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A former Crytek employee is reportedly suing over lack of pay

This time last year, it looked like Crytek was on the verge of bankruptcy with developers claiming to have not been paid for months and promising talent leaving on a regular basis. Now just 12 months later, the studio is still facing issues, with one former employee suing Crytek over an unpaid severance package.

Crytek Istanbul's former head of game operations, Volkan Turan, was laid off on the 25th of October after working there for over three and a half years. On Turan's Facebook page he posted the following (via gamesindustry.biz): “As of October 25, the company I worked with for 3 years and 7 months terminated the contract unilaterally due to personal hostility. They won't give me my claims. Just to get my claims, I took the matter to the court, as of today I sued Crytek. My lawyer and I believe we will win, and you should too. The case does not end immediately, but when it does, the court decision will also be shared here.”

Turan reportedly did not have issues with getting his regular wages paid on time leading up to him leaving Crytek. With that in mind, the ‘claims' he refers to are believed to be severance payments.

This isn't the first former Crytek employee to make a claim against the company. Last year, one former Crytek dev started a crowdfunding campaign for the legal fees required to take the studio to court over unpaid salary. This time last year there were also reports indicating that the company was struggling to keep its developers on payroll for months on end.

KitGuru Says: Turan wouldn't be the first Crytek employee to face issues getting money out of the company. Still, this time around it doesn't seem down to a lack of funds, as we saw in 2016.

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6 comments

  1. Here is a thought maybe actually develop a new game such as Crysis 4 maybe. We all know it would sell like hot cakes and put the company’s bank account back in the positive standing.

    Has this company actually released a new game in the last few years or at least one that people want to buy?

  2. Bruh, Crysis 2 didn’t sell that well and by the time was released Crysis 3 there wasn’t enough karma leftover from the first one to overcome how lackluster the game was and the EA shitbaggery that plagued it which led to poor sales. A couple months after release they were practically giving copies away, the trademark of a dud. I doubt a fourth installment would bail them out of their predicament.

  3. CIG go take him TAKE HIM! You neeeeeeed him! Chris Roberts hire this guy and pay him (you got the cash from everyone!). The more talented people work on SC, the better.

  4. No it was not their best seller but it sold 205K copies in north North America alone in the first week of it’s launch. That was just North America not including the rest of the world such as the UK etc etc. That was also only PC numbers it was also released on the PS3 & Xbox360.

    But your point is valid it did sell just not as well as it could have. I also think because they decided to included the game engine to support lower spec hardware like consoles like the Xbox360 & PS3 hurt it a lot as well. Some also did not like how the story played out in the third installment of the game. I played all 4 versions of the Crysis series and finished each one and in my own opinion they all had something good to offer us in game play.

    I still think if they were to come out with a refreshed Crysis 4 game the fans would gobble it up. With consoles now having much more horse power they would not have to gimp the game engine as much or at all & all they would need is a good back story and modernized game play and they would have a winner on their hands.

    My point was they need to get back to the basics and release a game any game that we the consumer would snap up and play. With them only relying on out sourcing their game engine to bring in capital is not the best idea. They need to release a new game already even if it is not Crysis series something is better than nothing.

    Edited:
    I just wanted to add that they are not like Valve and have something like Steam to fall back on here. Bringing me to another point Valve needs to get over the fear of three and start finishing their third installments of their games already..lol

  5. That’s a pretty weak showing chonsiderung other triple-A titles at the time easily eclipse that amount 24h on launch day and nearing or exceeding the million by the week.

  6. Carlo Joselito Chua

    The storyline of Crysis 3 was remarkably poor and lackluster and the gameplay was slightly worse compared to Crysis 2 owing to the fact that the funds and resources during the development were insufficient and the timespan of development was relatively short. Although its graphical fidelity were visually stunning and superior compared to Crysis 1 and 2, it was still a poorly and hurriedly developed game.

    Here’s a description of the Development Period from Wikipedia

    “Crysis 3’s development began in February 2011, two months before the release of Crysis 2. The development of the game’s campaign was handled by Crytek; its multiplayer was handled by Crytek UK. Its development budget was significantly smaller than that of Crysis 2, as resources and manpower were relocated to develop Homefront 2 and Ryse: Son of Rome. As a result, only about 100 people worked on the game during its 23 months development and the game’s development budget was about $66 million.”
    “Crysis 2 was announced at E3 2009 on June 1, 2009, and was in development from 2007. Crysis 2 is the sequel to 2007’s Crysis which was lauded for its impressive visuals. German-based studio Crytek, which developed the first game, is the lead developer of the sequel, along with help from Crytek UK, formerly Free Radical. It is the first game using the new engine CryEngine 3. The Microsoft Windows version is built on DirectX 9, with an optional DirectX 11 add-on. Crytek looked to surpass the original Crysis, which was still a benchmark of PC graphical performance as of 2011.”

    If they had only lengthened the timespan of development, focused their resources and manpower during its development and the budget for its development were large enough, Crysis 3 would be a guaranteed Blockbuster FPS Game during the year of its release.