Crytek developing Homefront 2

By Tom Phillips Published 20 September, 2011

Out fiscal year 2014.

UPDATE: The next Homefront game will be made by Nottingham-based developer Crytek UK and will "benefit from the latest CryEngine technology", Crytek has told Eurogamer.

Crytek UK, formerly known as Free Radical Design, created the multiplayer portion of Crysis 2. FRD was the developer of the TimeSplitters series, Second Sight, and Haze.

ORIGINAL STORY: Crysis creator Crytek is working on a sequel to Homefront, publisher THQ has announced.

It will launch in financial year 2014 - anytime from April 2013 to March 2014 - for PC and unspecified consoles.

"With Crytek's industry leading technology and legendary experience in the FPS genre, we're supremely confident that the next Homefront will deliver that AAA-quality experience that players demand," THQ boss Danny Bilson said.

Homefront launched this year to commercial success, despite mixed reviews.

Meanwhile, praise was heaped upon Crysis 2, notably the game's graphical prowess on PC.

"We see Homefront as a really strong universe that has a lot of potential and that has been expertly created and marketed by THQ," said Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli. "We believe that bringing our level of quality, creativity and production values to the next Homefront title, creates an opportunity for both THQ and Crytek to deliver a truly blockbuster game.

"It's really important to us that THQ has the faith in giving us a lot of creative freedom over one of its most important properties to allow us to bring the Homefront world to life in a new and innovative way."

Crytek was rumoured to be creating TimeSplitters 4 for next-gen consoles using DirectX 11 as a visual benchmark. Will Homefront 2 be a next-gen launch title?

Eurogamer plays Homefront.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Phillips

Tom joined Eurogamer in 2010 and has quickly made his mark writing news and columns and coming up with puntastic straplines. Questionable beard.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Phillips archive page.

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Comments (31) Latest comment 5 months ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • evild_edd #1 5 months ago

    I can only imagine that for the fans of the PC original Crysis, this announcement will wash down like a cup of cold sick.....with added razor blades!

  • frunk #2 5 months ago

    That could almost work... It looks like ambition and ability clashed with the old developer and this fact was picked up in most reviews.

    Having Crytek pick this up could make Home Front closer to what the marketing hype suggested.

  • Khosrau #3 5 months ago

    @ evild_edd

    Not if it's on next-gen consoles. Anyway, I like this deal - as a fan of Crysis 1 and the original Far Cry. There is potential here.

    Also looking forward to Crytek making a game without aliens for a change!
    Edited by 2 at 20/09/11 @ 13:38

  • Cosquae #4 5 months ago

    "Meanwhile, praise was heaped upon Crysis 2, notably the game's graphical prowess on PC."

    No it wasn't.

    It was one of the few PC games that looked worse than the original. Until the upgrade pack came -several- months later, it was stuck running on DX9, as opposed to the DX10 out of the box original. Not saying it's an ugly brute, but lets no go overboard with the praise heaping retrospective.

  • Daeltaja #5 5 months ago

    Mental. Mental. This sort of thing just doesn't happen in the games industry!

    Danny boy must have pulled out his golden checkbook.

  • evild_edd #6 5 months ago

    @Khosrau: "Not if it's on next-gen consoles. Anyway, I like this deal - as a fan of Crysis 1 and the original Far Cry. "

    ....err, the article already states "It will launch in financial year 2014 - anytime from April 2013 to March 2014 - for PC and unspecified consoles." so I'm assuming that PC fans will have a vested interest....? I think people will see this as Crytek moving further away from their well-regarded earlier titles and further in to territories of little interest to their original fans.

    The Homefront 'brand' is surely one of the most vapid and hollow out there. THQ themselves even went as far to state tehy only made it to grab a bit of the CoD/Battlefield pie.

  • George-Roper #7 5 months ago

    Thoroughly enjoyed Homefront on the PC. Grabbed it for just less than 4 quid and for that, I can live with the desperately short, though superbly executed SP.

    Some of the sequences were flat out astounding, especially the build up to the mass grave on the baseball pitch. When that part kicked off, I was in full-on 'Kill the motherfuckers' rage! Expertly done.

    Can't wait for this!

  • username84 #8 5 months ago

    Remind me in two years.

    I guess it'll be a rip of Modern Warfare 4 and Battlefield Bad Company 3.
    Edited by 1 at 20/09/11 @ 13:42

  • Khosrau #9 5 months ago

    @ evild_edd

    New consoles mean new opportunities. For example delivering a more PC fps experience like the original Crysis (full HD, no graphical compromises, semi-open world). That's what I meant (and hope for).

    And it's still coming out for PC, right? So they do not seem to abandon their original audience.

  • Jay1983 #10 5 months ago

    Come on. Give us Timesplitters instead.

  • WJF #11 5 months ago

    "Because I can't see the Homefront name selling many units of a sequel. "

    Tbf, out of all of THQ's franchises, the original sold pretty well (it was number 1 for a time iirc...although it was during a 'quiet period'), and the multiplayer was well-regarded even if the single player portion was a little on the short side.

  • Cjail #12 5 months ago

    After Crysis 2 how can anyone still praise Crytek.
    Crysis 2 was a step back in every sense compared to Crysis 1 & Warhead: far smaller environments, stupid AI, terrible online, no support to the players, console version with never fixed bugs, etc...
    The entire PC audience had to wait 3 long months to have the game they payed for, and still at today it is not working as it should be.
    Really where is the success in all this.
    Edited by 1 at 20/09/11 @ 14:01

  • Hindle #13 5 months ago

    Could be the first next gen game I reckon.

  • LazyNinjaUk #14 5 months ago

    They've got a new dev, they've got a new engine, now all that is needed is a campaign that lasts longer than 4 hours.

  • jumpdeveraux #15 5 months ago

    So we can expect features like client side editable config files to make ourselves nigh on invulnerable in online multiplayer?

  • Sir_STRESSHEaD #16 5 months ago

    I'll still give Homefront a chance. I've played much worse shooters. It's just a shame that the first game was so hyped... it was never gonna live up to the expectations. You are a fool to take a brand new IP up against the heavy hitters like COD.

    I bought the game on release and was returned it after getting massively fucked off with the server problems. Picked it up again cheap recently and I've enjoyed it (apart from that angry dude you follow about who sounds like somebody from 'Team America').

    Next time they should keep quiet and just let the final (hopefully decent) game do the talking instead of setting themselves up for a fail.

  • asphaltcowboy #17 5 months ago

    Don't screw it up Crytek, or THQ will shut. you. down.

  • des #18 5 months ago

    strange

  • Kostabi #19 5 months ago

    I hope it has Koreans shouting BOOSH!

  • MDL199 #20 5 months ago

    I picked up Homefront new for Ł6.99 and i enjoyed it.

    Not a top level game but certainly a decent one.

  • nickthegun #21 5 months ago

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    And so on and so forth...

  • The-Jack-Burton #22 5 months ago

    This seems odd. Homefront is awful. Then again, Crytek did make Haze. Maybe this is a sort of mea culpa on the part of both companies.

  • madeinbeats #23 5 months ago

    The Nottingham studio has a wii u kit, apparenlty they're impressed with it. EG didn't run that story!

  • ollyn #24 5 months ago

    Can't understand it, between the option of rebirthing an incredibly popular series that is a little different to the usual settings we expect from an FPS these days. They decide to go with a sequel to a title that didn't sell that well and is essentially another Modern Warfare/ Battlefield clone with a story emphasis (a poor one I thought).

    Can you imagine the greatness of that Virus mode, online, with monkeys :). Hopefully they are still working on Timesplitters but seems unlikely now they have this turd to produce.

  • looy1 #25 5 months ago

    Does this mean no Timesplitters 4? :'(

  • Pumpatron #26 5 months ago

    "With more polish, bit more meat on the campaign it could be a very good series indeed."

    It's going to need a lot more than a 'bit' more meat on the campaign to make me interested.

  • Collymilad #27 5 months ago

    Unspecified consoles, you say?....

    I suppose the success in Crysis 2 was that it was actually a pretty decent game that a lot of people who weren't butthurt PC enthusiasts actually enjoyed.
    Edited by 1 at 20/09/11 @ 19:23

  • MeBrains #28 5 months ago

    read it and thought about homeworld...

    damn... still no spacegame this gen.... :( :(

  • deded #29 5 months ago

    How many different ways can I say Meh? Homefront? How many times will the US have been invaded by russkis/koreans/aliens/poodles by 2014? Give me strength.

    If this means no Timesplitters from Crytek in the near future they are officially off my favoured developer list. Did I say Meh?

  • DrStrangelove #30 5 months ago

    @Cjail

    I for one really enjoyed Crysis 2 (PC). My colleague bought it on PS3 and loved it too.

    So I'm really looking forward to Homefront 2 now. I just wish there'd be a North Korean SP campaign. But I'm not sure if many people share my fascination with that bizarre communist theocracy entrapped in a cold war time capsule. There's no place on earth madder than this, except for the USA perhaps.

  • deded #31 5 months ago

    As a predominately EU-appreciated series, perhaps Eurogamer could attempt to drag a quote from Crytek about TS4?