Interview with Crytek CEO, Cevat Yerli

COLOGNE, GAME DEVELOPERS CONFERENCE EUROPE 2009, 17.08.2009

We had the opportunity to make an interview with Crytek CEO, Cevat Yerli in GDC Europe 2009 in Cologne. We hope you enjoy the interview as we tried to avoid typical questions and asked “alternative” questions to Cevat Yerli instead.

PCL: Crysis was released exclusively for PC platform, can we argue that, at that time, one of the reasons that you didn’t release a multiplatform game was because the next-gen consoles just introduced and it was difficult for you to port your game to game console machines?

CY: No, it wasn’t one of the reasons. At that time the architectures of PS3 and Xbox 360 were not clear yet. And our game- Crysis – was designed for PC platform. In our teams we ran some tests to see if we could make Crysis appropriate for those. But by doing those tests we were losing our precious time and our technology platform was not ready for it. For of those reasons, we just concentrated on producing the game for PC, we completely got the console idea out of our minds for Crysis. We thought we should make a new game for consoles in future with a new technology and engine, thus we created CryEngine 3.

PCL: You introduced Crysis 2 in E3, but the introduction video was so short, and there was no clue about gameplay at all. So would we see some gameplay or other clues for Crysis 2 in Gamescom ?

CY: Maybe, we’ll see. ( Smiles )

PCL: I saw a picture in your conference 2 hours ago. There was a picture of Crysis 2 where we could see the ground. It was like a scene from a city. So I guess Crysis 2 will take place in a city, or in space ? Maybe, but not island, right?

CY: Yeah, maybe, it might be. ( Smiles )

PCL: Is it possible to see Crysis 2 before 2011 ?

CY: Probably, we’ll see.

PCL: This year, impossible, next year probably?

CY: Yeah, this year, impossible.

PCL: I am asking this question considering your future products as well. You have supported Turkish language option in Crysis, I thank you for that, in the name of Turkish community. Are we going to see Turkish language option in future Crytek games ?

CY:Yeah, we consider it but it depends on the piracy actually. We barely reached to breakeven point in Crysis with Turkish language option. We didn’t make a loss by adding that, so it’s likely that we would add that option in future as well.

PCL: I would like to criticise Crysis Warhead for poor Turkish vocalization. The subtitles were mostly null and wrong, the vocalization was poor as well.

CY: I didn’t know much about that… Well….

PCL: There were a lot of differences in that matter between Crysis and Warhead actually.

CY: Really ? The difference was that much?

PCL:Yeah, actually there were a lot of complaints going on in several forums and magazines.

CY: Well, it’s the first time that I hear something like that. But, interesting, I didn’t know that. It’s good that I learned it now, I will look into it.

PCL: Do we bid farewell to Nanosuit 2 ?

CY: You will find that out on thursday.

PCL: In your conference – Future of Gaming Graphics – you said that you became a professional athlete as Crytek. So, you would become a world record breaking athlete with CryEngine 3 ?

CY: I hope so, that’s our intention.

PCL: You are a perfectionist person. You care about even tiny details to make your game perfect. What is the definition of a perfect game for Cevat Yerli ?

CY: Quality is the most important thing. What does that mean for a gamer? The game should flow. And the core idea of a game is important.

PCL: :Narration is important as well.

CY: Narration is like the peel of an orange. But it’s nucleus is more important. Like every single human being, a game has a DNA as well. The DNA of Crysis is Nanosuit. The game becomes better with the freedom that Nanosuit gives to the players. For me, in a perfect game…

PCL: The player will never get bored of it at anytime.

CY:That’s very important too. No boredom.. Always action, tempo, and freedom…

PCL:Also it shouldn’t be linear.

CY: Yeah, it shouldn’t be.

PCL: The player should use their own creativity.

CY: The game must let the player use their creativity. Every single problem should be solved differently by each and every gamer.

PCL: Crysis is a sandbox game, some players conclude the game in 8 hours, others in 15…

CY: Some of them conclude in 20 even…

PCL: I am curious about another thing. What games inspired you the most that you decided to create games like Farcry and Crysis ?

CY:Actually most inspiring ones are not First Person Shooter games.

PCL: Which ones then ?

CY:Civilization is one of them, I still love this game. Super Mario surely, a classic…Also there was a football game called Kickoff, i liked that one too. Other than those games, I also liked playing Quake, not Doom, Quake, it was more action-packed. Also a game called Syndicate… I liked it as well.

PCL: Your first game Farcry and Crysis, both were sandbox First person shooters. Where did you get that idea from ? To make a sandbox FPS that takes part in an island ? GTA series inspired you for that?

CY:No, actually i went to an island for vacation in 2001. Then I started thinking about making a game that takes place in an island. I liked the idea and decided to do it. Also we wanted to introduce a game that % 80 contradicted to what already existed in the game industry. We decided on that concept like that but it was quite hard to make it in real. To create a game of that caliber from nothing… It was hard…

PCL: You were quite inexperienced by that time.

CY:We had no experience at all.

PCL: But still Farcry had a huge impact like Crysis when it was released in 2004.

CY:Yeah, actually Farcry`s had more impact on the market than Crysis.

PCL: After that, you broke your relations with Ubisoft and started working with Electronic Arts. If you have continued to work with Ubisoft, would you introduce a space-themed island FPS like crysis with the name of Farcry 2 ?

CY:If we have continued with Ubisoft, probably we would make Farcry 2 with them but there were a lot of problems going on between us and them. They couldn`t catch up with our sales, the game was out of stock in many stores and that caused the increase of piracy. Ubisoft couldn`t deal with that , so we started working with EA and created Crysis. I told them about my space-themed island plan and we did it for Crysis.

PCL: Shall we expect new games from Crytek other than FPS genre?

CY:We will make it, but i can not tell about them at the moment.

PCL: Would you consider opening a Crytek studio in Turkey in future?

CY:We considered that but it is not clear yet, it is not likely in a few years. We need qualified members that work as a team of 15- 20 members, but since that doesn`t exist in Turkey yet, we do not consider hiring people one by one and train them. That would consume our time. Also we grew quite fastly as a company, it`s not healthy to grow that fast. We should make steady progression, we have 550 employees working under Crytek roof at the moment.

PCL: What about the sales of Crysis and Warhead ? Are you content with their sales worldwide?

CY:Well, we are not so content about sales of Crysis solely. But if you consider the sales of Warhead as well, we are content about their sales combination.

PCL: If Crysis was released for consoles, you would make much more revenue surely…

CY:Surely. We could have made 3-4 times sales more at least.

PCL: I would like to thank you again for adding Turkish language option to Crysis , we would like to see it again in future Crytek games. Lastly, do you have anything to say to Turkish gaming community?

CY:They should support the market, stay away from piracy. To help the market improve in Turkey, we took a risk and added Turkish vocalization to our game, we would do it again. I am always telling to the guys in EA that they should add Turkish vocalization to their games as well. But i guess the market is still not…

PCL: Ready for it ?

CY:Yes, still not. If the sales increase- the price of the product doesn`t matter – I am sure we would see more games in Turkish in future. Also I criticise myself in a matter. We made Turkish Crysis available only in Turkey however as you know there are thousands of Turkish people living in Germany. We should have done it in Germany as well. We won`t do the same mistake again in future.

PCL: Cevat Yerli, thank you for your precious time.

CY:My pleasure.