The PC Play magazine has published an English version of the recent interview it did with Cevat Yerli, president of the German Studio Crytek, which is well known for developing Crysis. In this interview they discussed the success and failures of Crysis, but more importantly the state of the PC gaming industry.
PC Play magazine had a chance to have a brief chat with Mr Cevat Yerli, a president of well-known German studio Crytek. We asked Cevat a few questions about Crysis success and its future, the state of the PC gaming industry, the piracy impact, Games for Windows program and other topics regarding Crysis production.
PC Play: Crysis is out now for quite some time, it received sky-high scores, which could be considered an instant success. How do you and the team feel after you finally launched possibly one of the most anticipated titles of the past year, on any platform?
Cevat Yerli: I feel very proud of the team and they do too, they deserved it. Crysis is a very complete development of what we imagined and that’s the core premise of being proud, it resonated very well critically and we hope it will do commercially too now.
PC Play: How do you estimate the current state of the PC gaming industry? Some say that it's only a matter of time when it's going to finally die-off, the others say that "the big one" is only getting its comeback pace.
Considering Crysis is a PC-exclusive title, what do you think of its market reception and its future? Skeptics would say that it's pretty risky going PC-exclusive with such a high-profile title.
Cevat Yerli: It is certainly. We are suffering currently from the huge piracy that is encompassing Crysis. We seem to lead the charts in piracy by a large margin, a chart leading that is not desirable. I believe that’s the core problem of PC Gaming, piracy. To the degree PC Gamers that pirate games inherently destroy the platform. Similar games on consoles sell factors of 4-5 more. It was a big lesson for us and I believe we wont have PC exclusives as we did with Crysis in future. We are going to support PC, but not exclusive anymore.
PC Play: You have confirmed that Crysis is a trilogy, which is a really, really great thing to know. Taking that Crysis is a part of the Microsoft's Games for Windows program, is the "master plan" making Crysis the killer-app of the Games for Windows platform, as Microsoft did once before with Halo for the Xbox, Sony with Metal Gear Solid for PlayStation or Nintendo with Super Mario?
Cevat Yerli: There is not really a master plan. We just designed Crysis as a trilogy, that was the plan. Of course this largely depends on success of Crysis for PC. As with every game or entertainment property, if the commercial success wont suffice, plans have to be revisited.
PC Play:You confirmed that it's impossible to make Crysis run on an console, but yet there are constant rumors that it's nearly inevitable. Can you finally give us, our readers, and the industry the final answer on that matter? Is Crysis going to be ported to a console?
Cevat Yerli: Crysis as we have seen is impossible. Crysis would have to be largely changed to bring it to Xbox 360 or Playstation 3. Crysis is designed to be PC Exclusive. Our internal focus is not linked to bring Crysis to consoles.
PC Play: Can you comment the Microsoft's Games for Windows initiative from the business prospective? Is it doing enough for the PC gaming industry? For example, when I visit the official GfW website and click on "Crysis" (or any other title at that matter), there are no trailers, no demos. Only a few screenshots and a link to a Fileplanet beta (Crysis-related) which is closed now for a long, long time. That is hardly representative, don't you think?
Cevat Yerli: What you describe, if still the case, is of course not desirable and acceptable. However I believe in the serious intentions of Microsoft in PC Gaming through the Games for Windows initiative.
PC Play: What do you think about the Games for Windows Live! service? How come Crysis didn't end-up being a Live!-enabled game? Is it going to change with its sequels?Cevat Yerli: About Games for Windows Live Service, it was too late when the SDKs where available. Whether we support it in the future will be a business decision though and nothing has been decided.
PC Play: What do you think about the modding community potential? We saw about eleven high-profile mods in the production. How do you support those guys? How do you think the modding community will evolve through the upcoming years?
Cevat Yerli: I think modding is a key corner stone of success and our support is happening through early or premier access to SDKs. We have our website called www.crymod.com that is our modding community, where people can find everyday news about Modding Crysis and other user created content. At our community site, we have full documentations, tutorials and are running small competitions.
PC Play: Now, let's get back to Crysis from a gaming standpoint. I had a pleasure to review the game, and believe it to be a really, really exceptional title. I especially liked the Nanosuit options. Do you have some plans to evolve the Nanosuit with some new stuff?
Cevat Yerli: Time will tell how the nanosuit will evolve in future. However thanks for the motivating words.
PC Play: Regarding the Nanosuit and its options, could you tell us where you found the inspiration when you were making it? I mean, when I turn the cloak on, I can't ignore a certain "Predator" feeling :-) It feels... mighty:-)
Cevat Yerli: The inspiration was to allow the player to be somewhat the heroes we have seen from other media or games, but just dynamically and to the players choice through nanotechnology in fiction. People when playing Crysis find themselves as Rambos, as Predators, as real delta force units, as walking tanks and whatnot, but the point is, that was our goal, to have each player find himself to be what they want to be.
PC Play: One of the great things both about Far Cry and Crysis is that there are nearly limitless possibilities for getting through a level. Could you tell us if there are going to be some changes or advances in the sequel regarding that gameplay style?
Cevat Yerli: That has not be decided yet, I cannot really comment on any sequel of future iterations of Crysis.
PC Play: You said you wanted the Crysis sequel to have graphics of a motion picture quality. Can you offer us some more, juicy details about that?
Cevat Yerli: Hehe, did I? Well that was the aim with Crysis already. We will certainly see what we can do, but have to be quite patient to find more info on this.
PC Play: Crytek has been opening some new studios around Europe, which are supposedly specialized for some new projects. You said that it's nothing like you did before. Could you give us a hint what it is about?
Cevat Yerli: I cannot unfortunately. It will take a while till we hear more about this.
PC Play: Cevat, many thanks for your precious time.