Despite its close relationship with Amazon and the use of its technology in the creation of Lumberyard, the truth is that Crytek remains strong, and the latest generation of its CryEngine graphics engine looks better than ever. More than a dozen projects have decided to adopt some version of CryEngine for their visual development, and thanks to the opportunity given by GDC 2016, we can now take a closer look at several of them.
Crytek's announcements at GDC 2016
The calendar tells us that GDC 2016 ends today, but that doesn't change the fact that the conference continues to share information. The latest news comes from Crytek, which to be honest has been quite busy. First, it announced the launch of the fifth generation of its CryEngine graphics engine, which in addition to incorporating support for virtual reality, will adopt a business model similar to the “pay what you want” we see in services like Humble Bundle. Then, it confirmed the creation of a “development fund” for indie games of one million dollars, a resource that should greatly help smaller projects. And finally, it presented a montage with some of the most important games based on CryEngine that are about to hit the market. Let's see:
Games shown with CryEngine
A trained eye will surely detect “generational differences” between games. If my memory doesn't fail me, both Civilization Online and Monster Hunter Online are made with CryEngine 3, while Miscreated and Homefront: The Revolution adopted CryEngine 4. One of the great absentees in this video is none other than Star Citizen, great hope of virtual reality and, of course, the entire space genre. The Climb is a Crytek development specially prepared for virtual reality systems, and perhaps the best example of what the latest version of the engine can do.
Final thoughts
In summary: I think Crytek has more than enough with CryEngine to face its direct rivals, and with this curious business model it has just adopted, it may gain more ground than we imagine. On the other hand... there are still many fans demanding a fourth installment of the Crysis saga. Although Crytek never fully withdrew from video game development, at this moment there seem to be very few possibilities for Crysis 4 to become a reality...
