German game developer Crytek, the maker of Crysis and the CryEngine game engine, has sold its Crytek Black Sea studio in Bulgaria to Sega and its Creative Assembly division.
Under the deal, Crytek Black Sea will become part of The Creative Assembly, which is based in the United Kingdom and makes the Total War series of real-time strategy games. Crytek has been struggling under a cash crunch.
Under its new ownership, the development team of 60 people will now operate as Creative Assembly Sofia.
Crytek’s managing director, Avni Yerli, said in a statement, “In the past few weeks, we have worked closely with Creative Assembly and the team in Sofia [Bulgaria] to ensure that the talented staff at Crytek Black Sea would be well taken care of.”
He added, “We are delighted to be able to announce that Sega’s acquisition of Crytek Black Sea has been finalized along with the studio’s transition from Crytek to Creative Assembly. This change is a part of the essential steps we are taking to re-focus on our core competencies and ensure Crytek is a healthy and sustainable business moving forward. We would like to thank the Sofia team for their passion and dedication and are looking forward to seeing them do great things as part of Creative Assembly.”