CryEngine, for a time, stood as one of the crucial thrilling sport engines obtainable, persistently pushing the boundaries of what was graphically doable on PC {hardware}. Titles like the unique Crysis had been usually cited as benchmarks, demanding top-tier methods to actually shine, but delivering beautiful visuals that even immediately maintain up remarkably properly. For years, CryEngine was a major participant, underpinning quite a lot of high-profile video games that helped set up Crytek’s repute. To at the present time the imply “However can it run Far Cry” its nonetheless alive and properly.
Nevertheless, the engine’s journey hasn’t been with out its twists and turns. Ubisoft, as an illustration, licensed CryEngine once they acquired the Far Cry IP, which later grew to become the premise of their in-house Dunia engine. Maybe essentially the most notable shift got here when Amazon licensed the engine, rebranding it as Lumberyard and finally evolving it into the open-source O3DE (Open 3D Engine). At this level O3DE and CryEngine are very completely different engines, however primarily based off a standard core. In the meantime, Crytek themselves continued to make use of CryEngine for numerous titles, together with the Crysis sequence, Ryse: Son of Rome, and extra just lately, well-liked multiplayer video games like Hunt: Showdown. Plenty of third social gathering builders have made use of CryEngine too, akin to Star Citizen (now on lumberyard), Prey (2017), a private favorite MechWarrior On-line and most just lately the critically acclaimed Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.
Regardless of these current launched video games, the way forward for CryEngine for builders is way muddier. In 2022, Crytek introduced a brand new model of Crysis within the works, solely to place it on maintain, accompanied by layoffs of 15% of their workforce. Whereas Crytek’s CEO has said a continued dedication to creating CryEngine, notably for Hunt: Showdown, their efforts appear targeted internally. CryEngine 5.7 LTS, launched in April 2022 was the final replace, resulting in hypothesis among the many group. Despite the fact that Crytek introduced CryEngine 5.11 for the Hunt video games, it was by no means publicly launched. Crytek have said on their discord server that the 5.7 LTS model would be the closing public launch of the 5.x department.
Key Hyperlinks
Crytek Press Launch About CryEngine 5.11
Crytek Layoffs Announcement Tweet
So, the place does that go away CryEngine? It’s clear that Crytek continues to be actively creating the engine, primarily for their very own titles like Hunt: Showdown. Nevertheless, the general public launch cycle and the broader availability to third-party builders appear to be in flux. Whether or not CryEngine can reclaim its former prominence as a extensively adopted engine past Crytek’s personal titles stays an open query, and solely time will inform what the long run holds for this once-groundbreaking expertise. You may study extra in regards to the previous, current and way forward for CryEngine within the video beneath.
