Studio general manager says development on upcoming shooter unaffected by recent handover, though release date may change.
Homefront 2 is "coming along so well," Crytek general manager Nick Button-Brown told VG247 in a new interview. Discussing the company's recent purchase of the franchise for $544,000 during last week's THQ bankruptcy auction, Button-Brown assured fans that development on the game has not been affected, though its release date may change.
"Crytek's focus is fairly similar to THQ's, namely to make the best game possible, so this will not have too much impact on the development itself," Button-Brown said. "However, we might change the release date that we haven't announced, and move this to another release date we won't announce yet either."
Homefront 2 was announced in September 2011 for release on home consoles and PC by March 2014.
Button-Brown added that its prime reason for purchasing the Homefront IP was because the game is "coming along so well." He said the team at Crytek UK is putting their "heart and soul into the game," noting that the most recent milestone check was "excellent."
"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. "But we always have and will believe in the potential of the IP. This is why we agreed to work on it in the first place, so it’s now beneficial for us to have control over the IP's destiny."
News on Homefront 2 is expected "soon," Button-Brown said. He added that because Crytek is no longer working with a publisher, the company should be able to be more transparent regarding the game's ongoing development.
Button-Brown also addressed the closure of THQ, saying Crytek had a positive relationship with the now-defunct publisher.
"Our experience with them was really good. They were a good partner and through to the end they always treated us with respect and honesty," he said. "We are very sorry to see them go and really feel for our friends on the THQ side who are now out of a job."
The original Homefront was developed at the now-shuttered Kaos Studios. For more on that title, check out GameSpot's review.
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
I though Homefront was great, there was some nasty flaws, like cover was pointless and the trophies are a pain to get, and story short, but it hit what could happen. It was tense and truly offensive. I know they wanted to shoot the kid crying to his parents and then kill the parents, and omg will that get bad press, but war games need to go there. It's war, show everyone the nasty truth. At least they are following story with better graphics.
1 Like If Homefront 2 is about american people using Second Amendament rights against the opressive guvernment that through Patriot Act and NDAA is considering all of us terrorists, than it may be a great game.
Otherwise, I'm pretty sure it's going to suck, as Homefront 1 sucked big time.
1 Like If Crytek is self-publishing then at least that means it won't be Origin exclusive at launch.
3 Like Gamespot News:- Reading out quotes from other websites so you don't have to. What a massive improvement on Start/Select this project has proved to be.
1 Like I loved the origional homefront game... yes the story was very short but it was fun and the story was pretty good..
I am looking forward to playing this one and hopefully it will be even better :)
I mean, I know we all agree that the original was barely passable, not even good really, but that's like comparing Killzone 1 to 2 and 3... entirely new engines and a much more seasoned team clearly have an effect on how a game turns out.
1 Like Why are people still talking about this like it's being developed by the original dev team? Crytek is developing it in house, on the cry engine 3. Independent of any connection to The original other than that it's a sequel to the story there... this means nothing but good things in my eyes.
554K. Now that's cheap. If Crytek make the game even as half as good as Crysis 2, then it's will sell well. Even as the game backgstory is ridiculous.
The first homefront's ending with I would class it as cliffhanger is a moronic choice by the dev.team!
1 Like Homefront wasn't a bad game to me, it wasn't even a 'mediocre' game, it was merely 'fair' in the upper half. It was a game that I played and said "Hm, that had some interesting bits, it was kind of fun, but man, that was short and the ending was dumb." I don't know, I'm still for a sequel, and I'm happy Crytek has a hold of it.
1 Like Homefront started out awesome but ended in disappointment. You can feel all the potentials out there, but little fulfilled.
Now that it rest onto the hand of Crytek, and indirectly EA..
2 Like I really want this to be decent. They nailed the atmosphere in Homefront, but the story....was there and the gunplay was just a CoD clone through a series of (mostly) uninteresting shooting galleries.
1 Like @BeatMastaFlex @brok
I cleaned my room Saturday and found a CD wallet with time splitters2 and future perfect in it, I had a really fun Sunday
2 Like Am I the only one who thinks that it's in better hands now?
It's like, I'm so much more optimistic about it here this. I mean I was feeling really sketched out by it; it was their call of duty and I thought the first one was aggressively average.
1 Like @Midnight_Twelve I was, but it looks like they won't actually be doing anything with it for homefront 2. I'm more optimistic about the franchise in the future, but they don't seem to be doing anything to the second game... just letting the original devs finish what they started. This probably means, same engine, short SP with cliffhanger ending, and the gameplay will be pretty much the same as the first.
I can't wait to see what crytek does once they develop the game from the ground up will all the company hardware they have at their disposal, but for now.... homefront is crytek in name only.
this only makes sense since they were making anyway, and yes its pretty clear that the graphics will be much better this time
yes, very excited for this game, loved the first even though it did have some problems, but still enjoyed it alot. cant wait!
1 Like Homefront, based on the information I received and analyzed, was just a generic shooter. I hope the sequel spins in some gameplay innovation. That would get me interested.
1 Like @ShadowBanjo thats what i was expecting the first homefront to be but it was not.
Willing to bet it'll be next gen. Release title for next consoles in order to take some of the waiting BF crowd.
1 Like @Vozlov it will be next-gen but i doubt it will be a launch title, it'll probablycome out holiday 2014.
1 Like I absolutely loved homefront the story was good maybe a little rough around the edges but good.. The Multi player needed polishing but coulda been great. i have all the confidence in the world that Crytek will hit homefront 2 out of the park.. it will be a great game maybe one of the games of the year the year it comes out most likely coming out early next gen so maybe spring 2014
I liked the first one. Something else then Battlefield, Halo, Gears or Call of Duty. A shame that the multiplayer isn't far as good as BF or CoD nowadays.
7 Like I'd like to see Crytek just reinvent the game. I liked the ideas behind Homefront, and it even had a couple of memorable moments, but the gameplay was boring and simple and the game was far too short. It needs more complexity and better gameplay. They need to develop the characters better as well. Crytek is a great developer, and I want them to translate this into this game. Homefront really did deserve better than what it got in the original game.
10 Like Homefront had its moments, but not enough of them to make it stand out from other modern military shooters. The setting had potential, but the story was too far-fetched and the supporting characters were unlikable.
Also, it held your hand way too much, like the game was afraid you were going to try and have fun without asking for permission first.
And to top it off, the single-player campaign could be completed in four hours.
[angryjoevoice]FOUR HOURRRSSS!![/angryjoevoice]
1 Like @ElfShotTheFood This is the single most accurate review I think I've read about Homefront. You summed up my experience with the campaign perfectly.
2 Like The first game had a lot of potential. I loved the online, but the limited map selection and freezing made me quit earlier than I would have liked.
I remember playing that game. I rented it and couldn't stand that there wasn't any type of bullet penetration. I was literally shooting at a guy that was hiding behind a sheet on a clothesline in a backyard and the bullets wouldn't go through.
Studio general manager says development on upcoming shooter unaffected by recent hand-over, though release date may change.
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