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Crytek

Crytek is a german video game company founded in 1999 by three Turkish-German brothers: Cevat, Avni and Faruk Yerli. Crytek's main headquarters are in Frankfurt, Germany, with three other studios in Kiev, Ukraine, Budapest, Hungary and Sofia, Bulgaria.^[1] Crytek's development team is made up of 296 game professionals from Europe (249), Asia (24), North America (14), Oceania (7) and Africa (1).^[2] They are best known for developing the game Far Cry and the CryEngine that the game uses which includes PolyBump, a version of normal mapping technology, and more recent achievements such as Crysis and CryEngine 2. Crytek has partnerships with Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, NVIDIA, Intel, AMD, FMOD, Valve Corporation, Scaleform, Xoreax Software, Sparkasse Coburg, and Rating Services.

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History

Crytek was founded by the Yerli brothers in 1999 in Coburg, Germany. Its history starts with the ECTS 2000. It was there that Crytek impressed all the big publishers with their tech demo at the NVIDIA booth. They continued releasing demos over the years of a game called X-Isle (which evolved into what is now Far Cry). In May 2, 2002, Crytek announced the game engine CryEngine.

In 2003, Crytek attended the Game Developers Conference (GDC), where they showcased their new engine and its technology. "We've got awesome demonstrations planned which will showcase the very latest CryEngine technology, including Tools (CryEDIT, Exporters), Visuals (Polybump, Lighting & Shadows), Audio (Dynamic Music with full Dolby Digital 5.1 support), A.I. (Easy to Script) and Physics (Rope, Rag Doll, Liquid) plus the uniquely rendering power of the CryEngine."^[3]

Also in 2003, Crytek was at ECTS again, where Far Cry was the awarded "Best PC Game". In the same month, Crytek modified CryEngine to be optimized for AMD64.

In February 2004, Crytek offices were raided in the morning by the German Police Department, acting on an ex-intern's claim that Crytek was using software illegally. The police investigated for more software copies than licenses purchased but ultimately found nothing.^[4]

Also in this month, Crytek and EA announced a strategic partnership. In December 2004, Crytek and ATI created a Hollywood-style machinima^[5] to demonstrate the future of PC gaming.

On January 23 2006, Crytek announced the development of Crysis, on the premise it would be an original first person shooter with a new kind of gameplay challenge requiring "adaptive tactics".^[6] It has since won several Best PC Game awards from E3 and Games Convention.

Three months later, Crytek moved to new offices in Frankfurt.

The first public demonstration of Crytek's CryEngine 2 was January 23 2007, one year after Crysis was announced. It has been licensed by many companies such as Avatar Reality, WeMade Entertainment, Entropia Universe, XLGames, Reloaded Studios, 1st Educational Institution, and Games Academy GmbH.

On May 11 2007, Crytek announced that their satellite studio in Kiev, Ukraine, had been upgraded to a full development studio, giving the company its second development studio. The second studio is currently working on a game based on Crytek's new intellectual property.

About a week after the upgrade of the Kiev studio, Crytek announced a new studio in Budapest, Hungary. Like the Kiev studio, the Budapest studio's focus is heavily on development with the CryEngine 2.^[7]

Most recently, Crytek attended The G*STAR Game and Trade Show in Seoul, Korea from November 8-11 2007.

On July 14, 2008, Crytek bought Black Sea Studios and renamed it to Crytek Black Sea.^[8]

On November 17, 2008 Crytek opened an office in South Korea under the name of Crytek, Ltd. The office is be headed by Young Mok Park and focused on CryEngine 2 licensing to Korean clients. ^[9]

Crytek's most recent game, Crysis Warhead, was released on September 12, 2008 as a PC exclusive game.