14 DAY TRIAL // Crysis 2, the newest first-person shooter from Crytek, has benefited immensely from arriving on the PC, just like its predecessors, Crysis and Crysis: Warhead, but also on consoles like the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, a first for its developer, Crytek.
Crysis 2 was one of the biggest games that appeared last month, with the gorgeous game delivering on the promise of being one of the most advanced titles that appeared across the aforementioned platforms.
While long time PC gamers shrugged at the thought of seeing Crysis 2 appear on inferior consoles, Crytek has revealed that it was all for the best, as the release of the PS3 or Xbox 360 meant the studio could invest more money into the project.
"We could not have created a game with the scope, scale, and multiplayer features of Crysis 2 if it were a PC-only title," Crytek's R&D principal graphics engineer Tiago Sousa told Digital Foundry.
He went on to highlight that even if the studio wanted to push the game's new CryEngine 3 to its limits on the PC, it was much more advantageous to release it on consoles as well.
"The PC market just does not support that cost of development, but going multi-platform does. If making a game that is bigger, better, more stable, performs better across a wider range of hardware, provides a continued visual benchmark for PC gaming, and more fun with a huge single-player and multiplayer offering is considered selling out, that seems like a really odd application of the phrase. The decision to go multi-platform has allowed us to bring a better game to everyone, which has been our goal all along."
Sousa admitted that the undertaking was the studio's "biggest challenge ever," with lots of optimizing needed so that Crysis 2 would run smooth on consoles, but, in the end, seeing as how sales were dominated by the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game in front of the PC one, the decision was fortunate one.
PC gamers shouldn't feel worried, as Crytek revealed recently that a comprehensive patch for the game will be released, which will add more graphics options and support for DirectX 11 software, in order to really showcase the game's stunning technology.