Recently it came to light that Far Cry and Crysis developer Crytek had not been paying its employees on time, prompting many to question the studio's future. After all, it wasn't the first time that this had happened and the studio has been in a transitional phase (see: financial strain) for a few years now. In a new statement titled 'Crytek Outlines Future Plans and Focuses on Return to Core Competencies' it revealed that only its Frankfurt and Kiev studios will survive the latest transitional phase.

A change that sounds like the studio will be abandoning its previous free-to-play focus in favour of a return to larger projects. Albeit, without its Budapest (Hungary), Sofia (Bulgaria), Seoul (South Korea), Shanghai (China) and Istanbul (Turkey) studios.

Crytek Co-Founder and Managing Director, Avni Yerli, said: “Undergoing such transitions is far from easy, and we’d like to sincerely thank each and every staff member – past and present – for their hard work and commitment to Crytek. These changes are part of the essential steps we are taking to ensure Crytek is a healthy and sustainable business moving forward that can continue to attract and nurture our industry’s top talent. The reasons for this have been communicated internally along the way. Our focus now lies entirely on the core strengths that have always defined Crytek – world-class developers, state-of-the-art technology and innovative game development, and we believe that going through this challenging process will make us a more agile, viable, and attractive studio, primed for future success.”

The statement goes on to reaffirm that CRYENGINE will remain a core pillar of the studio's efforts, in addition to premium IPs. Following the statement also came news that CRYENGINE has just received a major update that includes NVIDIA’s PhysX integration among many other changes.