Crytek Sofia developers re-form Black Sea Games

A new studio has already risen from the ashes of one of Crytek's recently closed studios.

Crytek announced last week that it would be closing a number of its studios, including offices in Budapest, Sofia, Seoul, Shanghai. It followed cash-flow issues that meant the management were unable to pay staff for two months.

The Sofia studio was originally called Black Sea Studios before Crytek purchased it in 2008, and was rebranded Crytek Black Sea. The team's output includes Knights of Honor, WorldShift and Arena of Fate.

Now Black Sea Games has returned as an independent outfit. It is led by Vesselin Handjiev, who founded the original Black Sea in 2001 and was the MD of the studio under Crytek until September this year. The new company was formed in November, which suggests that re-launching the studio had been on the cards for a while, and predates the recent issues Crytek had in terms of paying employees.

Michael Peykov is the firm's technical director, and he also hailed from Black Sea Games.

The firm said in a statement: "Our mission is to create hard-core games that will entertain players over and over again. We believe the best gaming experiences are coming from challenging the players with meaningful choices, while giving them the freedom to create (and share) their own in-game stories."

Black Sea Games has already begun work on an unannounced game.