CryEngine, for a time, stood as one of the most exciting game engines available, consistently pushing the boundaries of what was graphically possible on PC hardware. Titles like the original Crysis were often cited as benchmarks, demanding top-tier systems to truly shine, yet delivering stunning visuals that even today hold up remarkably well. For years, CryEngine was a significant player, underpinning a number of high-profile games that helped establish Crytek’s reputation. To this day the mean “But can it run Far Cry” its still alive and well. However, the engine’s journey hasn’t been without its twists and turns. Ubisoft, for instance, licensed CryEngine when they acquired the Far Cry IP, which later became the basis of their in-house Dunia engine. Perhaps the most notable shift came when Amazon licensed the engine, rebranding it as Lumberyard and eventually evolving it into the open-source O3DE (Open 3D Engine). At this point O3DE and CryEngine are very different engines, but based off a common core. Meanwhile, Crytek themselves continued to use CryEngine for various titles, including the Crysis series, Ryse: Son of Rome, and more recently, popular multiplayer games like Hunt: Showdown. A number of 3rd party developers have made use of CryEngine too, such as Star Citizen (now on lumberyard), Prey (2017), a personal favourite MechWarrior Online and most recently the critically acclaimed Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. Despite these recent released games, the future of CryEngine for developers is much muddier. In 2022, Crytek announced a new version of Crysis in the works, only to put it on hold, accompanied by layoffs of 15% of their workforce. While Crytek’s CEO has stated a continued commitment to developing CryEngine, particularly for Hunt: Showdown, their efforts seem focused internally. CryEngine 5.7 LTS, released in April 2022 was the last update, leading to speculation among the community. Even though Crytek announced CryEngine 5.11 for the Hunt games, it was never publicly released. Crytek have stated on their discord server that the 5.7 LTS version will be the final public release of the 5.x branch. Key Links Crytek Press Release About CryEngine 5.11 Crytek Layoffs Announcement Tweet So, where does that leave CryEngine? It’s clear that Crytek is still actively developing the engine, primarily for their own titles like Hunt: Showdown. However, the public release cycle and the broader availability to third-party developers seem to be in flux. Whether CryEngine can reclaim its former prominence as a widely adopted engine beyond Crytek’s own titles remains an open question, and only time will tell what the future holds for this once-groundbreaking technology. You can learn more about the past, present and future of CryEngine in the video below.