Crytek invests half a billion dollars in Turkish facility

The Prime Minister of Turkey, Binali Yıldırım, claims that game company Crytek will invest 500 million dollars in a branch in Turkey. The announcement comes a week after it became known that Crytek is carrying out a major reorganization.

Yıldırım does not mention Crytek by name, but it is clear from his wording that it concerns the company in question. “There is a man from Giresun who lives in Germany and who is one of the leaders of the game industry. They come and go to invest in Turkey,” he said, according to Hard Avenue, which includes a video with the statements.

Crytek was founded in Germany in 1999 by three Turkish brothers from Giresun: Cevat, Avni and Faruk Yerli. The news about the $500 million investment in Turkey is striking as Crytek announced last week that it is about to close its studio in Istanbul, as well as those in Budapest, Sofia, Seoul, and Shanghai. The company wants to focus on the studios in Frankfurt and Kiev.

Initially, Hard Avenue wrote that Crytek received an investment of half a billion dollars from the Turkish government, which can then be used to keep the studio open in Turkey, but according to Crytek Istanbul this is not correct. It is not known where the intended 500 million euros that Yıldırım will invest in the Turkish branch will come from.

Crytek has been in financial trouble for some time and recently there were reports of late payments and non-payment or late payment of wages. The company became known for the Crysis series and receives funding through licensing agreements for the CryEngine. In recent years, the company has mainly focused on VR games, such as The Climb for the Oculus Rift and Robinson The Journey for the PlayStation VR.