Crytek

Crytek
Private
Industry Computer and video games
Interactive entertainment
Founded September 1999 (1999-09)
Founder Cevat Yerli
Avni Yerli
Faruk Yerli
Headquarters Frankfurt, Germany
Key people
 Cevat Yerli
Avni Yerli
Faruk Yerli
Products Game engines
CryEngine
CryEngine 2
CryEngine 3
CryEngine 4
CryEngine V

Games
Crysis series
Far Cry series
Ryse: Son of Rome
Warface
fibble - Flick 'n' Roll
Arena of Fate
Robinson: The Journey
The Climb
HUNT: Horrors of the Guiled Age
The Collectables
Number of employees
 ~700 (2014)
Subsidiaries Crytek Black Sea-Sofia
Crytek Budapest
Crytek Istanbul
Crytek Kiev
Crytek Seoul
Crytek Shanghai
Website www.crytek.com

Crytek is a German video game company, founded in 1999 by Turkish brothers Cevat, Avni, and Faruk Yerli, that is headquartered in Frankfurt. Crytek has six other studios, in Budapest, Istanbul, Kiev, Seoul, Shanghai, and Sofia.[1]

The company is best known for developing first installment of the Far Cry series (later sequels and spin-offs being developed by Ubisoft) and the Crysis series, the open world nature of their games which showcase the company's CryEngine, and for pushing the limits on PC specifications to achieve advanced graphics and gameplay. Their most recent major product is Ryse: Son of Rome and its supporting iteration of their CryEngine. Some of Crytek's current and past business partners include Electronic Arts, Mail.Ru Group, Ubisoft, Microsoft Studios, Nexon, Tencent, Amazon.com, Sony, Apple Inc., Nvidia, Intel, AMD, FMOD, Scaleform and Xoreax Software.

History

Far Cry

Crytek was founded by the Yerli brothers in 1999 in Coburg, Germany. Crytek first attracted publicity at the 2000 ECTS with their tech demo at the NVIDIA booth. For several years thereafter, they released numerous demos of a game called X-Isle, which ultimately evolved into Far Cry. On 2 May 2002 Crytek announced the game engine CryEngine. In 2003, Crytek attended the Game Developers Conference, where they showcased their new engine and its technology.

Also in 2003, Crytek was at ECTS again, where Far Cry was awarded "Best PC Game". In the same month, Crytek modified CryEngine to be optimized for AMD64. In February 2004 German police carried out a morning raid on Crytek offices, acting on an ex-intern's claim that Crytek was using software illegally. The police investigated for more software copies than licenses purchased, but no charges were pressed.[2] That same month, Crytek and Electronic Arts announced a strategic partnership. In December 2004, Crytek and ATI created a special cinematic machinima[3] to demonstrate the future of PC gaming.

Crysis

On 23 January 2006 Crytek announced the development of Crysis, promising that it would be an original first-person shooter with a new kind of gameplay challenge requiring "adaptive tactics".[4] The game later won several Best PC Game awards from E3 and Games Convention. In April 2006 Crytek moved to new offices in Frankfurt. The first public demonstration of Crytek's CryEngine 2 was on 23 January 2007, one year after Crysis was announced. It has been licensed by many companies such as Avatar Reality, WeMade Entertainment, Entropia Universe, XLGames, Reloaded Studios. On 16 September 2008 an expansion to Crysis entitled Crysis Warhead was released as a PC-exclusive game. In October 2011 Crysis hit consoles, allowing a fresh wave of players to get to grips with the original game via Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network.

Company expansion

On 11 May 2007 Crytek announced that their satellite studio in Kiev, Ukraine, had been upgraded to a full development studio, giving the company its second development studio. About a week after the upgrade of the Kiev studio, Crytek announced a new studio in Budapest, Hungary.

On 14 July 2008 Crytek bought Black Sea Studios and renamed it to Crytek Black Sea.[5] On 17 November 2008 Crytek opened an office in South Korea named Crytek, Ltd.[6] On 3 February 2009 Crytek purchased Free Radical Design, a British video game company known for the TimeSplitters series, and renamed the company to Crytek UK.[7] On 17 January 2013 Crytek officially opened an office in Istanbul.[8] On 28 January 2013 Crytek opened a new studio in Austin, Texas, Crytek USA, consisting primarily of former Vigil Games employees.[9]

CryEngine 3 and Crysis 2

On 11 March 2009 Crytek announced on the company's website that it would introduce CryEngine 3 at the 2009 Game Developers Conference, from 25–27 March. This new engine was developed for use on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PCs.[10] On 14 October 2009 CryEngine 3 became available in trade flow for game developers.[11] On 3 March 2010 CryEngine 3 was made compatible with stereoscopic 3D technology.[12] On 22 March 2011, Crytek released Crysis 2, a direct sequel to the original game, in North America. The game was subsequently released in Europe on 24 March and in Australia on 25 March.

Ryse: Son of Rome, Homefront: The Revolution and Crysis 3

At E3 2011, Crytek exhibited several new projects, including the action game Ryse: Son of Rome. On 20 September 2011, THQ and Crytek announced a partnership to develop Homefront 2.[13] After THQ filed for bankruptcy, Crytek acquired the Homefront franchise from THQ entirely on 22 January 2013.[14] In February 2012 Crytek announced a new cloud based social gaming network called Gface.[15] The service is designed to help users meet people and play multiplayer video games with friends.[16] Crytek began researching a cloud gaming system in 2005 for Crysis, but paused development in 2007.[17][18]

On 13 April 2012 Crytek released the CryEngine 3.4 SDK which brought full DirectX 11 support to the CryEngine SDK.[19] Crytek released Crysis 3 in February 2013[20] and Ryse: Son of Rome on 22 November 2013 as an Xbox One launch title.[21] The PC version of Ryse: Son of Rome was released in October 2014.[22]

Restructuring

In June 2014 reports surfaced that Crytek had missed wage payments and withheld bonuses for Crytek UK and Crytek USA employees, and the company responded that it was in a "transitional phase" as it secured capital for future projects, with a particular emphasis on online gaming. On 30 July 2014 Crytek announced a strategic deal where the rights to Homefront including Homefront: The Revolution and the Crytek UK staff were transferred to Koch Media. The team continued its work on the game as the new Deep Silver Dambuster Studios. Crytek USA was restructured to remain an engine support team while development of Hunt: Horrors of the Gilded Age was transferred to Crytek Frankfurt. The team that originally worked on the game started new ventures.

Latest projects

Crytek is currently working on three free-to-play projects: Arena of Fate, Hunt: Horrors of the Gilded Age (which will utilize the fourth generation of the CryEngine currently in development), and updates for the previously released game Warface. The company is also working on two virtual reality projects, namely The Climb for the Oculus Rift and Robinson: The Journey for PlayStation VR.[23][24]

Subsidiaries

Current

Defunct

Games developed

Year Title Publisher Platform Branch
2004 Far Cry Ubisoft Microsoft Windows Crytek Frankfurt
2007 Crysis Electronic Arts Microsoft Windows, PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade Crytek Frankfurt
2008 Crysis Warhead Electronic Arts Microsoft Windows Crytek Budapest
2011 Crysis 2 Electronic Arts Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 Crytek Frankfurt/Crytek UK
2012 Fibble – Flick 'n' Roll Crytek iOS, Android Crytek Budapest
2013 Crysis 3[25] Electronic Arts Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 Crytek Frankfurt/Crytek UK
2013 Warface Tencent Holdings, Nexon, Mail.Ru, Trion Worlds Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 Crytek Kiev[26][27]
2013 Ryse: Son of Rome Microsoft Studios, Crytek, Deep Silver Microsoft Windows, Xbox One Crytek Frankfurt
2014 The Collectables[28] DeNA iOS Crytek Budapest[29]
2016 Arena of Fate Crytek Microsoft Windows, unannounced consoles Crytek Black Sea
2016 The Climb Oculus VR Oculus Rift Crytek Frankfurt
2016 Robinson: The Journey Sony Computer Entertainment PlayStation VR Crytek Frankfurt
2017 Hunt: Horrors of the Gilded Age Crytek Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One Crytek Frankfurt

References

  1. ↑ "Crytek's Studios". 'Crytek'. Retrieved 2014-11-10.
  2. ↑ "Crytek Raided".
  3. ↑ "Crytek and ATI Demo".
  4. ↑ "Crysis Announced".
  5. ↑ Crytek bought Black Sea Studios
  6. ↑ "Crytek Opens South Korean Office". Shacknews. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
  7. ↑ "Crytek Buys TimeSplitters Dev. Free Radical". Shacknews. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
  8. ↑ "Crytek". Retrieved 25 September 2015.
  9. ↑ "How Crytek hired the ex-Vigil team (and formed a new studio) based on one meeting". VentureBeat. Retrieved 3 April 2013.
  10. ↑ "Crytek Announces CryENGINE 3". Crytek. March 11, 2009. Archived from the original on March 23, 2009. Retrieved March 12, 2009.
  11. ↑ "Crytek CryENGINE 3 trade begins". Hardwired. October 14, 2009. Retrieved October 14, 2009.
  12. ↑ "CryTek Adds Stereoscopic 3D To Its Game Engine". ApertureGames. October 14, 2009. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
  13. ↑ Kietzmann, Ludwig (2011-09-20). "Crytek developing Homefront sequel with THQ". Joystiq. Retrieved 2011-09-21.
  14. ↑ "THQ Dissolved, Saints Row, Company of Heroes Devs Acquired". IGN. Retrieved 23 January 2013.
  15. ↑ "Gface, Crytek-backed streaming game network, goes into beta". Joystiq. 2012-02-05. Retrieved 2012-02-05.
  16. ↑ Fletcher, JC (5 February 2012). "Gface, Crytek-backed streaming game network, goes into beta". Joystiq. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
  17. ↑ Sandberg, Adam (2 April 2009). "Crytek was way ahead of OnLive". That VideoGame Blog. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
  18. ↑ Dobra, Andrei (27 April 2009). "Crytek Attempted Cloud Gaming Way Before OnLive". Softpedia. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
  19. ↑ "CryEngine 3.4 SDK, Crytek today announced the arrival of a feature-filled update to its award-winning game development solution, CryENGINE 3.". Crytek. 2012-04-13. Retrieved 2012-04-17.
  20. ↑ "Crysis 3 Release Date Announced". GameSpy.
  21. ↑ "Xbox One to Launch on 22 November 2013 in 13 Markets". Xbox.
  22. ↑ "Ryse PC release date and system requirements revealed". PC Gamer.
  23. ↑ Kuchera, Ben (June 15, 2015). "Crytek brings dinosaurs to VR with Robinson: The Journey". Polygon. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
  24. ↑ Phillips, Tom (December 15, 2015). "Crytek shows off VR mountaineering game The Climb". Eurogamer. Retrieved December 21, 2015.
  25. ↑ "CRYTEK TAKES AIM WITH CRYSIS 3 –THE FIRST BLOCKBUSTER SHOOTER OF 2013". Retrieved 25 September 2015.
  26. ↑ "Crytek's new game revealed to be Warface".
  27. ↑ "Please welcome Crytek's latest PC exclusive: Warface".
  28. ↑ "Crytek and DeNA Squad Up to Launch Mobile Action Game The Collectables Worldwide". Crytek.
  29. ↑ Kahn, Joradan. "Crytek shows off iOS tactical action game 'The Collectibles', coming later this year with MFi controller support". 9to5mac.

External links

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