Part of an interview between Develop and Cevat Yerli, CEO of Crytek, involves Crytek UK.  Crytek UK will become the core for it’s engine business in the UK and from this we can assume TimeSplitters 4 will  be using the new Cry Engine 3 but not nessicarily if the previous engine was worthwhile to keep. New announcements are to be given soon, it seems.

Read the interview below with the relevant parts included.

There does seem to be anticipation and excitement surrounding a possible new TimeSplitters title.

I am very happy about that excitement.

There are usually two ways people look at the Free Radical purchase. The first is that over sixty jobs were saved. The second is that another UK studio is owned by a foreign company, which will further wane the strength and sustainability of the UK development sector. How would you respond to the latter?

The latter statement is nonsense. There is no way we are going to do anything negative to the UK development community.

If someone has that concern they should ask the people that are actually there. We have provided the team at Crytek UK a structure and a future that clearly shows improvement.

We are working with Free Radical on things that they always dreamed to do. We are providing the team a roadmap and the chance to grow, which is why we were picked as a partner, and not anyone else.

Frankly, when Free Radical was up for sale, we heard that our offer on the table wasn’t the biggest in the short-term. But we offered the most value in what we planned and how we were going to treat the studio, and that’s why we were chosen.

By the time we acquired the group, it had a bit more than forty people, but today it’s already at over sixty with the developers that had left looking to come back. These developers coming back are based on what the people inside Crytek UK had said about us, and some people had already signed up with other studios before dropping plans and re-signing back with us.

So, I really don’t understand that concern.

The areas of complaint aren’t necessarily aimed at Crytek or its own policies, but the fact that the UK has lost control of another one of its studios.

We are going to channel our engine business there. We are going to export our engine business sales there. We are going to build tremendous value in that area in the UK.

For us Crytek UK is not just a development studio, it will support and licence our engine business. We have future announcements ahead as well, and you will see how much value we are adding to the UK studio.

What are you hoping to obtain from Crytek UK? What were the ideas for the studio when you had made a bid for it?

I was really impressed with their development talent, and it was effectively a 100 per cent console studio, whereas Crytek in Frankfurt is clearly the exact opposite.

When I went up there the first time it was just console, console, console, and no PC. There were more consoles than I’ve ever seen. So with us developing the CryEngine 3, we saw it as a perfect fit for our future plans.

What I expect is that the team will kick ass on consoles.

CryEngine 3 is being publicised as a far more flexible engine than its predecessors. Do you feel that it was a necessity to embark on console development?

Cevat: Yes, but it wasn’t just to ensure profitability. Frankly, this was a personal challenge for us. We have been told before that the CryEngine 2 looks great but we’d never have this kind of stuff on consoles; and so that was a challenge for our R&D guys to prove them wrong.

There were obviously business reasons for this, but this was also about challenging our technical team. We don’t just want to replicate the CryEngine 2 onto consoles; we want to add to it.

Console development priorities have been the number one reason why people have pulled away from CryEngine 2, and I think our new engine business will go through the roof.

CryEngine 3 is also designed to be compatible with the next generation of hardware, but that may not arrive for a number of years. Are you worried that, as technology moves so fast, by the time the newest consoles arrives, CryEngine 3 will be struggling to look new and relevant?

It is very important that the technology can be used in next-gen systems. It was something we included to take away fear from the developers, because a lot of people are afraid of what will be next-gen and how much it will cost.

We also have the same fears. We say we cannot afford to be victim of the expenses and timing of next-gen. Very often, developers are the victims of cycle transitions because information comes too late, and new platforms become too difficult to work for. So we looked at the situation and thought about how can we make this streamlined so people can upgrade as smoothly as possible.

I mean, if you look at Crysis right now at the highest possible specifications and highest configurations; I give you my word – that’s already next-gen. The amount of data, content, pixel shading per-pixel, the amount of lighting, shading, openness – I don’t think that any console game is technologically close right now.

Next-gen games will be about more openness, freedom and fidelity. This is the Crysis experience today, but when next-gen consoles arrive, we will be updating our tools accordingly.

But many are saying new consoles wont arrive for at least four years. Surely you are hoping that new consoles will arrive soon if you want the CryEngine 3 to be relevant for next-gen systems?

Maybe we have more than a hope [laughs].

Peter Moore said recently that there’s “no inkling of any new development being done” on next-gen systems.
Even if not, the PC development community will be improving. So if worse comes to worst, if there are no new consoles in 2012, what you’ll see is a game that looks kick-ass on PC, and runs flawlessly on consoles.

But if new consoles come, we’ll be prepared for that. We want to take away the fear only. The licensing fee for CryEngine 3 does not include next-gen development, so developers can tier their investments appropriately. If next gen suddenly comes, they can update the engine and be ready to go.

We look at it as providing developers with a head-start on next-gen development, without compromising plans for developing games today.