Crytek: Crysis can be as big as COD
"There's no reason it can't be."
Activision's Call of Duty is the biggest first-person shooter franchise of all time, and Treyarch's recently released Black Ops is expected to be the biggest game of 2010 – but one developer reckons it can match COD's phenomenal popularity with a FPS series of its own.
That developer is Crytek, and the game is Crysis.
"We say why not?" executive producer Nathan Camarillo told Eurogamer when asked if Crysis can be as big as Call of Duty.
"We always do. Obviously with Crysis 2 we have to set a high quality bar and get everyone's attention across all platforms. That's our goal with the title."
Why does Crytek have such confidence in its super soldier series? Because it appeals to so many gamers.
"As the franchise grows down the line, there's no reason it can't be as big [as Call of Duty]," Camarillo insisted.
"It's very appealing in that it's a near future military setting. It appeals to sci-fi gamers as well because of the sci-tech, science fiction elements. It's not a space opera. It's not set 300 years in the future. It's 13 years in the future.
"It's something people identify with and can take this small leap of faith to get into this world and this universe. By offering a great single-player campaign, a great multiplayer experience and giving people something fresh and different than a normal soldier can do with the nanosuit – it's a pretty powerful feeling."
Talking of down the line, Camarillo confirmed Crytek plans to release more games in the series.
"It's the start of a new future for Crysis. We're taking it very seriously. That's all I can really say about it. We wouldn't put this much effort into it if this were where it was ending. That doesn't make sense.
"It's in our best interest to grow Crysis into a very long-running franchise. Maybe that means Crysis 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9... Crysis Infinity.
"We plan on growing it into a big franchise. So it doesn't do us any good to not realise the maximum potential of every Crysis product going into release."
Christian Donlan saw Crysis 2 for Eurogamer in June.