Crytek closing five studios, will refocus on ‘premium IPs’ and CryEngine

ZacD

"Crytek announced a major change in structure today: The developer is shedding five of its studios, with only Crytek’s Frankfurt, Germany and Kiev, Ukraine studios remaining."

Source: http://www.polygon.com/2016/12/20/14023746/crytek-studios-shutdown


Some employees said they haven't been paid since September. It's an especially awful time of year to lose your job. Hopefully everyone from those studios land on their feet. Like always with these layoff threads, if you were affected by these closings, post here and the community will do everything they can to help you find job openings. 

RobeOmega

ZacD said:

Some employees said they haven't been paid since September.

Again? I remember the same thing happened with Crytek that involved the Nottingham studio. I hope everyone who lost their job finds another soon.

grimsonfart

It's tough, but downsizing can be a good thing. Too many cooks can create a mess. 

Joopson

Honestly, everyone involved is probably better off in the long run, including Crytek themselves. Especially if the rumors of months of unpaid work are true. Best of luck to everyone affected. Regardless of the long run, it's absolutely always a shame to hear about things like this.

DavidCruz

Well I am Sorry to all involved, hope you have a good holidays whether you celebrate or not, hopefully good things such as your own studios comes from this.

Anchang-Style

Honestly this was to be expected wasn't it? The financial issues seemed to be massive recently. I guess they will end up focusing on the two things that atleast made money: Warface and Cryengine (i atleast hope the Engine does). Hope people fall on their feet but i don't expect anyone, employees or employers, to be suprised by this move. Good luck to all involved, i would really hate to see Crytek go considering they had been kind of the german pride of AAA gaming (sorry at Related Design and Blue Byte (love you guys since my childhood BTW) Anno is great but it's also kind of the same game for years now).

stickadtroja

Some employees said they haven't been paid since September.

How come this isnt super illegal? or at least have some mayor consequences? cant they get sued a lot for stuff like that?

Kwramm

stickadtroja said:

Some employees said they haven't been paid since September.

How come this isnt super illegal? or at least have some mayor consequences? cant they get sued a lot for stuff like that?

It is illegal and they can get sued. As I understand workers have the right to refuse further work until they get paid. Practically, it's a different matter though. Some people just stuck around to avoid conflict, with the hope of getting paid and staying on management's good side. Also, if you miss your last 3 - 4 months of salary, you might think twice of spending your remaining savings on a lawyer and on a process that definitely puts you on managements bad side, vs. just hoping the company transfers what is owed.

thomasp

how can you end up on management's bad side if you just make sure they uphold their end of the contract though? i've worked with people who sued their (our) employer and continued to work at the place, no sweat. it's not like your project lead would hate you for exercising your rights. after all not entirely unlikely that they themselves did not get paid during that time either.

ZacD

I bet a lot of people figure they'll start looking for other jobs, but still come in just to stamp their time cards, just in case paychecks do come. 

Jakob Gavelli

Kwramm said:

stickadtroja said:

Some employees said they haven't been paid since September.

How come this isnt super illegal? or at least have some mayor consequences? cant they get sued a lot for stuff like that?

It is illegal and they can get sued. As I understand workers have the right to refuse further work until they get paid. Practically, it's a different matter though. Some people just stuck around to avoid conflict, with the hope of getting paid and staying on management's good side. Also, if you miss your last 3 - 4 months of salary, you might think twice of spending your remaining savings on a lawyer and on a process that definitely puts you on managements bad side, vs. just hoping the company transfers what is owed.

Get sued? Shouldn't the authorities crack down on them IMMEDIATELY? Surely it can't be the employees responsibility but the governments?

Surely this is against EU and all other kind of laws?

cptSwing

Whew, some low hits for the german game industry in the last couple of months (Goodgame, Bigpoint, now Crytek)..

slipsius

Man, hope everyone lands on their feet. Shit sucks. 

That said, I think the most surprising thing about this announcement was that they still had 5 studios. With all the unpaid worker stories as of late . . .

stickadtroja

Jakob Gavelli said:

Get sued? Shouldn't the authorities crack down on them IMMEDIATELY? Surely it can't be the employees responsibility but the governments?

Surely this is against EU and all other kind of laws?

yeah that would make a lot more sense. theft victims arent responsible for suing thieves.

Anchang-Style

I guess the issue is that people have to come forward with what's happening and from the looks of it, that isn't really happening. IF there is a problem with delays or no salaries whatsoever, someone needs to contact the authorities. I don't know if there are many foreigners involved (as some sources suggest) who don't know their rights or if there is a "snitches getting stitches" kind of culture or whatever. 
I mean in case of the other german company people tend to know (goodgames) the mistreatment of employees went public quickly because someone went to the press. I don't know why this isn't happening here (if there is anything to those stories).

Mant1k0re

I don't know if the salary payment issue happened in local studios or in Germany but local studio = local contract. Good luck suing your company in China for instance.

Kwramm

Jakob Gavelli said:

Kwramm said:

stickadtroja said:

Some employees said they haven't been paid since September.

How come this isnt super illegal? or at least have some mayor consequences? cant they get sued a lot for stuff like that?

It is illegal and they can get sued. As I understand workers have the right to refuse further work until they get paid. Practically, it's a different matter though. Some people just stuck around to avoid conflict, with the hope of getting paid and staying on management's good side. Also, if you miss your last 3 - 4 months of salary, you might think twice of spending your remaining savings on a lawyer and on a process that definitely puts you on managements bad side, vs. just hoping the company transfers what is owed.

Get sued? Shouldn't the authorities crack down on them IMMEDIATELY? Surely it can't be the employees responsibility but the governments?

Surely this is against EU and all other kind of laws?

how do you imagine the government should do that? The state monitoring all employment contracts (or even rental contracts for that matter)? An employment contract is between you and your employer. If it is breached either you, or the other party can take civil action. That's the same as with freelance contracts. The government isn't going to sue your stupid client for you. The government's job is to create the legal framework that is fair to both parties, so you can sue each other and take the conflict before a judge. It's basically a civil vs. criminal law issue (criminal law = state is responsible for prosecution and state attorneys sue in the name of the state) . Contracts are regulated by civil contract law.

However, in some cases, state agencies, e.g. work-safety bodies, environment protection agencies, may get active to impose fines and regulations, although they keep out of salary disputes. Unions can also act on workers' behalf. And so called "betriebsraete" who are elected workers representatives within the company. German company Goodgames for example fought against having one elected because they got much power when it comes to salary negotiations, worker rights, firing, etc. So it's not the state's job to protect you, but being a "young" industry, many game studios don't use the optional safety features (e.g. a Betriebsrat or joining a union), which the German law allows. This puts them in a much weaker position in a situation like this.

Kwramm

Mant1k0re said:

I don't know if the salary payment issue happened in local studios or in Germany but local studio = local contract. Good luck suing your company in China for instance.

Chinese employee vs. foreign company sounds like a good case to me. Especially since Crytek isn't in any way important to the Chinese economy and there's no need to wear the satin gloves. If anything, some folks might be happy to stick it to the foreigners.

stickadtroja

uhh game developers have to get in on that sweet union stuff right now, before stuff like this happens again
at least european ones. dont know if us has unions even.

in sweden you get up to three months pay from the goverment if the employer wont pay you.

Neox

http://hardavenue.com/crytek-receive-500m-turkey-investment/ now thats a plot twist

Kwramm

lol. Must be some sort of exit plan: when the Turkish government gets overthrown, their leaders can claim asylum as IT specialists at Crytek.

cptSwing

Lots of stuff deleted from the article I presume, now it's basically the other way around: Crytek plans to invest 500 million in Turkey. Wat?

Neox

i guess we will only know whats going on if someone who speaks turkish translates the original news  

myclay

Crytek and Bahçeşehir University have opened a VR lab back in 19th of January.
AMD, Logitech MSI are also sponsoring projects there.
http://www.bahcesehir.edu.tr/icerik/10296-bau-crytek-virtual-reality-lab-is-launched
https://80.lv/articles/crytek-opened-a-vr-laboratory-in-turkey/

my turkish knowledge is sparse but I tried to understand what is being said in the vimeo clip;
around 8:30 of the vimeo clip from http://hardavenue.com/crytek-receive-500m-turkey-investment/,
Prime minister Binali Yıldırım starts to talk about Crytek,the turkish brothers,
how important the game sector is, some great investments in infrastructure, the Eurasia Tunnel/Avrasya Tüneli.
some comparisons or benefits for and with the tourism sector,teaching sector etc.
The importance of the money filled game sector.
To take the opportunity and be open to new things etc.


The prime minister himself is saying that the Studio is investing 500Million $ into Turkey. 
* the confusion in the media probably came due to lazy journalists which scimmed and mixed parts of the talk.

Neox, which other news do you mean?

a bit of interesting news for investors;
Video game developers receive priority support in Turkey.
Turkeys governmental support programs cover each and every step from first sketches to marketing
and you can get up to 50% of your expenses back in cash.
http://www.turkeylovesindies.com/

Neox

no other news, the original video with the turkish minister talking. feels like those articles have been based on some weird rumors. not based on what a translator told them.

Kwramm

more like 500 million turkish lira. if Crytek had that much money in USD, it would have been easy to pay all the salaries they owe, and hire an army of new developers on top!

thomasp

this sounds to me like the turkish government has bailed them out and recruited them to lay the foundations of a tech or media industry over there and handed them the funds to get started with that. well connected people if that's the case!