Crytek to Adpot a Purely Free to Play Online Model
According to Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli, the video game development company is planning a permanent shift to online, free to play games once current contracts for traditional boxed products are complete.
Yerli expressed his dismay with the direction the video game market is currently going in an interview with videogamer.com. He believes “the growing DLC and premium [online] services model” is “milking customers to death.” This shift to purely online F2P games has been on the mind of Yerli for some time now.
“As we were developing console games, we knew, very clearly, that the future is online and free to play,” Yerli told the website. “Right now we are in the transitional phase of our company, transitioning from packaged goods into an entirely free to play experience.”
He also insisted there would be no development quality sacrificed for this radically new business model. Crytek’s AAA production standard remains with free to play titles retaining $10-$30 million budgets.
“What this entails it that our future, all the new games that we’re working on, as well as new projects, new platforms and technologies, are designed around free to play online, with the highest quality development,” Yerli said.
The first game to use the free to play model is the recently announced Warface. Crytek’s social gaming platform Gface will provide online interactions for this title and all subsequent free to play releases.
