Crytek

Crytek GmbH is a German video game developer and software developer based in Frankfurt. Founded by the Yerli brothers in Coburg in 1999 and moved to Frankfurt in 2006, Crytek also operates further studios in Kyiv, Ukraine and Istanbul, Turkey. Its former studios included Crytek Black Sea in Sofia, Bulgaria, Crytek UK in Nottingham, and Crytek USA in Austin, Texas. Crytek is best known for developing the first instalment of the Far Cry series (subsequent sequels and spin-offs being developed by Ubisoft Montreal) and the Crysis series, the open world nature of their games which showcase the company's CryEngine, and for pushing the limits on PC specifications to achieve advanced graphics and gameplay.

Crytek was founded by the Turkish-German brothers Cevat, Avni and Faruk Yerli in September 1999 in Coburg, Germany. One of their first projects was a tech demo of a game called X-Isle: Dinosaur Island, which showcased their game engine technology that allowed for larger viewing distances than other game engines could do at that time. They met with Nvidia during the 1999 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) where their tech demo caught the attention of Nvidia and various media groups. Crytek later signed on with Nvidia to distribute X-Isle as benchmarking software for Nvidia cards.

Crytek's first major game project was Engalus, a first-person shooter with a cyberpunk theme and role-playing elements, which was first privately shown at E3 2000. The project first attracted publicity for the company at the 2000 ECTS with their tech demo at the Nvidia booth, but was subsequently cancelled. Crytek was approached by Ubisoft to develop X-Isle into a full AAA game. This evolved into Far Cry, which was released in March 2004. Alongside this, Crytek announced their licensable game engine, CryEngine, that was used for X-Isle and Far Cry.

In February 2004, German police carried out a morning raid on Crytek offices, acting on an ex-intern's claim that Crytek was using software illegally. The police investigated for more software copies than licences purchased, but no charges were pressed. That same month, Crytek and Electronic Arts (EA) announced a strategic partnership to develop a new gaming franchise based on the CryEngine, which would eventually be the Crysis series. Crytek opted in this direction to showcase that the CryEngine was not limited to just what Far Cry had shown. Due to this partnership, Ubisoft acquired the full rights to the Far Cry franchise by 2006 as well as a perpetual licence to the first CryEngine, which they have since adapted into their own Dunia Engine. In December 2004, Crytek and ATI created a special cinematic machinima to demonstrate the future of PC gaming.