Crysis 4 is on hold as developer Crytek announces layoffs

Crytek is laying off around 15 percent of its 400 employees, affecting development teams and shared services. The announcement comes months after Crytek put the development of its next Crysis game “on hold” in Q3, 2024.

“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,” says Crytek in a statement. “It pains us greatly to share today that we must lay off an estimated 15 percent of our around 400 employees.”

Crytek has been shifting developers over to Hunt: Showdown 1896, its multiplayer extraction shooter. “While Hunt: Showdown 1896 is still growing, Crytek cannot continue as before and remain financially sustainable,” says Crytek. “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.“

Crysis 4 was originally announced three years ago with a teaser trailer, when the game was in the early stages of development. Crytek now appears to be focused primarily on its live service game, instead of the single player Crysis franchise that created the “But can it run Crysis?” meme that mocked the original game’s hardware requirements.

Crytek’s layoffs come just a day after Unity announced a fresh round of layoffs, and after a report revealed last month that one in 10 game developers lost their jobs in 2024 alone. Layoffs have ravaged the gaming industry over the past two years, alongside the failure of a number of big-budget live-service games.