Crytek to improve image of free-to-play games with Warface

By: Muhammad Qasim Hassan

  |   August 29th, 2012   |  

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The term “free-to-play” has been coming up a lot lately because of its growing popularity among video game publishers.

Many industry analysts are of the opinion that the future of gaming lies in free-to-play, though there are a number of things that the game makers needs to look into before the new model can be implemented successfully with desirable results.

The co-founder and CEO of Crytek Cevat Yerli, however, believes that his company is all set to step into the future with the upcoming military shooter Warface, which is a free-to-play multiplayer game for the PC.

Acknowledging the shortcomings that are pretty evident in the existing free-to-play games, the Crytek boss told Eurogamer that he is convinced that his company will be able to change the reputation of the model through its latest project.

He admitted that companies often tend to compromise on the quality of the game in order to deliver a free experience and later charge gamers for additional content, presenting gamers with a pay-to-win option.

Crytek, on the other hand, does on plan on doing anything of this sort. Rather than stepping into the free-to-play space with a low-quality intellectual property, they are charging in with a game that will definitely live up to the standards of both quality as well as enjoyable experience, the two things that gamers expect to come across during online play.

“We know that free-to-play games have a bad image,” Yerli said. “They have a bad reputation; it’s pay to win, it’s low quality. I completely get that, but we are making free-to-play that’s high quality. It’s CryEngine 3; it’s a big investment.”

The growing popularity of free-to-play games is hard to ignore. Allowing the gamers to try out the basic elements of the game before making a final decision whether they want to buy it or not and later offering additional in-game content to an enhanced experience by charging a small fee is something that can indeed work well for both consumers as well as publishers. Games such as Defense of the Ancients (DotA) and League of Legends have left little doubt about the popularity of the game model, though hardcore gamers do not seem too happy with the graphics and various performance elements of these games.

Crytek, the company that brought us the Far Cry and Crysis franchises, is all set to make its debut in the free-to-play space with Warface. The game will run on CryEngine 3, the very same technology that is being used in the development of the upcoming Crysis game. While the game will officially release for PC at the end of this year or the beginning of next, it is not year certain whether Crytek plans on releasing a PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 version of the game.