Homefront: The Revolution, the first-person franchise revival by Crytek UK, only got announced a few weeks ago – but the project already appears to be in tatters. Widespread reports suggest that the firm formerly known as Free Radical has been working without pay cheques for months, and is now on the verge of collapsing like a Greater Korean Republic invaded United States.
Fresh from reports of walkouts at the ex-Timesplitters outfit, Kotaku now claims that game director Hasit Zala has quit his role at the studio. It seems that development manager Ben Harris has also departed, as referenced in his Linked In profile. Naturally, there’s turnover on any project, but given the recent rumours, and the standing of these staffers, things are looking a bit bleak.
While nothing’s actually confirmed at this stage, the exits appear to be connected to rumours coming out of German magazine GameStar last month, which claimed that the company was close to bankruptcy. The organisation still strongly denies those reports, but with CryEngine adoption seemingly low, and Crysis not quite the juggernaut that it once was, it doesn’t sound impossible, does it?
Of course, we suspect that this story is going to run longer than a resistance effort against a heavily armed foreign foe, so we’ll keep you up to date with any future developments. That ol’ Homefront franchise does appear to be cursed, though, doesn’t it?
[source kotaku.com, via joystiq.com]
Comments 9
I have to be honest, I didn't mind the campaign at all on HOMEFRONT, I quite enjoyed it.
Well crap, I was looking forward to the new Homefront. Oh well, I guess it's one less FPS I have to buy I suppose...
There was a rumor about Sony looking into buying the studio
Well I hope crytek doesn't disappear I was looking forward to Hunt: horrors of the gilded age 😔
I quite enjoyed homefront lots of fun, but its no great loss, the game was very short, fairly predictable and somewhat lacking in invention.
@N711 Did that come from Tidux?
@get2sammyb That is where all this came from with Sony in talks of buying Crytek. It just doesn't sound like something Sony would do. Sony usually buys development companies not when they are at their peak of popularity or whatever, they buy them when they are either indie developers or just when they go mainstream.
I thought Crytek were getting into the F2P side of gaming. Thats what they said coming off the back of Crysis 3. Maybe they shouldn't have made Ryse. I have met a few of the guys from Crytek UK when they were working on the Crysis 2 mp and they seemed like nice people. I wish them all the luck for the future.
@get2sammyb Psst! I heard from someone on the inside, that the PS4 will get a new exclusive game announcement at Gamescom. From a multi million selling studio. See? Easy.
People are jumping ship and apparently everybody at Crytek UK want to work on Timesplitters. Speaks volumes regarding how they approach this project.
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