just kept moving forward hoping for a miracle. Ironically, Homefront was a THQ property until Crytek picked it up as part of the bankruptsy auction.

It's always strange seeing companies who made commecially successful games go under. I guess keeping costs under control isn't a priority when you have a vision.

 

[Topweasel]

I wouldn't be surprised if MS buys up Crytek, they would then own Ryse if they still had any interest in it. They would then own a true engine development team (and CE3 is probably the most advanced and effcient engine on the new platforms). They would have Crysis which may actually do better as a PC/Xbone exclusive then just a run of the mill FPS for every system. Homefront has some value. And they would have like 5 sub studio's (which they might want to whittle down), so they could make a big push for more first party exclusives in the middle of this generation.

Owning CE3 would be interesting. For exclusives they could use that to their advantage. Free customer engine and a bundle of cash to be an Xbox exclusive.

 

[PowerYoga]

The crysis series is boring as hell, it's really a tech demo for the engine. Hope someone buys them up and make some real games with the engine.

 

[Anteaus]

The crysis series is boring as hell, it's really a tech demo for the engine. Hope someone buys them up and make some real games with the engine.

I agree. Truthfully, I really enjoyed Crysis 1 right up until the point where they cheesed it with aliens (pretty much the demo). The main gimic with Crysis was the suit, but once the aliens were introduced they overshadowed the suit. A suit of nano tech with less than a minute of battery life is far less sexy when you have aliens and all their fancy tech flying around. The aliens became an adversary of the suit more than anything else. Prophet would have been worthless without the suit.

Crysis would have been more fun had they ditched the aliens and made the game more about special forces. Perhaps a Metal Gear Solid style spin on the story.

 

[Bateluer]

5.1. You may distribute and sell UGC but only on the UGC Marketplace
designated by Crytek. You are obliged to use the UGC Marketplace for trading
UGC, use the designated payment methods and follow all further guidelines set
forth by Cryek on the UGC Marketplace from time to time.

Please... use the 80 chars wrap like in original

(wth I can barely read that :biggrin

I wonder how Kingdom Come Deliverance is going to be selling then. They're Kickstarter funded, and have claimed they'll be selling on both GoG and Steam.

 

[Childs]

That's a pretty stupid conclusion to reach. For all we know they could have folded even faster if they stuck with PC

Ryse could have been what really put them in the hole. The article said they had to hire additional people to finish it, and Crytech has 800 employees.