PC gaming died - Crysis 4 suspended indefinitely

Crytek just announced the suspension on the development of Crysis 4. They'll also be laying off 15 percent of their workforce (which was 400 strong).

Instead they will be focussing soley on Hunt Showdown from now on.

I'm very deeply saddened by this news, as Crysis 4 always sounded like a game I wanted. I guess there is no longer any point in upgrading my PC, as PC gaming died today.

Crytek is way too big for a game studio that seemingly hasn't released a big AAA in a decade is just crazy! Really sad to hear about Crysis 4 being on-hold, we need Crysis 4 for the meme of benchmarking every PC to see if it can run it. If they were working on Ryse 2, I'd be all over that as well.

The Pee Salty Seas are very angry and turbulent this time of year. lol :P

@davillain: a lot of companies bank on one big live service game. R* with GTA V, Crytek with Hunt Showdown.

Combine this with the insane money any game costs to make and there is a reason why we see so very little singleplayer fps appear from big studios.

I loved Crysis 1 and 3, but I think this is the right move.

I'm not sure if the game could sell enough in this gaming climate to justify further development and the costs associated with it.

Would've been cool to see and play, but I think Crysis fans are all grown up and have moved on........like me lol

That's ok I never liked Crysis. Crytek as a company as well have an odd policy of "graphics are more important than gameplay" which frankly I cannot get behind.

More of a Quake, Unreal & D00M person.

Team Fortress and Half Life are also fine.

Outside the listed games feel when people think of P.C. gaming they're thinking of: Runescape, PUBG, Diablo, & The Sims.

Also seems only a vocal minority gave any shits for Crysis and was really the tech demo of "can my rig handle this game". Crysis came out around the same time as Super Mario Galaxy, Portal, & Modern Warfare. When people think of games released in 2007 (which was a crazy stacked year) Crysis isn't as fondly remembered as you'd be lead to believe when compared to something like I dunno.. Team Fortress 2.

Far Cry and Crysis were part benchmarks, but they were also really really great games, well at least Crysis is a game I consider infinitely replayable.

@R4gn4r0k: I played it a long while back in the 2010's when I was having a bit of a First Person Shooter craving, of all the shooters I played at the time Crysis kinda pissed me off the most. Felt the pacing was awful, A.I. had overtuned tracking, and those vechile sections can just go **** themselves.

Released around the same time as Halo 3, and I look back at that game way more fondly. Replayed Halo 3 in 2024 and it's still a good shooter. Have zero interest revisiting Crysis.

Sad for your lose of a desired sequel though, that sucks. Seems they don't value Single-Player games when it just won't make the money back. If I had to guess they looked at sales from the Crysis remaster and said "it didn't sell boys close the shop"

Crysis and Crytek were still relevant? I though both vanished after Cevat Yerli ruined Crysis (2,3) franchise to please EA.

@RSM-HQ: agree to disagree. To me Halo 3 feels indistinguishable from Halo CE.

Meanwhile Crysis 1 is one of the most unique FPS ever made with levels that aren't quite open but they're not quite linear either

Add to that the powers which truly make this an immersive sim experience.

@R4gn4r0k: It is unique I'll give the game that much. Had a very slick organic clean look to it and clearly inspired by the movie Predator. Around this time bloom & grit filters consumed most games so it was visually delightful. The powers are cool too. Don't recall looking back on the map that fondly but it was a larger map in a time map design in most games became super linear (D00M 3 being abysmal)

Suppose for me I always look back on games from a gameplay angle and rarely anything else, couldn't care less that it was the best looking game for close to a decade. Wouldn't be in love with games like Dusk if I counted pixels and polygons. Though everyone will have differing preferences.

Regardless don't give up hope yet for a sequel, they may change that tune when Hunt Showdown stops printing money.

Yeah they still have a bunch of employees, so who knows.

Oh yeah man, Dusk is great, but Dusk HD is just such a great expansion for those that want a tiny bit better graphics.

Crysis, what can I say. I really love that the game will present you with a side objective and you can do it in any way possible. I also like small sandbox levels; Games like Dishonored are open ended but they have so many possibilities in actually small and intricate levels. Love it.

@R4gn4r0k: A member of the community (over on Games Discussion) recommended Dishonored for years and I eventually bite the bullet and gave it a go. What a joy that game is. Had a ton of glitches, but my experience with it was.. whaw, the level design was amazing. Such a fun game from start to finish.

Felt like a modern twist hybrid of Thief & Deus Ex.

Arkane does carry that torch.

Good news there is more where that came from:

Dishonored 2, Prey (which recently got a DLSS and HDR mod) and Deathloop all play like that and all reward player choices and player agency.

And this is one of the main guys behind Dishonored 1 and he's also working on a new game with his studio Wolfeye games, which is looking a lot like Dishonored meets Fallout from the artwork that got shown.

Crytek having 2,660+ employees a more of the shocker to me.

nice to see you finally posting in system wars my friend. got to say though, i think this is a bad take.

i'll never forget the first time i played crysis and falling in love with the amount of creativity and freedom the gameplay afforded you.

there's a moment early on where you can stray off the beaten jungle track and end up at an outpost at the top of a hill overlooking a coastal village where there's a hostage you need to rescue.

scan the village through your sniper rifle scope and your options of engagement are rich. go via the coast and infiltrate side on from the beach. snipe enemies at the guard posts to draw them out and into the jungle. blow up the fuel station on the other side of the village with a missile launcher to pull enemies away from the building your hostage is in. steal a jeep and drive kamikaze style in through the main gate. ghost into the village predator style and pick off enemies silently one by one. or any combo of the above.

it really was an amazing moment of freedom and play-your-own-way in gaming.

the quality of graphics were really just the icing on the cake, but they were such an evolutionary leap they were the best layer of icing ever, plus a big cherry on top.

the game isn't without its faults. agree with you saying the vehicle section - tank and vtol were its weakest parts. and the alien ship part was a bit weird and disorientating. some people complain that it switched to a more linear style for the last third but totally miss the point that it needed to do to elicit urgency based on what was happening in the story.

on topic - didn't even realise a fourth was in the making. would have set expectations to very low if it was still going ahead. 2 was disappointing, not without its moments, but it was a very weird sequel that didn't follow on from the first in any sort of coherent way. and 3 was just bad. really disliked it. i do hear good things about hunt showdown though so maybe c4 had a chance. guess we'll never know

GD is just not as active as it is here in SW but this isn't saying much though. But yes, I agree it's nice to see someone who is more active coming to SW to say the least. GD is still ok but not as good as it used to be.

Welcome to SW RSM-HQ.

@Pedro: there's this article a few years back about Crytek suspending pay for their employees as they were on the brink of bankruptcy.

They had to sell a bunch of assets and the Crytek engine to Amazon (who has been using it as Lumberyard ever since for their games).

Also Cevat Yerli left the company to his brother(s) at that point.

You're saying they have now rehired to 2600+?

No Crysis 4 on PC? Guess I'm going back to consoles :( lol

I forgot Crytek were still a thing.

This is me right now:

I'm going back to the original Gameboy

Oh well there are other choices to choose from right now to the last 6 decades

Don't really care about Crysis, but Hunt: Showdown is pretty rad. Glad that game is still around.

There, there Hermits you can look forward to GTA 6 this year, oh wait...nevermind 🤣

I misread the 400 strong as the 15%.

@boiled-hotdug said:

No Crysis 4 on PC? Guess I'm going back to consoles :( lol

@R4gn4r0k said:

This is me right now:

I'm going back to the original Gameboy

😂😂😂

That's a shame. I really like the series, good and bad.

Crysis 1 is still one of my favorite shooters of all time. It had the perfect blend of open-ended gameplay, sandbox level design, without going into the yawn-inducing open-world gameplay mechanic of the Far Cry series and so forth. The game mechanics were solid, and there was no hand-holding which was nice, but also led to some criticism from the simpletons since they could be bothered to be creative when they play the game.

I gave the game a lot of shit when Crysis 2 came out because it was "consolified" to the lowest-common denominator, the console owners. But after replaying it a few years after release, I actually kind of enjoyed it quite a bit.

Really enjoyed Crysis 3, too, that bow was so much fun.

The story was corny but I kind of liked it, too. It was like a current-version of a Weyland-Yutani supercorp ruining things during an alien invasion or something.

The Hunt: Showdown seems like it has a pretty active community and is much loved, but yeah, you're right...they just aren't putting out the big games.

I recall them having some financial issues a few years ago, not being able to pay their emplyees and such.

crytek has been a money pit after their first crysis game.

They sold out PC gamers with Crysis 2/3.

Probably be console focused again, so sympathy is kind of non-existent.

@uninspiredcup: I enjoyed Crysis 2 more than 1.🙃

Yeah, it's interesting they have been able to ride the remaster bandwagon for years to help finance their future endeavors... and still come up short with that.

I think they get some good money from licensing their game engine, maybe?

Though TBH I am not sure how many games these days are really using it.

*Hmm not that many games, really.

Not too broken up as I think Crysis 1 is terrible and the other 2 are okish.... but i do worry this type of thing could become more common.

(Focusing on 1 game forever and not making new ones)

I think Sony games have been new Crytek on PCs. All Sony exclusives have been visual masterpieces that require beefy PCs to max. Instead of Crysis, now you should say "Can it run TLOU2 or GOW Ragnarok?" 🙂

Not a popular opinion, but Crysis 1-2 were kinda bad games. I think Crysis 3 was the best in the series, graphically and gameplay wise. It's a shame that the 3 was a commertial flop. No wonder they cancelled the 4th.

The 400 is the total number, not the fired 15%. But even 400 is insane for a dev that's only been updating their online shooter.

Unless they find a big investor

@Macutchi: Kind of dropped in during the new year, just felt right to give it a go. Some of the posts and comments are complete brainrot, but trying to avoid the dumbest ones whenever possible.

As for my take, we've discussed Crysis in the past. If you like the game that's all well and good, my experience with it is less positive. Games such as Crysis have a lot of redeeming qualities even if they don't cater towards my interest. It's not a bad game, and likely because played it well over a decade a go, & I was far less patient back then namely because I played a lot of Tekken 6 in the arcade. Seeking FPS games with a more rapid flow. Probably would have a different take if I played Crysis now, just don't have enough fondness with my time to consider going back. & feel the parts I really don't like about Crysis would be just as if not more annoying now.

On a later discussed note if memory serves well you're the one who praised Dishonored a ton and suggested more people play it. Always appreciate that recommendation, it's a solid game with top tier level design.

@RSM-HQ: yeah that's probably me lol, i'm a big dishonored fanboy. the second is even better than the first, beats it in almost every respect, including level design, believe it or not. well worth a purchase if you haven't already had the pleasure, it didn't get the recognition it deserved commercially or critically (it got an 8 on here).

it is interesting that you appreciate dishonored but crysis didn't click with you when fundamentally they're centred around the same principle of rewarding creativity. the game goes - "here's your toolset, here's the environment, now go have fun." and you as the player get to experiment in that sandbox asking "can i do this? will the game let me?" and the answer from the game is generally "yes you can." i love that.

and yeah there's a lot of brainrot in system wars, it's always had oddballs, just let them argue amongst themselves.

ironically you've finally jumped in at a time when it's really in decline. i've barely been on here for a while, there's just not much of interest these days. in the last 12-18 months feels like nearly all serious game discussion has drained out of here. used to be where you'd get threads of 10+ pages of game debate. or you'd at least get good game discussions going in the lounge. nowadays the threads that reach more than one page are almost always political, which i have no interest in, or threads hating on <insert game, genre, company etc. here>, which is fine and all, sometimes warranted, but it gets tedious when people's identities are built around cynicism and hating things and that's all they post about

@Macutchi: What I love about Dishonored 2 is the lady boyle's final party approach: they wanted every mission to be fully unique and stand out.

I also believe Dishonored 2 beats the original in every way except for one:

I just really like Dunwall lol. I rate Karnaca really highly but I just want to see more of Dunwall rendered on the beautiful Void engine, hehe

@Macutchi: Tried Dishonored 2 for a few hours, think I just got burnt out and ran into some odd glitches, it's on my backlog to give a proper go in the future. Looked up guides to get some fan patches so my return should be smooth.

Feel telling anyone who may not have played either that Crysis is comparable to Dishonored maybe misleading, and if anything that sets up expectations going into Crysis. When a game is loved but extremely niche such as Crysis I always find it better to not set the bar so high. One of the reasons Crysis didn't click with me believe is because I played a ton of FPS games back to back, many being exceptional masterpieces talked and played fondly today. Now does that make Crysis bad? no, however I do personally believe it's a required taste. The Remaster failed to sell and is one of the key reasons the sequel has been cancelled, interest isn't high for Crysis and it won't make money from a new entry, if the Remaster sold millions this Post would have a more positive vibe to it overall. People who have played the Remaster even now are not exactly singing its praises, but instead noting "it's alright".

These forums have been on a decline for a long time, however something about that can be interesting. I can get more volume chatting about games on a Discord server for sure, I've been a community member of 4Gamer longer than I've been here which is all Discord-based now. Yet something that lacks is intimacy. & that keeps me coming back here.

Some of the smaller chats with someone who generally wants to talk and geek out about games is.. well the reason I came to Forums to begin with (outside learning English). Was chatting on Games Discussion about 3D Slashers with someone who was curious because of the new Ninja Gaiden. Many great suggestions but couldn't help notice a lot of the games being mentioned are Dark Soul clones. And it blew my mind realizing how dead 3D Slashers have been for many, many years. They kinda died when DMC and NG games took a break, till the recent resurgence thanks to Devil May Cry 5. Chats like that are great.

If this site did have more attention & funding System-Wars would benefit with a filter for brainrot for sure. Even then System-Wars is surprisingly far more tame than GFAQ even today, the fanbois and baiters have to step it up. Thought I'd walk into something much worse.

Hope you don't mind if I'm gone a while when the new Monster Hunter comes out at the months end. It's Monster Hunter.

Crysis 3 was kinda meh anyways.

@Heil68: sure, it was. But the original and Warhead still kick ass.

If you haven't, check out the remaster of the first.

Oh. That's it then? Dead you say? ....Suppose I better pack up my PC so. It had a good run. Maybe sell it? Nah...if it's dead, it's dead. You were too good for this world Icecreamkitty.

Yeah that's a company that has been comically mismanaged. I'm amazed they are still operating to be honest. I played Crysis 1 and it was a technical tour de force. Not just in graphics but also the underlying simulation. Not many games around where you can take down a helicopter by hurling a chicken at it. Really cool destruction physics.

The enemies absorbed way too much damage though. I found the combat a bit of a slog. Needed more chickens. I admit: I always cheated a bit. A few tweaks to the setting file made stealth a lot more useful. Not unlimited stealth but enough. That made the game a lot more fun.