Crytek defends free-to-play Warface

The free-to-play model has negative connotations for many gamers, but Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli hopes to turn the tide by delivering a high-quality experience. Speaking to Eurogamer, Yerli acknowledged some of the shortcomings of free-to-play games, but asserted its investment in that space will be different, beginning with Warface.

"We know that free-to-play games have a bad image," Yerli said. "They have a bad reputation; it's pay to win, it's low quality. I completely get that, but we are making free-to-play that's high quality. It's CryEngine 3; it's a big investment."

Warface is Crytek's first free-to-play game. The game is in development at the company's Kiev outfit and runs on CryEngine 3. The game is a military shooter set in the near future, and Crytek claims it offers a cinematic experience with next-gen visuals, artificial intelligence, and physics. It is expected to be released later this year.

Yerli's comments today follow another adamant statement of support of free-to-play games from June, when he said all future Crytek projects--following the release of Crysis 3 and Homefront 2--would be free-to-play. Yerli said the company's aim is to "ensure the best quality, console game quality." This entails game budgets of between $10 and $30 million for free-to-play games, he said.