Crytek wants to transition to free-to-play games in 3 to 5 years

Crytek wants to transition completely to the free-to-play model for all of its games. CEO Cevat Yerli told VentureBeat that the move will be completed in the next two to five years. The company’s plans can already be seen in Warface—a free-to-play game that was released only in Russia. The game boasts high-end graphics, and the lack of a barrier in the form of a cost has made the game a success, especially in a country where widespread piracy is a well known problem.

“We decided five or six years ago that we want to marry the quality of triple-A games with the business model of free-to-play,” Yerli told VentureBeat. “And out of that position, Gface and Warface were born. And at that time, we decided some other games, in some of our other studios, would head in this direction. But we kept pushing the quality bar higher on our console business, which is the main dominating business for the Western world, but we are observing, plainly — and we see this already with Warface — that the free-to-play market  is on the rise. I think over the next two to three years, free-to-play is going to rival retail with quality games like Warface.”

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Warface is in closed beta right now, and is set to launch later this year. Gface is a social platform that the company has made that connects people together in Crytek’s games, like Warface.

This may be Crytek’s future

While free-to-play games are generally associated with PC games, Crytek seems to have a similar plan for consoles. “So we have quite a few console titles in our pipeline that are [traditional retail games] while we investigate free-to-play on consoles,” said Yerli. “But our primary goal is to make triple-A free-to-play games for the world market and transition entirely to that.”

Currently, the company is gearing up for the impending release of Crysis 3. You can check it out in the ongoing multiplayer beta. The beta is available on the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3 and the PC. It essentially works as a ‘multiplayer demo’, as it is designed to give you a taste of the Crysis 3 multiplayer component. Developers will also be able to use your feedback to do away with any bugs in the game. You can level up to rank 10, and customise your Nanosuit with different weapons, attachments, and suit modules. Check out the Crysis 3 website for more details.

EA announced the Crysis 3 multiplayer beta back in January. One of the game modes in the beta is ‘Crash Site’, where players must secure and defend specific locations, earning points along the way for kills and their ability to hold the locations. Another game mode is ‘Hunter mode’, which pits two players against ten as opposed to two versus 14 on the PC. The two players are armed with enhanced nanosuits with infinite cloaking and Predator bows. The aim is to kill all the other players within the time limit. The major twist is that when the other players are killed, they become part of the hunter team with infinite cloaking and a Predator bow.

The maps in the multiplayer beta include Airport and Museum. Both are a mix of lush rainforest and urban environments, following the general theme of Crysis 3 and its Biodome.

We rather liked the multiplayer of Crysis 3 as you can see in our preview.