Crytek-powered MMOG coming

In Crysis, German developer Crytek has one of the most visually stunning show pieces to advertise its CryEngine 2 game engine. However, when compared to Epic Games' widely licensed Unreal Engine 3, CryEngine 2 has found relatively few takers. Currently, only a few non-Crysis projects are using the technology, such as the mystery games being developed at Crytek's Kiev and Budapest studios, as well as a handful of smaller titles such as MindArk's Entropia Universe.

However, that small group grew by one today, as XLGames announced that it will use Crytek's second-generation game engine for its as-yet-unnamed upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Established in Seoul, South Korea, in 2003, XLGames was founded by former executive VP of development at NCsoft and creator of Lineage Jake Song. No details on the game have yet emerged.

XLGames' upcoming MMORPG won't be the first time Song and other NCsoft alum have worked with Crytek's middleware solution. Previously, the group worked on NCsoft's upcoming fantasy MMORPG Aion: Tower of Eternity, which uses Crytek's original CryEngine. Aion is slated for release in 2008.

Of today's announcement XLGames vice president and technical director Patrick Doane said, "We previously had a lot of success using their ground breaking CryEngine 1 technology while at NCSoft for AION, and after seeing what it could do in the early previews of Crysis, we just knew we wanted to continue to work with their great new tools and engine."