While they developed very interesting technology and franchises, Crytek has been struggling with finances over the last few years. Until today, the software developer has been operating out of seven studios throughout Europe and Asia. Today, they announced that five of these (Budapest, Hungary; Sofia, Bulgaria; Seoul, South Korea; Shanghai, China; and Istanbul, Turkey) will shut down, leaving Frankfurt, Germany and Kiev, Ukraine as the only two up and running.

The press release includes a quote from the co-founder, Avni Yerli, that I found interesting:

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. These changes are part of the essential steps we are taking to ensure Crytek is a healthy and sustainable business moving forward that can continue to attract and nurture our industry’s top talent. The reasons for this have been communicated internally along the way. 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.

Specifically, the “attractive” adjective assigned to his studio. I can think of two reasons why this word would be used, each with very different connotations. It’s possible that this words is used to reassure talented engineers that would, if it wasn’t for these concerns, consider working at the company. It’s also possible that they are trying to telegraph to the world that they are interested in being acquired.

Still, this is definitely a tough time for many employees and former-employees of Crytek. I don't want to layer too much analysis over this.