Following a reported year of financial difficulties, Crytek has announced that it has shut down all of its studios -- bar its studios in Frankfurt and Kiev --  in order to "refocus on its core strengths of developing innovative games and game-development technology." Specifically, the studios in Bulgaria (Crytek Black Sea), Hungary (Crytek Budapest), China (Crytek Shanghai), Turkey (Crytek Istanbul), and South Korea (Crytek Seoul) have been closed.

The news comes on the back of multiple reports that the developer has had issues all throughout 2016 of paying its employees on time, or in some cases at all. Whether true or not, the reports potential give a bit of insight into why this decision has been made. Crytek has said it "has put plans into action to secure jobs and to ensure a smooth transition and stable future."

Crytek Co-Founder and Managing Director, Avni Yerli accompanied the announcement with the following statement:

“Undergoing such transitions is far from easy, and we’d like to sincerely thank each and every staff member – past and present – for their hard work and commitment to Crytek.

Yerli also went on to say that these changes are part of the essential steps the developer is taking to ensure Crytek remains a "healthy and sustainable business moving forward that can continue to attract and nurture our industry’s top talent."

Yerli continues:

"Our focus now lies entirely on the core strengths that have always defined Crytek – world-class developers, state-of-the-art technology and innovative game development, and we believe that going through this challenging process will make us a more agile, viable, and attractive studio, primed for future success.”

With this disheartening announcement, Crytek has assured fans of the developer that it will continue to concentrate on development and work on premium IPs. Further, that CRYENGINE "will remain a core pillar" of the developers overall strategy, and that enterprise licensees and indie developers alike will continue to be served by regular engine updates.

For those that don't recognize the Crytek name, it is the developer that recently has given us The Climb, Robinson: The Journey, Ryse: Son of Rome, and notably the first Far Cry game and the Crysis series.