All Crytek’s Future Games To Be Free-To-Play

Crytek is a studio synonymous with excellence. They’ve created two different intellectual properties in their span, Crysis and Far Cry, both of which have been lauded by critics for their graphics and gameplay, while Crysis 2 stepped it up by adding a decent story to the mix. They currently have three traditional AAA games in development: Crysis 3, Homefront 2 and the Kinect exclusive, Ryse, in addition to their first Free-to-Play offering, Warface.

According to VideoGamer.com, through an interview with CEO Cevat Yerli, the studios will be turning their focus away from the retail sector once their current contracts are completed, instead creating games exclusively for online and Free-to-Play platforms. This will not, however, result in a drop of quality as they insist on maintaining AAA budgets and production standards:

“As we were developing console games we knew, very clearly, that the future is online and free-to-play.”

“What this entails is that our future, all the new games that we’re working on, as well new projects, new platforms and technologies, are designed around free-to-play and online, with the highest quality development.”

“As is evident in Warface, our approach is to ensure the best quality, console game quality. That implies budgets of between $10m to $30m – so no compromise there – but at the price-point of $0 entry. I think this is a new breed of games that has to happen to change the landscape, and be the most user-friendly business model.”

It may be a distressing move for those that have enjoyed Crytek’s previous games, or were looking for them to bring about a revival of TimeSplitters 4, but business is business and if the company sees this as the most profitable model going forward, more power to them. The interview also includes another interesting little quote from Yerli:

“If you look at what kind of games are done in the packaged goods market, with DLCs and premium services and whatnot, it’s literally milking the customers to death.”

Would you agree with that assessment?