Crytek has brought many critically-acclaimed video games to life in its internal studios. Far Cry, the Crysis series, Ryse, and most recently Robinson: The Journey were all products of the eight Crytek studios around the world. However, after rumors of unpaid wages and internal financial struggles, Crytek has announced that Crytek Studios in Budapest, Hungary; Sofia, Bulgaria; Shanghai, China; Seoul, South Korea; and Istanbul, Turkey would be closing.

The Crytek press release is vague as to what caused the decision to close these five studios. In fact, they only indirection acknowledge the closings at all, stating:

As part of the changes, Crytek will concentrate on development in its Frankfurt and Kiev studios and continue to develop and work on premium IPs.[...]All other development studios will not remain within Crytek and management has put plans into action to secure jobs and to ensure a smooth transition and stable future.

Development on CryEngine will continue to be a focal point of Crytek's operations, and updates will continue to be released for it. Crytek will also "continue to develop and work on premium IPs," which is probably code for their free-to-play shooter Warface. In fact, one of only two Crytek facilities remaining open is Crytek Kiev, the studio responsible for the development of Warface.

Part of this restructuring is likely due to the rumored injection of funds from Mail.ru. Mail.ru holds control over the three largest Russian social networking sites, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, and Moi Mir, which are great platforms to advertise free-to-play games. It's said that Mail.ru is buying the rights to Warface from Crytek as well as the rights to its sequel currently in development, Warface 2.

Crytek has yet to confirm their business association with Mail.ru. It remains to be seen whether the company can pull themselves out of the risk of bankruptcy with this latest restructuring.