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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Crytek In Deep Trouble – Adoption of CryEngine Not Good, Ryse Development Catastrophic (Update: Crytek denies claim)

MoHasanie on 23 June 2014
HoloDust said:

Yes it is a major factor. Cost of development in Poland, Czech Republic, Russia, Ukraine or some other similar country is much lower than in US.

Also Canada. 



    

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HoloDust on 23 June 2014
Scisca said:
HoloDust said:

Yes it is a major factor. Cost of development in Poland, Czech Republic, Russia, Ukraine or some other similar country is much lower than in US.

Which does not mean per se that CDRP is not more efficient (as they're pobably are) than Bethesda or Crytek, and that dev costs are lower simply due to coutry in which they are located.


The only difference is in the wages for devs. In this part of Europe, when a person earns $30k a year, he's like a king :P $20k would also be considered a very good wage especially for a young person like a programmer. So there are savings in this area, but when you have to pay licences, fees, buy hardware etc. - it's the same everywhere. So savings are there, but they aren't large enough to justify Witcher 3 being made for 15 mil and Crysis 3 being made for 66 mil. I think the real difference is that CDPR hasn't gone crazy about their achievements, they aren't throwing cash left and right, but have their feet firmly planted in the groud and are reasonable about the budgets and their earnings. They have shown many times they prefer to take babysteps to risky big leaps and it is paying thus far. Everything they do on their own does seem to work out really well - The Witcher series (I hope for PS4/Xbone remakes of 1 & 2), GOG.com and hopefully Cyberpunk 2077 will be a success as well.

 

I think the real reason why Crytek is going bust is because they missed the Vita train. Companies would be buying tons of licences of a Vita port of CryEngine to develop all those AAA Western Vita games in it!! That was the nail in the coffin I tell ya!

I think that people hugely underestimate how important this part is.

Imagine that you hypothetically have 200 strong team (like on Witcher 3) - in several reports (and you mentioned it too) I've seen $20K as average annual salary for programmers. Compare that to around $80-90K in US (salary reports from Gamasutra) and do some math and you will get to $4 millions in Poland vs $16-18 millions in US...per year.

(There's a good interview with Jack Rubin about development of Metro: Last Light, under what conditions it was made and how cheap it was made (compared to western counterparts) due to being made in Ukraine under not so great conditions.)

Not defending CryTek here, they were gone in my eyes long time ago, but there is a significant difference depending in which country you're developing your game (and, from what I've seen, Germany is just slightly less expensive than US).



torok on 23 June 2014
zarx said:
HoloDust said:


Good for them?

Anyway, Skyrim cost $85 millions (with marketing), Witcher 3, which is also open world RPG and is supposed to be bigger, is $15 millions + $25 millions for marketing.


It should be noted that budget was before they put an extra 50+ people onto the development team and delayed it a few months. It's probably a lot higher now.

 

Despite all that, the fact they are reserving a good part of budget for marketing is a smart decision. That could make Witcher 3 the most succesfull of the series (supposing the other games didn't had all that marketing budget).



Bet with jetforcejiminy: PS4 will pass the Wii lifetime numbers.

torok on 23 June 2014
Scisca said:
 


It was done even earlier in Dead Island, not really a new idea. Still, whether they include it or not, an action game set in the Roman period is a recipe for success. I have no idea how they managed to mess it up, but a sequel done right would be massive. I can see why they don't want to get rid of the IP, if that alone won't save the company.

 

Didn't knew about the use of this mechaninc on DI, they were probably the first to do it. And not only being a action game on Roman period, but it was a graphical powerhouse and launch titles, two things that really help a title. But honestly, I think the report is BS. Ryse was exclusive, so it's highly likely that MS funded it. The game sold almost 1M (probably more with digital) in a few months. And unlike Crysis games were they were adding engine development costs to the budget, this one was made with their current engine. It's not a long game so it doesn't look that expensive to make.

Edit: Actually, I was wrong. Ryse started on 360 and changed from first to third person, changed to motion controls and then returned to regular controls, development was a mess. http://www.polygon.com/e3-2013/2013/6/10/4395790/ryse-seven-year-development



Bet with jetforcejiminy: PS4 will pass the Wii lifetime numbers.

MoHasanie on 23 June 2014

Crytek has denied the claim: 

Crysis developer Crytek denies "verge of bankruptcy" claim

A recent report from German magazine GameStar claimed Crytek, which has its headquarters in Frankfurt, was in financial trouble and that the development of Xbox One exclusive Ryse: Son of Rome had been a "disaster".

Our colleagues at Eurogamer Germany looked into the report, and gave me the following translation:

"'The vultures are circling already,' so says a leading employee of one of the large publishers. Companies like this have already started making offers to the most talented people at Crytek, to hire them away. Such a brain drain can become dangerous for any studio, even a financially stable one.

"A takeover of Crytek would be interesting for a company, that could use the development-experience of the Crytek and doesn't want to build up such experience itself. That is why the Belarus F2P-giant Wargaming is rumoured to be a potential buyer.

"When you are reading this, there is hope that Crytek has managed to avoid disaster. A new source of money, said Avni Yerli [one of the managing directors], is in sight. When we called him in early June, the contract had not yet been signed, but will be in a short while. 'Not all is good. Our transition to become a F2P-studio had been painful. But all that is now behind us.'"

Responding to our enquiries, Crytek dismissed the GameStar report.

A Crytek spokesperson issued Eurogamer the following statement:

"Regardless of what some media are reporting, mostly based on a recent article published by GameStar, the information in those reports and in the GameStar article itself are rumors which Crytek deny.

"We continue to focus on the development and publishing of our upcoming titles Homefront: The Revolution, Hunt: Horrors of the Gilded Age, Arena of Fate, and Warface, as well as providing ongoing support for our CryEngine and its licensees.

"We have received a lot of positive feedback during and after E3 from both gaming press and gamers, and would like to thank our loyal employees, fans and business partners for their continuous support."

Crytek has a number of studios worldwide, and has recently announced a number of games in development, including Homefront: The Revolution at Crytek UK in Nottingham and Hunt: Horrors of the Gilded Age at Crytek USA in Austin, Texas. It also has a game engine licensing business for CryEngine.Before E3 one source told Eurogamer staff at Crytek's Sofia office in Bulgaria hadn't received salaries for the past two months.

Eurogamer has also received worrying reports coming out of Crytek UK, which is rumoured to have failed to pay employees on time. Management have been accused by some staff of a lack of transparency over these issues, and many are disgruntled, Eurogamer has heard.

But Crytek may have secured investment and thus its future - in the short term at least. The GameStar report mentions a potential buyout by World of Tanks maker Wargaming, but Eurogamer has heard investment from a Chinese firm may have been tabled.



    

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kitler53 on 23 June 2014
curl-6 said:
fatslob-:O said:
curl-6 said:

Good games get pirated just as much as bad ones. Pirates don't discriminate; they want it, they steal it.

Pirates do discriminate and any game that sells well is a good game in my book plus they have otherways of getting games dirt cheap via steam ... 

If piracy was such an issue then why didn't publishers take drastic measure such as delaying PC ports and such ? 

The fact that there are pretty much zero AAA budget PC exclusives still being made speaks volumes about the impact piracy has on their viability. 


the PC guys are going to gang up on you but i appreciate you truth-telling it like it is.

i have a group of friends that are doctors and engineers with household incomes of 200k+ that litterally pay a ~$30 monthly fee of for some service that does IP masking so that they can illegally download games, movies, and tv without fear of getting caught.   ..and sometimes i just want to punch them in the face.