Crytek Invades Homefront Sequel, Ousting Kaos

[Greg Tito]

Crytek Invades Homefront Sequel, Ousting Kaos

The veteran studio from Europe will take over developing the shooter franchise set in an America invaded by Korea.

The world and story behind Homefront held a lot of promise. Freedom-fighters in a near-future Great Plains of the United States rising up to combat a Korean occupation pulled several strings in our psyches from fervent patriotism and latent racism to a childhood love of the movie Red Dawn. But Homefront, for all of its promise, just didn't deliver on the excellent marketing strategy devised by THQ. Even though sales of Homefront weren't terrible, lackluster critical reception forced developer Kaos Studios to close its doors back in March 2011. Today, THQ announced that Crytek - makers of Crysis - will create the next Homefront.

Both sides of the new deal praised the strength of the IP. "We see Homefront as a really strong universe that has a lot of potential and that has been expertly created and marketed by THQ," said Cevat Yerli, head of Crytek. "It's really important to us that THQ has the faith in giving us a lot of creative freedom over one of its most important properties to allow us to bring the Homefront world to life in a new and innovative way."

"Homefront's unique setting and storyline captivated gamers the world over," said former screenwriter Danny Bilson, the mouthpiece of THQ. "With Crytek's industry leading technology and legendary experience in the FPS genre, we're supremely confident that the next Homefront will deliver that AAA-quality experience that players demand."

To Bilson's and Yerli's credit, they were careful not to slam the original game or the work of Kaos Studios.

Do you think that hiring Crytek to develop the next Homefront is a good move? I'm not sure that there is a much better candidate among THQ's studio partners, but the fact that Crytek is a European development house - based in Frankfurt with subsidiaries everywhere around the world except North America - makes me pause. I'm no purist, but a game that taps so much into American patriotism might be handled better by designers who actually live in the United States.

I mean, who else knows the meaning of "Wolverine!"

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[BrotherRool]

I think you're absolutely right about the North America thing and the screenwriter completely wrong about the storyline that "captivated gamers the world over"

I think most of us here round these parts took it as a rather delusional and paranoid right-wing military fantasy told with such a heavy hand as to be completely unbelievable

Although I'm pretty sure that's the worlds opinion of Red Dawn too

EDIT: Maybe I should have stuck the word facist in there at somepoint to convey the correct tone

 

[cainx10a]

I suppose it must be quite awful for Kaos to have their baby snatched away from them.

 

[Irridium]

I'd want the Russians to do it. Because lol.

Give it to the Men of War guys and make it an RTS. That'd be bitchin'.

 

[SamuelT]

Not sure. Crytech's games were all pretty much the same, but with other gimmicks hidden within them. If Homefront turns into Farcrysis 4 I'm not sure how to feel about that.

 

[monnes]

I remember THQ or Kaos Studios saying that they were planning to take the franchise outside of America, and hopefully that's what crytek will do.

 

[Yeager942]

It would honestly be more interesting if Crytek looks at this whole event from a European angle. The EU coming to invade the beaches of North Korean controlled America a la Normandy? Hell freaking yes!

 

[Gammayun]

THe i would assume there wont be any graphical problems anymore.

 

[Thaluikhain]

I still want to see a game about a Mexican border official keeping them US refugees out of his country.

 

[NLS]

It would honestly be more interesting if Crytek looks at this whole event from a European angle. The EU coming to invade the beaches of North Korean controlled America a la Normandy? Hell freaking yes!

Oh man, that would be SWEET. The possibility is there, as they mentioned before that if all turned out well, they would make homefront games from different perspectives.

 

[The_Emperor]

I find the whole premise of the game pretty ridiculous anyway, I wouldn't touch it with a stick.

America is obsessed with getting invaded it seems, by aliens, by Germans, by Russians, by Koreans

I'm waiting for the one about the Chinese Communist Nazi Aliens

No offense but there are a heck of a lot of games out there about America being invaded by this that or the other.

It's as if Red Dawn was mandatory viewing for games designers.

and btw Crytek are GERMAN not European, Germany is a sovereign state, Europe is not. Europe is a continent made up of smaller Sovereign nations.

I know America is big but you wouldn't like it if you kept getting lumped in with the Canadians and Mexicans. "oh tacos? that's North American food" you dig?

 

[thePyro_13]

I find the whole premise of the game pretty ridiculous anyway, I wouldn't touch it with a stick.

America is obsessed with getting invaded it seems, by aliens, by Germans, by Russians, by Koreans

I'm waiting for the one about the Chinese Communist Nazi Aliens

No offense but there are a heck of a lot of games out there about America being invaded by this that or the other.

It's as if Red Dawn was mandatory viewing for games designers.

and btw Crytek are GERMAN not European, Germany is a sovereign state, Europe is not. Europe is a continent made up of smaller Sovereign nations.

I know America is big but you wouldn't like it if you kept getting lumped in with the Canadians and Mexicans. "oh tacos? that's North American food" you dig?

I agree with everything you said, except those last two sentences. If you don't like being lumped in with the rest of your continent, then come to Australia, we don't have to share!

 

[Dr.Panties]

Homefront is one of the worst games I have ever played. Crytek had better pull something amazing out of their arse to get me even remotely interested again.

 

[The_Emperor]

I find the whole premise of the game pretty ridiculous anyway, I wouldn't touch it with a stick.

America is obsessed with getting invaded it seems, by aliens, by Germans, by Russians, by Koreans

I'm waiting for the one about the Chinese Communist Nazi Aliens

No offense but there are a heck of a lot of games out there about America being invaded by this that or the other.

It's as if Red Dawn was mandatory viewing for games designers.

and btw Crytek are GERMAN not European, Germany is a sovereign state, Europe is not. Europe is a continent made up of smaller Sovereign nations.

I know America is big but you wouldn't like it if you kept getting lumped in with the Canadians and Mexicans. "oh tacos? that's North American food" you dig?

I agree with everything you said, except those last two sentences. If you don't like being lumped in with the rest of your continent, then come to Australia, we don't have to share!

lol you would hate it if I started to call you Australasian though huh?

or Meganesian

 

[Quijiboh]

I didn't play it, but nothing I saw about Homefront did much to dissuade me that it wasn't just a bunch of right wing militaristic wank material. A German/Western European take on it might be just the kind of angle it needs.

 

[Nickolai77]

It would honestly be more interesting if Crytek looks at this whole event from a European angle. The EU coming to invade the beaches of North Korean controlled America a la Normandy? Hell freaking yes!

Oh man, that would be SWEET. The possibility is there, as they mentioned before that if all turned out well, they would make homefront games from different perspectives.

Heh, i can imagine German panzer brigades sweeping across the American Mid-West and French soldiers liberating American towns from Nazi Korean occupation. Whilst British troops stationed in Washington joke that the last time they were here it was to burn down the white house.

It's not often us Europeans get to do some military dick-waving

 

[TheDooD]

shoot if Homefront is getting a sequel, there better be a Bodycount and Hard Reset Sequel in planning.

 

[Something Amyss]

Does CONTROL know about this?

...Sorry...

 

[mattaui]

I've never understood the bizarre negative reaction to speculative fiction or games involving an invasion of the US. I guess, you're right, we're just so damn awesome that it would likely never happen, right? That's probably not what you wanted to hear, though. I think a tenacious enough enemy, if they could hold out long enough (especially in the absence of strategic nuclear weapons), could at least require a full scale military response. If they managed to sabotage the national highway system at crucial junctions, it would delay American response even further.

But a United Europe then coming to America's rescue (having a pitifully small sea lift capability at present), that makes perfect sense, right? I'll see your paranoid military fantasies and raise you a wistful desire for a return to empire.

Maybe Crytek can do the sequel about the EU falling apart in the aftermath of the American invasion, since it's headed that way quite swiftly as we speak. Destroying Europe (again) is such a retread, but I guess it's what you people want.