‘Warface’ Devs Split from Crytek, Form Blackwood Games

The Crytek team behind “Warface” is splitting from the Kiev developer to form a new independent studio which will continue to work on the six-year-old game, Crytek announced on Wednesday.

The new indie developer, called Blackwood Games, was formed by “Warface” creative director Michael Khaimzon, and includes the current development team for the game.

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“The ‘Warface’ development team has always inspired us.” said Crytek CEO Avni Yerli in a prepared statement.”To go independent so as to enable a closer partnership with the game’s publisher is a strategic move, and as we all agree, it is in the game’s best interests. At the same time, this reorganization will allow us to focus on our own core IPs and long-term plans.”

“It was a tough decision to leave Crytek after all these years, but sometimes you need to change to continue to evolve. For us, it is very important to focus on developing ‘Warface’ in a way that lives up to player expectations,” said Michael Khaimzon, Blackwood Games Creative Director. “We have kept the development team intact and their expertise will allow us to move forward with our plans and ideas. And we’re very thankful to Crytek for all the great years together and for their commendable support on this matter.”

“Warface” is a free-to-play first-person shooter that first launched to PC in 2013, followed by a release to Xbox 360 in 2014. “Warface” started offering a battle royale mode in 2017 before launching on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in late summer the following year. At its peak in 2014, “Warface” boasted 25 million players.

Earlier this year Crytek announced it would be partnering with technology company Improbable on a still unannounced AAA project. The new game will use Crytek’s game engine, called CryEngine, and Improbable’s SpatialOS, a cloud platform for real-time multiplayer games.

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