MMO Developer Licenses CryENGINE 2

Seoul-based Reloaded Studios will use German developer Crytek's CryENGINE 2 in an upcoming action-strategy MMO, the two companies announced today. The announcement makes Reloaded's project the fourth publicly announced MMO to license the CryENGINE 2, used by Crytek in its forthcoming PC shooter Crysis. "When we saw the stunning concept visuals and exciting game design ideas they shared with us we immediately knew that what they have planned will be a true next-generation MMORPG, and become the kind of game which will set the visual and game play standards against which future MMO‘s will be judged," said Crytek director Faruk Yerli in the announcement, speaking on the collaboration with Reloaded Studios. The project is the first title for Reloaded, as the studio formed in August, with its website going live today along with the announcement. The studio was founded with industry vets from Korean MMO-publisher Webzen along with the creators of MMORPG MU Online. Last month, XML games announced its agreement with Crytek to license CryENGINE 2 for its upcoming MMO, and Swedish developer MindArk announced in July its intentions to use the CryENGINE 2 to revamp its large-scale economic MMO Entropia Universe platform by mid-2008. In March, San Francisco-based Avatar Reality announced its licensing of CryENGINE 2 for its upcoming Mars-based MMO. The only publicly announced non-Crytek, non-MMO project using the CryENGINE 2 is Merchants of Brooklyn from San Diego-based independent developer Paleo Entertainment, a futuristic mob first-person-shooter.