In a brave step forward, Crytek has announced the latest incarnation of CRYENGINE, which will no longer be numbered from this point on. Crytek has made this call to make clear that they constantly release updates to the system, so that numbered releases have been rendered irrelevant.
While this may seem a minor point to the layman, Crytek is taking the same steps as Valve has for its game engine, Source. Actually, it’s kind of a humblebrag to say that you no longer need to roll out numbered releases since you upgrade your game engine constantly.
It’s also definitely a selling point for licensees, as well as the announcement that they are promising support for PC, Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii U, Playstation 4 and Xbox One, with the promise of even more platforms in the near future. I think these could be the key mobile platforms, iOS and Android, especially since the hardware for mobile to match desktop computing capabilities is already out there.
Subsequently, Crytek has also updated the free SDK, which has been available for two years now. Non-commercial users get the suite of features that made Crysis 3 possible. Considering that game isn’t all that old, and is still continued to be a visual benchmark, this is mighty generous indeed.
Future changes to CRYENGINE will be posted at www.cryengine.com, which Crytek intends to turn into a hub of information. Considering how impressive CRYENGINE is, in either Crytek’s hand, or of any of their clients, this is amazing news, helping even the odds out there for smaller developers. Precursor Games already intends to make multiplatform game Shadow of the Eternals on the engine, and many other indies will certainly be able to match AAA graphics with it. You can check out a demo video for CRYENGINE below.
Source: Crytek
