Video Game Reviews 4 You

Posted September 7, 2011 by M.H. Williams

One week ago, an anonymous Tumblr blog opened with some harsh accusations about the working practices at Crytek following the development of Crysis 2. Allegations include the unlawful firing of certain employees in order to replace them with cheaper junior staff. In an interview with Develop, Crytek co-founder Avni Yerli spoke out against some of the claims, calling them “absolute bullshit”.

“These are completely misleading accusations. One thing that will always be the same is that Crytek respects and values its employees very highly, and equally – that’s very important. Whether it’s an intern, whether it’s a director, it doesn’t change; everyone is important,” said Yerli.

The Tumblr noted that the following positions resigned due to poor working conditions or were unlawfully fired: Global Talent Manager, Global Head of Resourceful Humans, Lead Games Designer / Senior AI Designer, Lead Community Manager, Community Manager, Lead Researcher, Storyboard and Concept Artist, Concept Artist, Producer, Executive Producer, Chief Finance Officer, Senior Level Designer, Level/Environment Artist, Technical Artist, Level Designer, Web Developer. Yerli repeatedly stated that a number of the vacant positions were due to employees leaving of their own volition to pursue other opportunities.

“The current number of employees in the new Frankfurt office is equal to the peak number of employees we had during the production of Crysis 2. That’s the thing; in the normal way that projects work, people will leave during a long production or during the end of it. People have families, have job offers, are offered interesting projects, or just want to move to a different country,” he explained. “So of course people have left Crytek, but people have joined as well, and most people have left on their own actions.”

“In some cases we ask people to leave, because going forward there are different projects and different people needed. But in this case, we always, always comply to German labor codes. And we are always supportive to those staff in ways that are far beyond what is legally required,” he continued. “Most important thing to say is that nine resigned, one was a contractor, and four were released. Two of those ended in court cases which we won. So never have we lost a case in accordance to labor cause.”

“The senior level designer wasn’t released, he left the company to look for a new challenge. He was here for a couple of years, worked on a few projects and moved on,” he said. “It was strange to read the list of people on that blog, such as the chief finance officer. We don’t have one. We had a guy in finance, and he resigned, and we have just hired a high-profile chief finance officer.”

Yerli believes the blog was meant to harm the developer.

“To be honest, it was just really surprising and disappointing to read something like this blog,” Yerli added. “That’s the thing, this blog is very misleading. I think it was written to purposefully harm us, actually. I think the blog is unfair to the people who are working here at Crytek. It harms the great work they’ve done.”