Crytek, EA slam PC Crysis 2 leak

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 14 February, 2011

"Piracy continues to damage PC dev community."

Publishing giant Electronic Arts and German developer Crytek suffered a blow over the weekend after a near final version of the hotly anticipated first-person shooter Crysis 2 was leaked online.

The leak comes over a month before the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game launches.

In a joint statement EA and Crytek slammed the Crysis 2 leak.

"Crytek has been alerted that an early incomplete, unfinished build of Crysis 2 has appeared on Torrent sites," it reads.

"Crytek and EA are deeply disappointed by the news. We encourage fans to support the game and the development team by waiting and purchasing the final, polished game on 22nd March.

"Crysis 2 is still in development and promises to be the ultimate action blockbuster as the series' signature Nanosuit lets you be the weapon as you defend NYC from an alien invasion.

"Piracy continues to damage the PC packaged goods market and the PC development community."

The leaked version of the game is, according to reports, a PC beta version that requires a degree of coaxing to run.

While its impact on sales of the final version of the game remains to be seen, the leak is a major blow to Crytek, one of PC gaming's standard bearers.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (52) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • NeoKenzi #1 1 year ago

    Not good... I'm still buying this game though! Support Crytek.

  • kadooosh #2 1 year ago

    Pikeys.

  • Geordiemp #3 1 year ago

    Makes you wonder, a month before release and it leaks, must be internal EA or Crysis people....

    How can any person get a hold of the game ...?

    It takes some knowledge and raw game code.....its not like stealing an object...

    EA / Crytek slams itself as one of its employees leeks a game...

  • bad09 #4 1 year ago

    Saw this over the weekend it's not as bad as it could be, pirates will pirate anyway and customers to the games industry will still buy it even if they try it, besides as the article says it's quite a rough version. Hell with the mods tools included we might see some good mods quite early!

    TBH I can actually see the beta leak as a positive for them, it's no secret the demo was not massively received well by the 360 mob and I know I'm actually really keen on Crysis 2 now after seeing some of the wonderful Youtube footage (I was quite "meh" up until now despite loving the original), actual gameplay from a game is far more informative and helpful than any crappy official hype trailer/teaser.

    Someone who has tried that beta did say on the forums it doesn't look as good as the original though, but I guess that was expected by everyone with the sequel going multiplatform. :(

  • kalinichenko #5 1 year ago

    Nice,leaking the game yourselves and blaming the pirates.Way to go EA
    Edited by kalinichenko at 14/02/11 @ 08:49

  • paketep #6 1 year ago

    What the fuck does piracy have to do with this?. PC piracy in particular?.

    Crytek are the ones to blame here. If someone leaked it, it was someone from Crytek. Trying to take this and pour more shit over PC gamers is just despicable.

    Fuck you, EA. Fuck you, Crytek. I really didn't need more reasons to avoid Crysis 2, but thanks anyway. I look forward to Cevat Yerlli's BS after release. Will there be a 1 to 200 piracy rate this time?.

    Go develop for the fucking consoles only if you hate the PC that much.

  • Optimaximal #7 1 year ago

    I think the worst part of the article is Crytek being referred to as 'standard bearers' of the PC - Cevat Yerli and his crew showed their true colours/intentions just after Crysis released.

  • Kerome #8 1 year ago

    Sad news. The industry is having a hard enough time without this kind of thing.

  • CaptainQuint #9 1 year ago

    @paketep

    Get a fucking brain you angry idiot. Are you really THAT naive?

  • matrim83 #10 1 year ago

    You only have yourself to blame this time EA. Its not like the Pirates broke into your office.

    I would sympathize but with all of Cryteks bitching about PC Piracy in the past and their other comments about the platform in general (when actually they sold 3M+ copies of the game) I honestly couldnt give less of a fuck.

    Wonder how they will react when the 360 copy (inevitably) leaks a week before release.

  • SpaceMonkey77 #11 1 year ago

    Leaks like this should be taken with a pinch of salt. We have to take their word for it, don't we?

    I'm an FPS fan so I'll be buying to play online if its good, like most gamers, but I doubt it'll hurt their sales, which again is a blank sheet of stats where anything can be written. Seems very convenient too, a month before release, and with Bulletstorm due soon.

    All Mr Pirates fault, that Crytek didn't lock up well at night. Also don't forget, the original didn't sell very well, because Crytek fancied the high end PC so much. A jump to the left, and a step to the right, perhaps, but no console timewarp needed. They know where the money is to be made now.

  • levitate #12 1 year ago

    Someone within the company decides to steal the game and then it's the gamers' fault. Yeah, sounds logical.

    My guess is this game will demand an absolute behemoth of a PC on release day so I won't be able to come near it without having my own PC imploding into a black hole.

  • bad09 #13 1 year ago

    @matrim83

    Don't forget they also sold 1.5 million copies of Warhead on top of that 3 million copies of the original.

  • Yodith #14 1 year ago

    The source of the leak is completely and utterly irrelevant. Just because it came from within the company doesn't justify ripping off the gaming.
    Edited by Yodith at 14/02/11 @ 09:07

  • Phishfood #15 1 year ago

    Sounds like a disgruntled employee

  • vapofusion #16 1 year ago

    I have tried it and let me tell you I will most definitely be buying the full game. As the leaked version runs like a bag of s*** on anything above medium on DX9 and it still looks amazing, and kicking cars is awesome. Not played any the single player as don't want to ruin any of the value of a retail version. I would give it a 9 out of ten for the multiplayer alone :)
    Edited by vapofusion at 14/02/11 @ 09:10

  • Subdominator #17 1 year ago

    I wouldn't be so fast to blame anybody. Remember the HL 2 leak? That was obviously a hacker. So no, an internal leak is not the only possibility for this leak.

  • azic #18 1 year ago

    Just another bull shit excuse to leave the PC scene and cry piracy.
    While in other news Kill Zone 3 a PS3 exclusive has no been leaked and is running on the "Sony can't do Shit about it" hacked PS3's

    I don't condone piracy but it irks me that devs wishing to bow out of the PC scene blame the PC for piracy, when clearly the consoles suffer to.

    I await the EA-Crytek announcement that Crysis 3 is a console only version!

  • GamesConnoisseur #19 1 year ago

    Man!

    Crysis and EA cannot win, they get blamed for initiating piracy of their game and thus ASKED for it and an open game?

    Seem very hazy moral code if you ask me, yes clearly internal source but NAME me any organisation that aren't open to abuses, getting their secrets, researches, products or such leaked out into wider and hungry world!

    More to the point here, is would we go ahead and download off torrent as it's now available or would we follow our moral compass re piracy?

    Also PC gaming needs more investment and attentions rather than having any developers be wary of the PC market?

  • Anciegher #20 1 year ago

    The leak is nigh unplayable...so I will be waiting for the real deal.

  • OnlyMe #21 1 year ago

    In other news, Wikileaks reveal that EA and Crytek "leaked" Crysis 2 in order to justify their withdrawel from the PC gaming market completely.

    Sorry... :D

    On a serious note, things like this is never good for the market, and I hope Crytek still sells enough unit for their continued support for the PC platform. Even though I'm not into Crysis and will probably not get the sequel, it's still sad to hear about this.
    Edited by OnlyMe at 14/02/11 @ 09:58

  • dingo75 #22 1 year ago

    Fuck you EA / Crytek!
    Leave PC gaming out of this!
    Better ramp up your internal security as the leak also consists a "tools" folder with your internal installations scripts for Photoshop etc.
    This is straight out of your internal LAN you wankers!
    Better look into some USB port securing or something you amateurs!
    Instead of blaming piracy I would worry about the fact that someone in your company that has access to this intentionally or stupidly leaked this. Oh and the state of the game is pretty worrying, too given that the *.exe is reported to be from 13/01/2011).
    Get to work and shut the hell up!

  • StooMonster #23 1 year ago

    Phishfood: Sounds like a disgruntled employee

    Sounds to me more likely someone on the development team being an idiot and showing off a copy to friend by installing it on their computer, and files being extracted and consolidated, or lending an install disc for a build to a friend. All it takes is for that 'friend' to upload to torrents and it's leaked.

  • gjgjg #24 1 year ago

    @paketep granted the blame lies elsewhere for the leak, but the motivation for the leak / target for the leak is the PC piracy community. If the later didn't exist the former probably wouldn't have happened.
    I do agree though that moaning about it here due to this leak is a bit floppy

  • Geordiemp #25 1 year ago

    Must be an ex employeee

    Why would a current employee of Crytek or EA leak a copy and effect the performanc eof their own comapy - If you worked for any company and were still there, would you want less cash ?

    Do the suppliers of leak code get paid by the pirates ?

  • JayG #26 1 year ago

    Strange though how while most Xbox games are leaked far before their release date, it's never ever mentioned and u don't hear about a Xbox pirate community. It is ironic that a cross platform game is been trumpeted so much for a platform that the developers have issued so much contempt for previously. Personally I wish they would have just stood by their convictions and gone 100 % console so we wouldn't have to hear such constant crap.

  • uknortherner2000 #27 1 year ago

    Goes to show you EA that your crappy consumer rights-crushing DRM doesn't work. Stop blaming piracy for once and look at what's going on with your own developers.

    Also, Crytek tried to blame piracy for poor sales of their first tech demo too. Obviously the fact that only 1% of the PC gaming population at the time had a rig barely close enough to run Crysis properly in the first place had nothing to do with it at all...
    Edited by uknortherner2000 at 14/02/11 @ 10:40

  • dwalker109 #28 1 year ago

    Wow. Some of you actually seem to be angry at Crytek and EA because somebody accessed their code repo. That somehow constitutes flagrant disregard for the PC community. The same community who, let's be honest here, have the most amazing sense of entitlement you've ever seen.

  • uknortherner2000 #29 1 year ago

    Ah yes, silly me. I'm being "entitled" because I'm vigorously protecting my legal rights against the likes of EA who recently breached their own court ruling by sneaking in SecuROM in the PC version of Dead Space 2 without bothering to inform the mugs who bought it. Still, it's perfectly fine for EA to break the law, isn't it? Perhaps they're saving up to fight another lawsuit?

    [link url=http://www.reclaimyourgame.com/content.php?739-RYG-News-Analysing-SecuROM-In-Dead-Space-2
    ]http://www.reclaimyourgame.com/content.p...[/link]

    It's amazing how many people are happy to throw away their rights out of some misguided loyalty to a wannabe-console developer and greedy publisher.
    Edited by uknortherner2000 at 14/02/11 @ 11:17

  • Red-Moose #30 1 year ago

    This will be a purchase on launch day - crysis and warhead were like playing Predator so all good :)

  • Haloboy #31 1 year ago

    A certain popular torrent site which is linked to skull and cross bones has removed all download links for the game. +1

  • Spekingur #32 1 year ago

    This means that (possibly) poor sales blamed on piracy. Again. Pre-emptive strike on piracy to sooth/convince shareholders?

  • mAc062 #33 1 year ago

    I saw this being played, you can't go prone and there is no leaning around coners and the action does not seem like you can go about it your own way. Another game destroyed by consoles. If i get this at all for PC ill get it when its like €15 or less.
    Edited by mAc062 at 14/02/11 @ 11:44

  • Haloboy #34 1 year ago

    http://torrentfreak.com/crysis-2-leak-fa...

  • Caimbeul #35 1 year ago

    It is a shame. This doesnt do the whole PC market any favours. As many of the other commenters have said. This is an internal issue for Crytek/EA. Someone with access had to leak it in the first place. Irradicate these people and there wont be any leaked pre-release software around unless the studio is burgled.

    Yes pirates will now download and distribute it but its there own people's fault.

    I have it pre-ordered and will still buy it.

  • Gearskin #36 1 year ago

    why are people blaming EA? Even if the leak is internal, that doesnt mean people HAVE to download and circulate the copy.

  • cheeky_master #37 1 year ago

    Maybe you should blame the person in the company for the leak instead of us? It's not like someone outside hacked into your network to get the game >_> Anyway a lot of the guys who downloaded the leaked beta version said they would buy the game or have done so already.

  • Timotei #38 1 year ago

    @Anciegher

    "The leak is nigh unplayable...so I will be waiting for the real deal."

    I'm getting a solid 62 fps at 1280x1024 with the second highest settings, it is eminently playable. All cut scenes are in as well as storyline, I'm struggling to see where it might differ from the retail version. There is a slight v-sync issue and no graphical tweaking options, but other than that...

  • Murton #39 1 year ago

    "piracy continues to damage the PC dev community"

    Again with the overstating of facts. The sooner someone does some proper research into the effects of piracy the better because publishers and studios are getting away with murder the way they describe the practice and its effects. I'd like to bust a few myths on piracy.

    Piracy vs Sales
    1: each download from a torrent site does not equate to a pirated copy. Many people download torrent files from several sites to obtain more trackers or merely to see which download will be fastest.
    2: each pirated copy does not equal a lost sale. Research has shown that some pirates later go on to buy the products that they've acquired.
    3: unlike worldwide publishing deals torrents are truly global. Many games don't see release in Russia, China/Hong Kong, Eastern Europe or the Middle East for various reasons. These people are effectively forced to either import or pirate, as importing is prohibively expensive in many of these countries and even illegal in some that just leaves piracy. But as legal sale wasn't an option for them it should be considered a lost opportunity, not a lost sale as publishers count them.

    Piracy vs Artists (devs)
    We've all heard the piracy vs artists line of attack within the music industry, because everyone is downloading music left right and centre artists aren't getting paid and therefore aren't making new music, the games industry has adopted this line of argument and it's just as weak here as it is for music. If you follow the supply route you'll see Dev > Pub > Retailer > Consumer. The money however doesn't go all the way back. On a new release the money trail stops at the retailer where it branches into two routes, one where they order new stock and one where they don't. Obviously ordering new stock gives the publisher another bite of the cherry, but are we really expected to believe that the developers get a share of each and every sale? Developers by and large are paid before or on release with additional bonuses available for big sales, they're double insulated from the effects of low sales, allegedly caused by piracy, by their publisher and by a huge retail market. Short of it is, piracy doesn't really effect developers unless publishers choose for it do so.

    And besides, a quick look on any torrent website will show Black Ops at the top of the list. That's right, the biggest and fastest selling game of all time, was one of the most pirated of all time too, how exactly does the industry explain that if piracy is doing so much damage?

  • kristo #40 1 year ago

    Game is leaked. It's either Crytek/EA or one of their partners (say they outsource to some Indian QA company or so).

    The fact that it gets passed around more than a drunk girl at a party is not the issue. You can't blame people when its just put out there like that. Yes, they should have restraint, but hey, if you leave your door open then it's your own stupid fault for getting robbed.

    Also, shut the fuck up with all this loyalty to publishers/games companies and stop identifying so much with the shit you buy. These are just corporations, you owe them nothing.

  • brod #41 1 year ago

    "While its impact on sales of the final version of the game is impossible to determine"

    Fixed.

  • metatron197924 #42 1 year ago

    blah blah piracy piracy,i remember the ps1 days when the machine was unlocked from the start to play buck ups and it was the most successful console,i dont support piracy but its shame for every canceled game for the pc to hear this crap,the developers destroy the pc gaming with the piece of shit crossplatform titles,mr cevat with this game you think you support pc gaming,the first one was a landmark this is a shit technical.so dont say piracy, the big 2 give developers a lot of money for working on consoles but nobody give a shit for pc gaming except valve.the developers and the publishers its the reason for the fate of pc gaming.the same people who destroyed dreamcast do the same again on the pc platform.

  • Snaggletooth #43 1 year ago

    I do blame EA / Crytek for the leak, they should have looked after their IP better than allowing it to be leaked.

    However, this will only have more negativity against future PC games. I do hope that developers like Crytek do not move over to console 100% because of pirates. PC gaming is the best gaming platform IMO, purely from a power and graphics point of view, but also because of the limitless qty of control options etc.

    I have a killer PC....over £3000 worth of gaming awesomeness.... however, what good will it be if nobody is making games for it.

    Luckily this isnt the case ATM and we will have a wealth of games coming for PC in the next few months. Also, as consoles get older developers are likely to want to use PC to show off their technology better.

    Let's just hope enough people are still supporting the developers enough and piracy isn't killing it for everyone.

  • ronuds #44 1 year ago

    If someone leaves a gold ring out in the open, is it ok to take it? You can blame EA for leaking the material, but blame everyone else for stealing it. The PC community kills itself and then celebrates its own death as a victory.

  • ph101 #45 1 year ago

    It may be leaked from EA, but it is the piracy ie copyright infringement of the leak which is now the problem. So, for all you angry peens ^^ who systematically download all the free shit you can get because you are too tight to buy it - FU and stop trying to justify your theft that is (slowly) destroying the PC games industry. Some of us want to still be able to buy games for mouse/keyboard in 10 years :) Go and get a hacked console or something.
    ps and I'm no EA or crytec fan, just saying like, it's kinda obvious..

  • Lusterpurge #46 1 year ago

    Who cares if the leak came from somewhere in Crytek? It obviously did, but that doesn't mean the companies can't be mad that that employee. And they aren't just mad at the leaker, they are mad at all those people rushing in to download their game. Have a little more respect for those who created the game, rather than grabbing something because it is in reach.

  • uknortherner2000 #47 1 year ago

    Respect is something that's earned, not demanded.

    Where's the respect for the legitimate PC gamer who has to jump through hoops just to play a game they've purchased?
    Where's the respect for the average gamer who's often sold an unfinished, and bug-ridden product?
    Where's the respect for the average gamer who will now be fleeced for DLC content that should be part of the retail game?

    Developers and publishers have to earn my respect, not the other way around!

  • ronuds #48 1 year ago

    LOL - anyone who isn't defending piracy is being negged. Shows you what kind of people frequent EG, eh? Good grief.

    Also shows what kind of future PC gaming has.

  • GoDo69 #49 1 year ago

    As they say any publicity is good publicity.
    Played the Beta rip - its as buggy as hell - crashes quite a bit - though it is a very good game from what I have played.
    Will be still keeping it on order and look forward to playing it when it comes out.
    Just hope they clear all the bugs first - can't do with patch after patch.

  • Kaminari #50 1 year ago

    Most leaks come from press releases. Journos will keep swapping prebuilds under the hood as long as developers won't enforce a more drastic selection. That's what happened with KZ3, and you can bet Sony is already looking hard for the culprit (hint: it's not George).

  • DRUNK3N-_-DRAGON #51 1 year ago

    what are they afraid of? that the pc version might be a pile of shit? pcs are for nerds with no girlfriends..long live the consoles and woman!

  • brod #52 1 year ago

    Hating on PC gaming and pretending that consoles are somehow 'cooler' is ignorant to say the least.