Crysis 2 leak: Crytek still loves the PC

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 15 February, 2011

Boss moves to reassure PC gaming fans.

German developer Crytek has moved to reassure gamers that it remains committed to the PC despite the leak of a near complete build of upcoming shooter Crysis 2.

Over the weekend Crytek and publisher EA issued a joint statement on the leak, saying, "Piracy continues to damage the PC packaged goods market and the PC development community."

Now Crytek boss Cevat Yerli has had his say, reaffirming the popular studio's belief in the PC as a viable platform.

"Despite this unfortunate incident, we can assure you that PC gaming is very important to us and will always be important to Crytek in the future," he wrote in a statement provided to mycrysis.com.

"We are all still focused on delivering a great gaming experience to our true and honest fans. I hope you will enjoy Crysis 2 on PC, as we think it is our best PC game yet!

"We appreciate all of your continued support, and look forward to playing online with you soon!"

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

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.

You may also like...

Comments (32) Latest comment 1 year ago

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

  • kadooosh #1 1 year ago

    Something really has to change, I still way to be playing games in 10 yrs time but i can't help but doubt the quality of things coming out if devs loose faith in what's going to be bought and what's going to be stolen. Seems to be getting easier and easier for little geek nerds to find ways to steal games and share them with the rest of the worlds geeky little fucks.

  • leketin #2 1 year ago

    So the beta leak is just to show us how optimized and stable the final build really is... Like 1.9 fps vs 19 fps.

  • spekkeh #3 1 year ago

    I didn't know a leak was out. Not sure if it was a good idea of Crytek to comment on it. (Then again if I was still into downloading games, I'd either have known about it or just searched for torrents and find it anyway)

    Lots of Steam users seem to be happy about the service, I think most of the avid PC gamers have now given up hope about a DRM free game, so if I were a PC publisher I'd just go with an online DRM like Steam.

  • Crembo #4 1 year ago

    No really, piracy has nothing to do with this.
    We're putting the blame on us when they should look for the insider that leaked the game!

    It's like throwing money out of a window and blaming the people that take the money instead the one that threw the money.
    Edited by Crembo at 15/02/11 @ 08:49

  • teh_MBK #5 1 year ago

    Granted, someone at EA/Crytek should definitely be getting a boot up the jacksy, however, just because someone there leaked it does not alleviate those who downloaded it. That's just saying that only the original torrent up-loader is to blame. Rubbish. Those who took the money after it was thrown out the window are just as much thieves (if not more so by your analogy - not in the case of torrents) than the thrower.

  • Murton #6 1 year ago

    kadoosh: agreed, though I believe in 10 years time the PC will likely have abandoned the boxed product business model and go purely digital, not piracy-proof but certainly stronger than discs. The last five years has seen a stark decline in retail sales for PC software, largely due to increased consumer interest in consoles triggering a reduced commitment from retailers to stock and display PC titles. Until that happens though devs and publishers are going to worry and question PC releases.

    As for Crytek's comments, sounds a lot of like damage control. The comments thread here yesterday and their official forums were full of posters predicting Crytek ceasing PC development altogether and going exclusive console and citing piracy as a justification. People who believe this will likely not bother buying Crysis 2 and obviously Crytek wants good sales, hence their playing down the leak and claiming to be fully comitted to PC development in the future.

  • paketep #7 1 year ago

    Sure, Cevat, sure. We believe you. We really do.

    /pats Cevat in the back

  • DodgyPast #8 1 year ago

    kadooosh show me on the dolly where the PC gamer touched you.

  • DirectAim #9 1 year ago

    I don't think any hacked release damages sales to a massive extent! When HL2 was released I downloaded it and played thru it and still got it on the day of release, obviously the HL2 release wasn't a full copy but still, if a game is good, piracy will only help sales!

    I also think it's the same with the music industry, if I download an album it's because I wasn't going to buy the CD in the first place!

    Could they detected players using this released version and ban them from online play? That would help them!

  • kangarootoo #10 1 year ago

    The next time people complain about draconian DRM, they should think back to moments like this and consider who is really responsible for the panic induced overkill that follows.

    This is the first Crysis on consoles and PC. With this kind of thing seemingly commonplace, I wonder if the next one will be console only?

  • kangarootoo #11 1 year ago

    @DirectAim

    You must surely see that you aren't representative. To suggest that a majority of people who download a pirate copy of a game then go on to buy a legit copy is pure fiction. As is this "if a game is good, piracy will only help sales!".

    Seriously, sometimes I just have to wonder.

  • kangarootoo #12 1 year ago

    @TruthGiver

    The "developer" isn't some big brain in a jar you know. It might make it easy for you to act like the "developer" that leaked the copy if the same "developer" that applies the DRM... but its not that simple.

    Whether the twat that ripped the game works within and leaked it, or without and cracked it, they are still the pirate responsible for the ripped copy. The pirate is driving the (perceived) need for DRM, so they are primarily to blame. That they happend to be an employee in this case doesn't really change anything.

  • Negotiator #13 1 year ago

    PC gaming is on the decline and this is reducing sales even more.

  • HL706 #14 1 year ago

    Developer leaks beta build. Recipients share with world. Publisher blames platform?

    There's something wrong with that picture - I can't quite put my finger on it though.

  • asphaltcowboy #15 1 year ago

    Sometimes I wonder if gamers truly understand just how many people (both in and outside the developer's studio) are involved in bringing a game to market - All of this talk of an "insider" is pure speculation and frankly, a load of old shit.

  • HL706 #16 1 year ago

    Are you suggesting an inconspicuous outsider with a pegleg and parrot stole the build from right under their noses? I'm well aware of how many people and what kind are involved in professional game development. It was probably a tester/contractor that's done it. Or someone else in a more 'lowly' position.

  • JayG #17 1 year ago

    As a PC gamer totally fed up with the endless hype, moaning etc about this game. I have no interest in it, and most the type of games I buy these days tend to be less mainstream games that instead of moaning about only selling a million copies, are actually happy with enough sales to cover costs. It would be nice to see the gaming market mature with new ideas and concepts instead of endlessly reselling the same old shite. Look at lionhead, imagine an old style bullfrog type strategy game where u use kinnect to interact with the enviroment, instead they ask what we want we want to see in Fable 4.

    I'm also fed up with piracy always been blamed for lower sales on PCs, when it might be fact that console's are a lot easier to get working, people enjoying playing on sofas, the lack of any marketing push for PC's as there is no MS or Sony to push the platform, MMO's taking up wayyyyyyy too much time and a 101 other things. Most people buy the games that interest them, there will always be the element that pirates everything in sight.

  • dsmx #18 1 year ago

    Why do people keep saying pc gaming is on the decline? Over 4 billion spent on it last year,steam has more users that xbox live and the PC is getting game releases that used to be the preserve of consoles. Then you have the fact that indie developers now have the ability to distribute their games without the need of publishers or even a marketing budget and can simply make it on world of mouth. Things have never looked better for innovative and off the wall games on the PC.

    The thing that PC gaming has lost is the same thing that all of gaming has lost and that is the big budget platform exclusive, so saying that PC gaming is on the decline is also saying that console gaming is on the decline.

  • orangpelupa #19 1 year ago

    i can see the FUTURE!

    a week before the xbox 360 release. The xbox 360 Crysis 2 will be leaked on the internet, and then EA will blame piracy on low sales on xbox and pc ... and also ps3?

    or not,
    despite the piracy Crysis 2 will still sell well. Just like Crysis 1 sold well on PC only.

  • Buran #20 1 year ago

    I expect that the game will have a huge success in sales in both PC and consoles; despite I don't like the changes in the nanosuit and scale, the value productions of the games seems superb, and can't wait for the PC mp demo.

  • uknortherner2000 #21 1 year ago

    As long as these publishers/developers continue to treat the legitimate PC gamers like criminals, I'll continue to boycott them. No, I have no intention of pirating this game, before any of you Crytek fanbois go off on one - I am simply walking away with my dignity and pride intact.

    They have no right to demand I surrender my rights to play their bug-ridden crap, and they have no respect from me either.

  • arcam #22 1 year ago

    Honestly I think, leaked early copy or not, Crysis 2 just isn't going to do that well on PC this time.

    The hooks for Far Cry/Crysis were the state of the art graphics and huge open tropical environments. Now it's set in another ruined city and the graphics won't be much if any better than the 2008 game.

    Worse PC sales than Crysis predicted.

  • infernox1 #23 1 year ago

    im not sure where you guys are getting you're figures from. maybe you should read this.

    http://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/20...

  • StooMonster #24 1 year ago

    When Crysis 2 is on Steam I'll buy it, been looking forward to it.

  • StooMonster #25 1 year ago

    uknortherner2000: As long as these publishers/developers continue to treat the legitimate PC gamers like criminals

    I'm a legitimate PC gamer, buy all my titles ... I've never noticed that I am being treated like a criminal by publishers/developers.

    Maybe I'm doing it wrong?

  • uknortherner2000 #26 1 year ago

    Activation limits, installation limits, always-on internet connection required, constant verification, etc. I have bought my game. I do not need to prove I am the owne... sorry licensor of it.

    Those reasons above are why I feel I am being treated like a criminal. The pirates get the game for free and don't have to jump through any of the hoops a legitimate gamer has, and they get a far better experience because of it.

    Say you run out of activation limits? It can happen because you put in a new hard drive, added more RAM, swapped out your graphics card/CPU etc. Why the fuck should I go begging to the publisher for the right to play my games again afterwards?

    There's only a couple of games on the horizon I'm interested in (Witcher 2 and Guild Wars 2), and after that, I think I'll be done with an industry that thinks it can behave differently to the rest, and can treat its customer base as little more than cash cows begging to be milked.

  • Embar #27 1 year ago

    You're talking about DRM vs piracy, not leaks vs piracy.

    In either case the pirates do not get "a better experience". In some cases it takes more faffing about to get the game to actually run than it would have taken to put up with DRM.

    Furthermore, pirated copies are excluded from communities, DLC, seamless patching AND in the case of Crysis 2 a fully completed build. Top this with exposure to viruses and possible legal action and you have a very sub-par experience.
    Edited by Embar at 15/02/11 @ 13:02

  • uknortherner2000 #28 1 year ago

    That's the thing though, isn't it? I primarily play single-player games. I couldn't give a toss about tacked-on multiplayer. Seamless patching? A decently-written game shouldn't need patching in the first place! DLC? Never have been, and never will be interested in it. I prefer proper expansion packs that actually offer something for the money, not alternative costumes, mode unlocks and overpriced maps that five years ago would've been free on PC.

    As for the leak - well, perhaps EA and Crytek should take a look at their distributors. The same thing happened with The Sims 3, and guess what? The final version still sold bucketloads even though the final release was the exact same bug-ridden mess as the leaked version.

    Incidentally, before anyone starts - I have not pirated a game since 1994. I buy my games. If I feel I'm being screwed by a publisher, I simply walk away.
    Edited by uknortherner2000 at 15/02/11 @ 13:05

  • Rack #29 1 year ago

    Given the way Crytek has treated PC gamers since Crysis I can't help but be put in mind of an abusive spouse who beats his partner before saying "I'm sorry, I still love you"

  • Negotiator #30 1 year ago

    Just heard Crysis 3 will be console exclusive, its a sad day for PC gamers.

  • Lord_BeeJee #31 1 year ago

    I think he should check the torrents sites to see how thousand of peeps are pulling in the latest and greatest on xbox and ps... Blind eye or something?

  • KayTannee #32 1 year ago

    Will get it when its on Steam.

    I rarely buy anything unless its on Steam anymore, its the kind of DRM I can live with.