Home Gaming Homefront Director resigns as Crytek continue to struggle

Homefront Director resigns as Crytek continue to struggle

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A little while ago there were rumours of some major financial issues at Crytek. Employees had apparently not been paid in months, many were searching for other jobs and Ryse 2 had been officially canned. Crytek denied these rumours, but a new report suggests that their latest project is now in serious trouble.

It was a bit of a surprise to hear that Crytek would be releasing a sequel to Homefront, a shooter which really failed to impress the first time around. Homefront: The Revolution was aiming to change the formula a bit, providing players with an open world to plan attacks rather than narrow corridors. Certainly not enough to immediately win most people over, but a step in the right direction.

However, the game may have lost its director over the weekend, with three different sources claiming that Hasit Zala has resigned from his position at Crytek UK. Zala was also the franchise director on Warface, which was released on Steam a few weeks ago. Crytek have yet to confirm or comment on the rumour, but the three sources are apparently people familiar with the inner workings at Crytek.

This adds a little bit of truth to some of the bankruptcy claims that Crytek has been drowning in over the past few weeks. Many employees have contacted media saying they have yet to receive final pay checks after leaving the studio, which paints a rather grim image of the situation over at the Crysis developer.

Publishers of Homefront, Deep Silver, also had no comment on the apparent departure, but expect to hear something from either party soon. Could Crytek be facing closure soon?

Last Updated: July 14, 2014

13 Comments

  1. Viking Of Science

    July 14, 2014 at 17:12

    I bet Deep Silver are shopping around for another Studio right about now….

    I Wish the Employees of Crytek The best of luck in these trying times, but none of them should have creative control of a project…. They’re better at Crafting Levels and mechanics than Story or Atmosphere…..

    Reply

  2. Jev_LFC

    July 14, 2014 at 17:12

    damn.

    Reply

  3. Rags

    July 14, 2014 at 17:16

    I get the feeling with their F2P and their upcoming MOBA they are placing their trust in a very gimmicky market hoping it can get some success like the other top games in the genres. Its almost seems a bit desperate. But I hope their MOBA is enough of a success to keep them going.

    Maybe they have become too bloated without ever having a GOW like hit series, which allows their competition to open source their engine and create Unreal Tournament 4 for shits and giggles.

    Reply

    • Viking Of Science

      July 14, 2014 at 17:22

      I also think there may a stigma attached to CryEngine, I Believe Devs Using it feel they Need to produce graphical Powerhouse games, Whereas with UE4, Epic has marketed it as a do anything engine…. That Flappy Bird Clone! If I was a developer, I’d choose UE4 over CryEngine, simply because it seems more flexible.

      Reply

      • Rags

        July 14, 2014 at 17:31

        Yeah I agree. They make it so much easier for small teams and indies to start something with their blueprints. I use Unreal Engine for architecture work. Tried CryEngine but found it just too complicated and unfriendly. UE4 and even UDK(UE3) is so much easier.

        Reply

  4. BacchusZA

    July 14, 2014 at 18:25

    Star Citizen uses the Cryengine, and my understanding is that what they want the engine to do is way far out its comfort zone, so Chris Roberts & Co have evidently been relying heavily on Crytek to make it work.

    News like this has to be making them nervous over at CiG…..

    Reply

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      July 14, 2014 at 19:08

      I know it’s making me nervous. :/

      Although I think CIG are doing the bulk of the work modding the engine from single precision float to double precision.

      Reply

    • Johan du Preez

      July 14, 2014 at 19:08

      RSI actually already enhanced the Engine and created all of the features that Star Citizen will employ. Their knowledge at this point of the engine is on par with the original developers. This much was clear in the community ship challenge already.

      I doubt Crytek going down will have any affect on them as they pretty much know the engine inside and out and can do with it what they want. All the features added to the Cryengine the last 8 months comes from RSI and not Crytek.

      RSI will eventually modify the engine for mantle as well.

      Reply

  5. CypherGate

    July 14, 2014 at 18:42

    thats sad i must say

    Reply

  6. Travis

    July 14, 2014 at 23:41

    More likely he was asked to resign after the abysmal player reviews for warface.

    Reply

  7. Hammersteyn

    July 15, 2014 at 07:53

    Crysis not averted? So if the top guys quit does that mean Homefront will be an indie game?

    Reply

  8. junkyfour

    March 13, 2016 at 07:14

    I believe Crytek’s leadership is problematic. Taking a AAA development studio F2P? Poor decision and frankly suicide in the console space. Why not freelance for the publishers? Round-robin through EA, Activision, Take-Two, Microsoft and Ubisoft, perhaps investing some of the money made into an indie project here and there…and where’s the remastered Crysis Trilogy for current-gen console hardware?

    Reply

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