Crytek Halts Crysis 4, Lays Off Up to 60 Employees

Crytek has announced a round of layoffs impacting approximately 60 employees—15% of its roughly 400-strong workforce. The decision was made as the company seeks to maintain financial sustainability while navigating evolving market conditions.

In a recent tweet, Crytek confirmed that although Hunt: Showdown continues to grow, the studio could no longer operate under its current structure without jeopardizing long-term stability. Following the pause on Crysis 4 in late 2024, the company had already begun transitioning staff to Hunt: Showdown 1896 and reduced operational costs. Despite these efforts, layoffs became unavoidable.

The cuts impact members of Crytek’s development teams and shared services departments. Affected employees will receive severance packages and career transition support.

Here is the full statement from Crytek founder Avni Yerli:

Like so many of our peers, we aren’t immune to the complex, unfavorable market dynamics that have hit our industry these past several years. It pains me greatly to share today that we must lay off an estimated 15% of our around 400 employees. The layoffs affect development teams and shared services.

This has not been an easy decision to make, as we deeply appreciate the hard work of our talented teams. After putting the development of the next Crysis game on hold in Q3 2024, we have been trying to shift developers over to Hunt: Showdown 1896.

While Hunt: Showdown 1896 is still growing, Crytek cannot continue as before and remain financially sustainable. Even after ongoing efforts to reduce costs and cut operating expenses, we have determined that layoffs are inevitable to move forward. Crytek will offer affected employees severance packages and career assistance services.

We firmly believe in the future of Crytek. With Hunt: Showdown 1896, we have a very strong gaming service and remain fully committed to its operation. We will continue to expand and evolve Hunt: Showdown 1896 with great content and drive our strategy for our engine CRYENGINE.

Prior to the focus on Crysis 4, Crytek had explored a different direction for the franchise. Last year, it came to light that the studio had worked on a battle royale-inspired Crysis concept internally dubbed Crysis Next. Early prototype footage surfaced on YouTube, showcasing third-person combat within a basic training arena enhanced with Crysis' signature abilities and audio cues.

Although never officially announced, Crysis Next was ultimately shelved in favor of refocusing on Crysis 4, which was formally revealed in January 2022.

The Crysis franchise is renowned for its high-end visuals, dynamic nanosuit mechanics, and open-ended gameplay. The original 2007 title pushed PC hardware to its limits, earning its place as a performance benchmark. Its demanding nature even led to the iconic phrase, “But can it run Crysis?” used widely to assess system capabilities.

Crysis 3, the last numbered entry in the series, launched in February 2013. More recently, Crytek released remastered editions of the first three games. However, aside from the brief teaser in 2022, there has been no further official news regarding [ttpp].