I got hit by II, back in 2010. They hired an intern, asked me to train her... a month later, I was laid off.
Also, I knew a number of people who worked for a local video game company who got the axe after their paychecks had been late for a while. They were all complaining that they haven't been paid in about two months, and then one day the CEO calls people into his office one at a time... 11 people were let go that day. A bunch more got the axe about a month later. They weren't a big company. It took a while for them to get their final paychecks, and I think that was only because a couple of them threatened to sue.
(edit: just to make this clear, I didn't work at that video game company, but several friends of mine did, and I got to hear the stories)
It wasn't. The company I'm talking about was based in a suburb of Dallas and only had the one office. In fact, I believe that after the layoffs they actually got rid of their office for a while and worked out of the CEO's house for a bit before they could afford to rent space again.
Much smaller and lower-profile than Crytek, though they still have their own Wikipedia article.
By the way, even before the layoffs, the CEO was notorious for firing anyone he felt had a "bad attitude", including a world-renowned living legend of a developer who was suffering from severe depression and had been previously hospitalized for a suicide attempt.
He was known for working his employees to the bone, developers regularly slept at the office, and the company was a caricature of every overtime-happy game developer. One of my friends took up smoking and was addicted for a few years because the only way she was allowed to leave her desk was to go on a smoke break and sitting in one place for so long was getting physically painful. They also had a policy where no matter how late you stayed the previous night, even if you were there until 3am, you had to be in by 10am the next day or they'd dock you a vacation day.
Also, I knew a number of people who worked for a local video game company who got the axe after their paychecks had been late for a while. They were all complaining that they haven't been paid in about two months, and then one day the CEO calls people into his office one at a time... 11 people were let go that day. A bunch more got the axe about a month later. They weren't a big company. It took a while for them to get their final paychecks, and I think that was only because a couple of them threatened to sue.
(edit: just to make this clear, I didn't work at that video game company, but several friends of mine did, and I got to hear the stories)