Ex-Crytek UK Game Director Hasit Zala has shed light on the developer’s financial woes of 2014, revealing that “more than a third” of the workforce left after employees went unpaid for weeks on end.
Reflecting on the troubled history of Homefront: The Revolution in an interview with The Guardian, Zala noted that, prior to Deep Silver stepping in to acquire both studio and IP, Crytek UK “ran into financial trouble” that called the fate of the sequel into question.
“In the summer of 2014, Crytek ran into financial trouble. As time went on, promises went back and forth, and we got to the stage where the staff hadn’t been paid for quite some time.”
Upon stepping in, Deep Silver overhauled Crytek UK to become Dambuster Studios, and Zala went on to say that, despite these internal changes, the core team and vision remain.
“We’re still the team that started working on this game back in 2011. Although in 2014, we were a studio of 150-odd people, quite a few of whom hadn’t been paid for weeks; they had mortgages, wives and families – so over a third of the team left at that stage. When we started Dambuster, there was a bit of rebuilding that had to be done. But it’s the same studio: I sit in the same place, and it’s the same code base.”
Homefront: The Revolution is on course to hit PS4, Xbox One and PC on May 17.
[Source: The Guardian]
