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How guerrilla warfare works in Homefront: The Revolution
Not too long after Crytek UK began working on a sequel to Homefront, the developer started to get worried. Studio closures at THQ, rumors of the publisher's financial strain and whispers of the entire organization's dissolution overtook any news surrounding the company and its projects, including a follow-up to the commercially viable but critically lukewarm shooter by Kaos Studios. By the end of January 2013, THQ was dead, its properties scattered throughout the industry. But Crytek's management team belayed its developer's fears. Crytek emerged from the fire sale that ensued after THQ's demise half-a-million dollars lighter in the wallet, but owners of the Homefront franchise. Now, alongside co-publishing partner Deep Silver, Crytek finally feels at ease and sees the opportunity to create the Homefront game it always wanted to make.
Crytek's Homefront: The Revolution fights for freedom on PC, Xbox One, PS4 in 2015
Rumors of a resistance are true. Crytek's sequel to the 2011 shooter Homefront from developer Kaos Studios has been officially announced. Co-published by Crytek and Deep Silver, Homefront: The Revolution is coming to PC, Xbox One and PS4 sometime in 2015. Taking place four years into the occupation of the US by Korean forces – as portrayed in the original game – Homefront: The Revolution follows a new set of characters as they battle for freedom throughout the war-torn streets of Philadelphia. By recruiting resistance fighters and using guerrilla tactics in an open-world environment, players can terrorize KPA troops and attempt to gain the upper hand either alone or along with friends in online co-op. Crytek had originally been developing the sequel for THQ, prior to the publisher dissolving. When the publisher's properties were sold, Crytek purchased the franchise to preserve the work its team had put into the title. The Homefront sequel is in development at Crytek UK, formerly Free Radical.
Homefront: The Revolution appears on Swedish site [update: confirmed]
Homefront: The Revolution is the Crytek-developed, Deep Silver-published follow-up to THQ's 2011 game, according to a now removed listing. Official PlayStation Magazine reports Swedish site FZ listed the game as a first-person shooter due in 2015. Crytek acquired the Homefront property in 2011 following THQ going defunct. At the time, General Manager of Games Nick Button-Brown noted the company's purchase would allow Crytek UK (formerly Team Radical) to finish its work on Homefront 2. "The worst case scenario for us was that this situation meant that all that work just ended up being thrown into the bin," Button-Brown said back in 2013, "so we wanted to buy the IP to make sure the team can finish off the game they wish to make." Update: Deep Silver confirmed Homefront: The Revolution is coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC in 2015. Check out the details and announcement trailer here. [Image: Official PlayStation Magazine]
CryEngine 3 already runs on Xbox One
Crysis has thrown its card into the hat of today's Xbox One announcements, to say that CryEngine 3 does indeed run on Microsoft's new console. The company is already licensed to provide middleware and tools for Xbox One, which means that any developers looking to use CryEngine 3 to make their games will have no problem running the code on the new box. There are a number of titles already announced for the Xbox One, but nothing using CryEngine 3 just yet. Don't weep, though; We're sure to hear about something soon.
Crytek on Homefront 2 purchase from THQ: It's 'beneficial for us to have control'
Crytek spent over half a million bucks to make sure the Homefront IP stuck around after the collapse of THQ and now has the potential to do anything with it – a position Crytek general manager of games Nick Button-Brown says will allow developer Crytek UK to finish its work for the sequel to Kaos Studios' 2011 game."The worst case scenario for us was that this situation meant that all that work just ended up being thrown into the bin, so we wanted to buy the IP to make sure the team can finish off the game they wish to make," Button-Brown said. He added that "it's now beneficial for us to have control over the IP's destiny," noting earlier in the VG 24/7 interview that current Homefront 2 progress is "great" and that the "last milestone was excellent."Button-Brown also noted that such control would allow the developer to "be a little more open" about the game's development "than if we were working with a publisher," yet he would not comment on how this acquisition changes potential launch timing for Homefront 2. Previously, THQ pegged Homefront 2 for launch during the company's fiscal 2014, ranging between April 2013 and March 2014 – Button-Brown dodged the question on current launch timing, replying that Crytek "might change the release date that we haven't announced, and move this to another release date we won't announce yet either."
THQ's new prez stands behind Montreal studio, though 'there may be empty seats'
When THQ announced its Montreal, Canada-based studio in 2009, the plan seemed a bit on the ambitious side. 400 new employees across five years, two big projects – one of which is overseen by ex-Assassin's Creed creative lead Patrice Desilets, the other being a followup to 2011's Homefront – and a brand new campus meant a lot of money needed to be spent, even with a potentially generous tax credit from the Canadian government.And that was long before THQ's recent financial troubles. It's in that context that we asked newly hired president Jason Rubin to address the future of the Montreal location during an E3 interview. "I think the decision needs to be made which projects we can do, what we can afford to do, and stick to it. Even though THQ Montreal's space may be bigger than what we need right now, there's nothing about that space that prevents us from succeeding," Rubin said.We asked Rubin whether THQ could fulfill the planned 400-person contract across five years in its current financial state. "There may be empty seats," he admitted, but he's not worried that those contractual obligations will affect THQ – nor the Montreal location's – long-term survival. "I'm not saying that we wouldn't fulfill our obligations," Rubin told us. "But assuming for a moment that we don't reach whatever our contractual obligations are, there are very specific clauses in the contract that say what would happen. And I've read the contract, I've gone over it, it was one of the things I did before starting. And there's nothing about the contract or our failing under that contract that would cause the company to fail."Rubin stressed that THQ under his leadership remains dedicated to the Montreal studio and its agreement with the government. "I love Montreal. I definitely wanna do right by Montreal, and I definitely wanna fill that studio. But having said that, if we fail to do that for any reason, that's not going to be a cause for failure for the company." He also addressed potential concern that other THQ studios employees could be moved to the Montreal location. "Were I able to pick up and move people without worry about their families, the projects they're working on, and everything else, I would fill that space in a second," Rubin said.Beyond the co-developed Homefront sequel and the unknown Desilets project, it is unclear what else THQ Montreal is working on, if anything.
Crytek developing Homefront sequel with THQ
Having shuttered Kaos Studios, the developer of Homefront, THQ has secured a new partnership to develop the next title in the FPS franchise. A sequel to Homefront will be developed in collaboration with Crytek, the company behind Far Cry, Crysis and the visually opulent CryEngine platform. "We see Homefront as a really strong universe that has a lot of potential and that has been expertly created and marketed by THQ," said Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli. He's certainly right about the expert marketing. After plastering America with adverts, THQ overcame tepid critical response and shipped over 2.6 million copies of Homefront by the end of March 2011. Yerli suggests that Crytek has been granted a reassuring amount of "creative freedom" over Homefront, and aims to bring its war-ravaged world to life "in a new and innovative way." It'll take some time, though -- the Homefront sequel is scheduled to launch on PC and consoles in THQ's fiscal 2014, meaning anywhere between April 2013 and March 2014. Update: Joystiq has confirmed that the Homefront sequel will be built by Crytek's Nottingham, UK studio on the "latest" CryEngine technology.
THQ already planning Homefront 2
We have a hard enough time remembering which FPS Homefront is (it's the one that is basically Red Dawn, if you're curious) and THQ is apparently already thinking about the followup. According to Gamespot, THQ's core gaming chief Danny Bilson told the FBR Capital Markets 2009 Fall Investor Conference "It's the beginning of a story. We're going to tell this like a serial, with cliff-hangers. And then we intend to continue the story in [downloadable content], until we go to Homefront 2." The question that will remain unanswered until Homefront ships is, of course, will we be willing to go with them? %Gallery-65785%
