Crysis and Far Cry creator Crytek has revealed its intent to focus more on consoles and move away from creating PC-exclusive titles due to the "huge piracy" problems of the platform.

"We are going to support PC, but not exclusive anymore," Crytek president Cevat Yerli told PC Play. "Similar games [to Crysis] on consoles sell factors of 4-5 more. It was a big lesson for us and I believe we won't have PC exclusives as we did with Crysis in future."

The studio had previously revealed it was working on at least one console title and a non-FPS game along with the still-underway efforts to bring its CryENGINE 2 technology to consoles.

The Crytek president noted that piracy had significantly hurt the retail... Read more

A hotfix update for Crysis has been released, updating Crytek's action game to version 1.2.1. The 37mb download fixes a security hole in the game which caused client and server crashes during online games. You'll need patch 1.2 installed before updating to 1.2.1.

The second patch for Crytek's Crysis (PC) is now available on FileShack.

Bringing the graphically intensive shooter up to version 1.2, the 361MB download resolves a number of memory leaks, removes grenade controls during cutscenes, and fixes a many other issues. For all the details, scope out the full patch notes.

It's taken a while, but the first Crysis Mod SDK release is here. The 407mb download includes 3D Studio MAX and Photoshop plug-ins and tools, a resource compiler, a sample mod and various sample assets. More documentation is available at doc.crymod.com.

A feature film based on Crytek's platinum-selling sci-fi FPS Crysis (PC) is in the planning stages, reports Kotaku. "A Crysis movie is definitely planned," revealed Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli. "We are in active talks already. I think we will close this topic before the end of this year."

A film based on Crytek's previous title, Far Cry, is currently in post-production. It was directed by the ever-reviled Uwe Boll before he resigned from big-budget projects, and guest stars Anthony Bourdain, the world-traveling maverick chef.

Though Boll's past efforts have transformed Sega's House of the Dead and Gas Powered Games' Dungeon Siege franchises, among others, into poorly received box office releases, Yerli is still eager to see the film.

"Unfortunately, we have not been involved in the film since very early when it was a script," explained the CEO. "However, I think the script changed and improved radically since then, at least I hope it has, since I can't wait to see the movie."

Other topics discussed by Yerli included the possibility of Crytek being acquired by a larger publisher--"If it were a cultural fit, yes, but we would have strong... Read more

In the first weekly Crysis update on Crytek's forum, community manager Alexander Marschal broke down some of the changes planned for Crysis (PC) in the forthcoming 1.2 update patch.

"The patch as itself is nearly finished from a content point of view." wrote Marschal in the update. "The test phase will last until EA's and Crytek's Quality Assurance departments are satisfied... we have to wait for additional feedback from both QA departments in order to set and announce a release date."

Notable changes include tweaked damage for players hit by cars at lower speeds and an automatic team balance mechanism for multiplayer matches. Team colors have been added to death and kill messages to more properly attribute in-game carnage. A list of known Crysis 1.2 patch changes follows.... Read more

There's a Crysis post-mortem on IGN, asking Crytek's Cevat Yerli about the use of DirectX 10, system requirements and detail levels, low sales, the change in gameplay in later parts of the game and support plans.

The first Crysis patch is finally available, updating the game to version 1.1. A 139mb download, the patch offers bug fixes, gameplay tweaks and performance improvements for DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 rendering modes. ... Read more

Soon after the release of Crysis, a patch was announced as coming within two weeks. Those two weeks long since past, Crytek has finally sent out an update on the situation.

According to Crytek, good progress was being made until the company ran into "heavy technical issues" right before the final build. Though an updated version of the patch has been created, Crytek and EA quality assurance teams won't get to it before the first week of January. Crytek hopes that the patch will make it out soon after.

While that first patch only features performance updates and bug fixes, a second patch is being worked on simultaneously. This patch will incorporate fan feedback and introduce new single-player and multiplayer features. Once that patch has been released, the SDK will become available as well.

When November industry sales data was released this week by tracking firm NPD, the PC platform was notably absent from the list of top ten best-selling games despite the release of high-profile titles such as Epic Games' Unreal Tournament III and Crytek's Crysis. Now, according to NPD data released by market tracking site the simExchange, it seems both games kicked off with disappointing initial sales--neither approached 100,000 units.

The report shows Crysis as selling 86,633 units at retail since its November 13 release; the game's potential audience has no doubt been limited by the game's notoriously steep system requirements. Meanwhile, Unreal Tournament III saw considerably flatter sales, tallying 33,995 since its November 19 release. Prior to the release of this data, many gamers had predicted low sales based on the game's sparse player count; at the time of writing, its current online player count is actually below the single-player-oriented Crysis.

It should be noted that Unreal Tournament III in particular released about halfway into the month, with only two full business weeks of availability, though the numbers are undoubtedly lower than publisher Midway and developer Epic expected.

In an interview with Crysis (PC) fansite inCrysis, Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli revealed the first patch for its recently released visually intense shooter Crysis would be coming within 14 days.

"We are collecting up all the user feedback now and planning patches that will address as much as possible as fast as possible," Yerli told inCrysis. "The first patch will be out in 7-14 days."

Nvidia VP Roy Taylor also added some promising information on the updates concerning performance issues due to the game's steep system requirements. "Performance will improve, almost with every single driver drop and patch of the game," Taylor wrote. "Literally every day and week we keep working on the drivers we can see improvements."

For more on Crysis, check out Shacknews editor-in-chief Chris Remo's review.

After years and years of tech demos and presentations, Crytek's behemoth of a Far Cry followup arrives in stores today. Was Crysis worth the wait? Is the PC-exclusive shooter really good enough to warrant those system upgrades you've been putting off? After reading Chris Remo's informative review, I think you'll know the answer.

Once, I was holed up in a small wooden HQ building, sitting in the window and alternating picking off enemies--scanning while cloacked, squeezing off a headshot, then ducking out of sight while my shield recharged, feeling very pleased with my stealthy self. I swear to you, when an enemy grenade rolled up and blew away half the building, leaving me exposed to a group of now very pissed off North Koreans, I nearly shit my pants out of sheer surprise and shock.
Read on...

Crysis, Crytek's long-awaited and gorgeous-looking Far Cry followup, has gone gold and entered the manufacturing process. It will hit stores November 16.

"We are extremely proud of what we have been able to accomplish with Crysis," said Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli. "We wanted to push the boundaries both visually and with open-ended, non-linear gameplay and we believe the end result delivers that vision."

Though the title doesn't hit for another couple of weeks, gamers can whet their appetites and test their system's worth with the single-player demo.

Those interested in the game are also urged to read our chat with Yerli about the technology behind Crysis in order to plan their system upgrades accordingly, and our preview of the full game for more gameplay details.

A day earlier than expected, the Crysis single-player demo is now available. The 1.77gb download includes one single-player level, and also allows you to look at the Sandbox 2 editor. The full game arrives November 16.

It seems the shenanigans involving the single player demo of Crytek's upcoming PC-intensive shooter have no end.

Fansite inCrysis now reports that the demo, which includes the Sandbox 2 real-time level editor, will not be released for public consumption until Saturday, October 27. However, it will be available for download today to those who pre-order the game from the online EA Store.

Crytek delayed the demo in late September mere days before it was originally scheduled to arrive. At the time, Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli promised gamers "the Crysis single player demo will now be available everywhere on October 26th, 2007."

While you're waiting, we recommend you check out our recent chat with Crytek about Crysis and its technology, and maybe read over those suspicious system requirements one more time.

EA's Crysis website has a community Q&A up, asking Crytek's Cevat Yerli, Eric Lagel and Felix Leyendecker about the game.

An Audience with Crytek on Computer & Video Games offers another Crysis Q&A, asking Cevat Yerli about their new game, developing for the PC and the success of Far Cry.

Much to the dismay of the wallets of many a gamer whose PCs teeter on the edges of obsolescence, developer Crytek has released the official system requirements and recommended specs for its upcoming PC graphical powerhouse shooter Crysis (check out our recent single-player and multiplayer coverage).

At the bare minimum, gamers must sport an Intel Pentium 4 at 2.8GHz, an Intel Core at 2.0GHz, or an AMD Athlon 2800+--with the clock speeds upped to 3.2GHz, 2.2GHz, and 3200+ respectively for Vista users--and 1GB of RAM, or 1.5GB for Vista. Video cards must have 256MB of memory and be at least of the NVidia GeForce 6800 GT or ATI Radeon 9800 Pro chipsets, with Vista-owning ATI users requiring at least a Radeon X800 Pro. Finally, Crysis will consume 12GB of hard drive space.

Those who have played the Crysis multiplayer beta may find their minds boggled by the claims made by the above requirements; though admittedly not final software, the beta suggests that the listed requirements are, to say the least, impractical for playing Crysis.

As far as what Crytek recommends: an Intel Core 2 DUO at 2.2GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+, 2GB of RAM, and an NVidia GeForce 8800 GTS/640... Read more