"Porting CryENGINE 2 [was] not as hard as we expected."

Harald Seeley is Crytek's engine business manager, and by his estimation, things couldn't be looking better for his company's venture into console development.

While work on the console version of CryENGINE 2 only began after Crysis shipped in November, it is now in a fully operational state. Graphically it appears somewhere between mediun and high detail as compared to Crysis on the PC, and the team hopes to support game worlds as large as those found in its flagship title.

But will Crysis be heading to consoles?

"We're certainly looking at it and considering it," said a tight-lipped Seeley. The studio is currently debating if such a project is the best use of its time. Among... Read more

Crytek will be demonstrating a cross-platform version of CryENGINE 2, the technology that powered Crysis (PC), at this year's Game Developers Conference.

The presentation, which will only be open to what Crytek refers to as a "select audience," will showcase the engine running on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Such a move may suggest that the console editions of Crysis, which were discussed in hypothetical terms late last year, are proceeding.

"You cannot get Crysis as it is on PC on any console," Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli said at the time. "What you would have to do is compromise the design and the level design--in order of the PS3 and Xbox 360 regards you have to fulfill the memory constraints."

Other GDC demonstrations from Crytek include a look at the architectural and serious game applications of CryENGINE 2, a showing of CryENGINE 2 performing in "extremely high quality" on a machine that was built for around $600, and a session hosted by key Crytek employees entitled "Crysis in the Making."

Honolulu-based Avatar Reality, whose management and advisory boards feature something of an all-star cast of industry veterans, released early screenshots and concept artwork from its sci-fi MMO Blue Mars. The company also joined BioWare in licensing StreamBase Systems' Complex Event Processing technology for its game's online infrastructure. Blue Mars was already announced as using Crytek's CryENGINE 2 as its rendering solution.

Unsurprisingly set on a terraformed Mars, Blue Mars seems highly focused on the community and customization aspects of MMOs, with avatar creation mentioned prominently in all the game's press releases. It will be demonstrated at this week's E for All Expo in Los Angeles.

Heading up Avatar Reality are Kazuyuki Hashimoto, CG supervisor on Square's Final Fantasy VII (PS, PC) and more recently technology VP for new platforms at Electronic Arts, and Li-han Chen, formerly of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within production company Square Pictures and more recently project manager on Sony Online Entertainment's EverQuest II.

Interestingly, Avatar Reality's advisory board is made up of three figures crucial to the early success of Nintendo: Henk Rogers (listed on the company's site as "mastermind"), who notoriously secured the original rights to Tetris after befriending designer Alexey Pajitnov and went on to found The Tetris Company; Minoru Arakawa, the first president of Nintendo of America, who helped establish the initially floundering branch; and Tetris creator Pajitnov himself, who went on to co-found The Tetris Company with Rogers.

Blue Moon is planned to enter a beta phase in late 2008.

In the pursuit of higher education, Florida's Ringling College of Art and Design has licensed Crytek's CryENGINE 2 middleware. The initial participant in Crytek's educational licensing program, Ringling is the first academic institution to implement CryENGINE 2 into its curriculum.

"We are thrilled Crytek has chosen Ringling College as its inaugural partner for educational licensing," said Ringling president Dr. Larry Thompson. "We view this CryENGINE 2 agreement as a validation of the exceptional and innovative academic program we have created here and feel privileged to have Crytek as one of our newest business partners."

"The ranks of the Ringling alumni reads like a who's who of the computer graphics world, as do the companies they work for," noted Crytek director Faruk Yerli. "Our own director of animation is an alumnus, which shows you how highly we regard their graduates."

"Now that Ringling will be training their students using our engine ... Read more

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... Read more

XMLGames, the company founded by former NCSoft executive and Lineage designer Jake Song, has licensed Crytek's CryEngine 2 for use in its new MMORPG. Song sung the engine's praises in a release today, highlighting the reasons behind the choice.

"We previously had a lot of success using their ground breaking CryENGINE 1 technology while at NCSoft for AION," explained Song. "After seeing what it could do in the early previews of Crysis, we just knew we wanted to continue to work with their great new tools and engine.

"Not only are the graphics unquestionably the best available," he continued, "but the unprecedented ability it offers to physically interact with the environment will allow us to create entirely new modes of gameplay which up to now we could only dream of implementing."

An MMORPG with advanced physics? Griefers take note.

San Diego-based independent developer Paleo Entertainment announced today that it has licensed Crytek's CryENGINE 2 technology to power its upcoming PC first person shooter Merchants of Brooklyn. Today's announcement makes Paleo only the second third-party developer to publicly reveal its usage of the advanced engine, which is being used by several Crytek projects including the anticipated upcoming PC shooter Crysis.

Set in the year 3100, Merchants of Brooklyn follows the path of Brooklyn-born Dr. Matteo Savio, apparently spanning multiple planets in its depiction of far future mob life. Few gameplay details are currently available, though Paleo has released some concept artwork.

"Before licensing the CryENGINE 2 for our new project, we looked carefully at all our options, and concluded no other engine could produce the kind of AAA quality game we were aiming to develop, nor were any other... Read more

A week after announcing the opening of a studio in Kiev, Ukraine studio, Crysis developer Crytek has announced that the company has also expanded to Budapest, Hungary. The Budapest office will use CryENGINE 2 technology for a non-first person shooter product.

"After considering a number of different options over the last twoyears, we chose to open our next studio in Budapest because it is both awonderful city in which to work and live, and because we were able to drawon a significant pool ... Read more

Far Cry and Crysis developer Crytek today announced that a Kiev, Ukraine-based satellite office is now a full blown development studio, and the subsidiary has started work game using the company's CryEngine 2.

Crytek managing director Faruk Yerli noted, "Our CryENGINE 2 middleware has reached the point of maturity where it can be used to support both different types and styles of games, and run on multiple platforms, we thought it was the optimum time to begin work on a new project based on our own new and original intellectual ... Read more

GameSpot, FiringSquad, IGN and 1UP all have articles about the latest Crysis tech demo, seeing the nifty features that are part of CryEngine 2.

Electronic Arts today released several batches of screenshots from PC and multiplatform games being published by its EA Partners program for independent developers.

- Crytek's CryENGINE 2 editor
- Flagship Studios' Hellgate: London (PC)
- Pandemic Studios' Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (PS2, PS3, X360, PC)
- Valve's Portal (PS3, X360, PC)

1UP has posted an article going over the features of CryEngine 2, the engine used by Crysis from Far Cry developer Crytek (notice a theme here?). The game itself is previewed in the March issue of Computer Gaming World.