Microsoft Nearly Bought Crysis Dev

[Logan Westbrook]

Microsoft Nearly Bought Crysis Dev

Similarities between Crysis and Halo put the publisher off the deal.

The Crysis series has just made its multiplatform debut with Crysis 2, and it looks like the original game could soon be gracing [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/111434-ESRB-Rates-Crysis-for-360-PS3] the PS3 and Xbox 360. But had things gone a little differently, the Crysis series, as well as everything else that developer Crytek made, would have been a Microsoft exclusive.

Phil Spencer, the corporate VP of Microsoft Studios, says that around 2003-2004, Microsoft met with Crytek CEO Cervat Yerli with a view to buying the studio and turning it into a first party developer. Spencer said that he asked the studio what it planned to do next - it was around the time that Crytek released Far Cry - and that when revealed its vision for Crysis, Microsoft decided to pass, saying that it had enough sci-fi shooters as it was. Crytek has continued to have a good relationship with Microsoft though, with Spencer calling their collaboration on the Kinect-exclusive Ryse, the "perfect marriage."

Whether Microsoft buying Crytek would have been a good or a bad thing largely depends on your point of view, but it's amusing to note that if Halo hadn't got in the way of the deal, Crytek could have ended up making new Halo games instead of 343 Industries. It seems unlikely that Crytek has too many regrets though, having found not inconsiderable success on its own.

Source: OXM [http://www.oxm.co.uk/30963/news/crytek-has-fallen-in-love-with-kinect-microsoft-games-studio-boss/]






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[brazuca]

Seems like Crytek scaped the almost certain future of all studios bought by Microsoft. Creativity bankrupcy and mediocrity.

 

[fix-the-spade]

I am so pleased that deal fell through.

Crytek have spent the last six years making themselves the most mod friendly devloper on the planet.

Under Microsoft's umbrella I couldn't see them even releasing an SDK, nevermind the insane level of hands on help (and hiring from within their own mod community) they provide now.

Plus, Microsoft managed to systematically kill off every franchise of Rare's and take all the fun out of Bungie. Long term being purchased by one of the major publishers seems to be the death of most developers.

 

[Frostbite3789]

I am so pleased that deal fell through.

Crytek have spent the last six years making themselves the most mod friendly devloper on the planet.

Under Microsoft's umbrella I couldn't see them even releasing an SDK, nevermind the insane level of hands on help (and hiring from within their own mod community) they provide now.

Plus, Microsoft managed to systematically kill off every franchise of Rare's and take all the fun out of Bungie. Long term being purchased by one of the major publishers seems to be the death of most developers.

Don't forget about running Ensemble Studios into the ground.

OT: What similarities to Halo? They are both sci-fi FPS games, the similarities end there.

 

[Woodsey]

But... Crysis (1 and Warhead, at least) has (have) very little in common with Halo.

Anyway, considering MS now have approximately "fuck all" in the way of interesting exclusives, seems they're the ones who lost out.

 

[Distorted Stu]

I don't care what happens aslong as Timesplitters 4 gets made

 

[Ghengis John]

It's interesting to learn of these deals that go on behind the scenes, however considering MS have so few exclusives as it is they might want to consider buying SOMEBODY. And soon.

 

[koroem]

Not like it made a difference. Crytek still ended up making console games and lowered their standards to next to nothing. Cevat is still a shady lying business man. The only difference here is that Microsoft would have closed the studio after it's first release. So I guess Crytek can count it's blessings for now.

 

[Hristo Tzonkov]

Not like it made a difference. Crytek still ended up making console games and lowered their standards to next to nothing. Cevat is still a shady lying business man. The only difference here is that Microsoft would have closed the studio after it's first release. So I guess Crytek can count it's blessings for now.

Could you clarify on this?I'm curious how Cevat is a shady lying business man.

 

[Daaaah Whoosh]

I'm pretty sure Crytek would never have agreed to make more Halos. I can't understand why anyone would, though, so maybe that's just me.

 

[jprf]

Thank goodness they didn't, I would have hated it if Crysis 2 had been 360 exclusive (don't have a good enough PC).

 

[superdelux]

Crysis adverted.

You see what i did there.

 

[PunkRex]

I WANT MY TIMESPLITTERS GAWD DAMMIT!!!

 

[koroem]

Not like it made a difference. Crytek still ended up making console games and lowered their standards to next to nothing. Cevat is still a shady lying business man. The only difference here is that Microsoft would have closed the studio after it's first release. So I guess Crytek can count it's blessings for now.

Could you clarify on this?I'm curious how Cevat is a shady lying business man.

He is just like Peter Molyneux. When the cameras are on him, he makes up things to please the audience, then never follows through on them. His original lies about how the first Crysis could be maxed out on 8800 gtx. Then lying about how the in-game settings were maxed out, only to find through the editor things could be pushed further. So the mod community ended up succeeding where Cevat promised and failed.

He also was quoted as saying he wished he had renamed the graphical settings to give the illusion of higher settings on lower modes. Like low would be high, medium would be very high, and high would have been ultra or something. It was basically the equivalent of him saying mud is gold and because I called it gold you should believe it is in fact gold. Mind tricks don't work on smart people Cevat. Changing the names of the settings isn't going to save you any face in your failure. However he made good on this and implemented it in Warhead and Crysis two using settings like gamer, enthusiast, and hardcore. Most people were like WTF is this, and still bashed on Crysis 2 for graphical failure.

Plus there was a promised future patch to unlock higher settings, but was canceled and forgotten about with the announcement of Warhead. Oh did I mention Cevat claims to have had Warhead in production before the first Crysis was ever released? That means they knew support was likely to be axed for Crysis while making these statements, then ceasing support for Crysis in favor of Warhead and Crysis Wars.

The island trilogy got killed with Crysis moving to consoles. Warhead was promised to have a better ending than the first Crysis and it actually ended up being worse. After promising to fix the issues in the first game, they instead released a second game (Warhead) made by a different branch of the company, and released a new version of the multiplayer called Crysis Wars. This new version ended all support for the previous one, and forced players to buy an entirely new game just to get the support and fixes they were promised. Stupid easy features like a map downloader. Come on.

Oh and this quote is great:

IGN quotes a Games Convention presentation by Cevat Yerli where the Crytek CEO reveals that Crysis only cost them 15 million Euros ($22 million USD) to make, a relative bargain for a AAA title. This means in spite of complaints about PC sales and piracy, the game still turned a profit, with Yerli saying: "if it wasn't profitable I wouldn't be able to stand here."

The dude had the balls to stand up and praise consoles, and shun PC's for piracy, while still turning a profit, and screwing the fan base on support and fixes.

Then we move on to Crysis 2. It was promised to have the PC as the lead platform and the console versions would just be scaled down versions of it. Lies. It is obvious the console versions were the lead platform, and the PC versions got horribly nerfed. The suit was streamlined, physics were almost completely absent, textures were terrible, directx 10/11 support was no where to be found, the map editor was MIA. The unique multiplayer turned from awesome to a COD clone that failed hard. The 3D support was promised to be an amazing experience and new tech, and it turns out it was one of the cheapest and worst ways to implement and was done only for speed benefits on consoles.

It took months after the release, to obtain texture fixes, directx 11 support, and a map editor. All things that were supposed to be there at release, and Cevat now calls them a "gift" to the PC players. Right.

All this stuff goes through Cevat, and at one point or another was talked about in his interviews. I have kept a close eye on Crytek since the first Farcry released back in 2004, and it has all been downhill. His reality, and actual reality are two different things.

 

[Astalano]

Crysis was famous BECAUSE it was on PC. BECAUSE it pushed the limitations and then some of its achievements were ported over to a limited degree.

Seems people love to shit on PC but yet most of their gaming innovations come from PC.

I guarantee you Crytek would be in a much worse position had they not done Crysis on PC first.

 

[Hristo Tzonkov]

snip

Thanks this was an interesting read and I understood a lot of new stuff.Like truly I'm not trolling or anything.I haven't closely been following the scene except noticing Crytek wanted to be a bigger developer - buying a lot of smaller studios.All I thought people whined about was that they failed to bring out some direct x patch(well yeah that was a biggie the directx11 that they promised but didn't follow through).At least that's what it looks on the surface.

 

[Azaraxzealot]

Seems like Crytek scaped the almost certain future of all studios bought by Microsoft. Creativity bankrupcy and mediocrity.

ninja'd.

i was about to say "Cue all the people who QQ every single time Microsoft's name is mentioned doing anything."

it's really stupid to hear so many people complain about microsoft. i've never had any problem with anything they've done.

besides, people seem to forget about Mass Effect, IloMilo, Trenched, and all the other great, colorful, imaginative games that they publish.

 

[Waaghpowa]

It was too much like Halo? Then why did I have more fun with Crysis?