Crysis 3 has yet to hit store shelves, but already we are looking to the future and at what developers Crytek have in store to advance the series.
Studio head Cevat Yerli tells Eurogamer that plans for the next Crysis title have been set in motion, though no pre-production has begun and neither has the company decided on a publisher or any business models.
Yerli details the sort of outlook Crytek has on the Crysis series: “…we are excited about the DNA of Crysis and of the franchise. There can be literally tonnes of titles out there within the franchise. Unlike Far Cry, this time around we feel very flexible about Crysis.”
The next title is not to be a direct continuation of Crysis 3’s story, Yerli explains. “I wouldn’t name it Crysis 4 at this stage because it would be misleading. We want to finalise Prophet’s story and Crysis 4 would imply the story just moves on.”
He adds that, “Normally in this time right now we would already have pre-production going on, but because we want to make this something much more radical and new we are looking at it as a bit more of a long term thing. It’s too early to talk about it for these reasons.”
He also touches on the shift to the Free 2 Play model, something Crytek has shown interest in earlier. “The truth is much more complicated,” he said. “There’s a transformation period for the industry. I believe F2P is our inevitable future. I believe there are F2P titles out there that can be story-telling, co-operative with your friends and competitive with your friends. It’s all possible. The business model is independent from the way you design games. It’s a very important thing. People always make these things dependent, but it’s actually completely independent.
“The most important aspect is there is a psychological transformation of the customers and the publishers that has to happen before everything is F2P on every platform,” he said. “We are promoting these steps with other titles we’re doing right now.”
He also reveals the company’s interest in the eventuality of a F2P Crysis game, stating, “we do have a plan for a F2P version of Crysis, but how this looks and when this will be done, whether this is the next one or the next next one, is to be decided. But we have a very clear picture of how this will look in a transitional period where retail and free-to-play can coexist for one title.”
For now, we can look forward to Crysis 3 dropping this February, 2013. Check out some of the pre-order bonuses in action right here!