Speculation is probably one of the most dangerous things in the gaming industry. But it’s difficult to control when developers change their tunes constantly, trying to pander to crowds of demanding fans. But when Crytek reported that the CryEngine3 ran ‘beautifully’ on the WiiU, it was assumed that this was a massive hint towards a WiiU edition of the highly anticipated Crysis 3.
It wasn’t a difficult assumption, considering that most AAA titles that are being released for both Xbox360 and PS3 have some connection to the WiiU. Batman: Arkham City and Assassin’s Creed 3 are just a couple of huge titles that are heading towards Nintendo fans for the first time. While Crysis 2 brought the series to consoles for the first time, Nintendos Wii couldn’t of possibly handled the graphical powerhouse. Therefore, when Nintendo actually released a console capable of running CryEngine3, releasing the game would be, for most people, the next logical step.
But today, these hopes and dreams were killed by a single tweet penned by Nick Button-Brown, the general manager at Crytek. It simply read “Just to answer the speculation, we are not currently working on a WiiU version of #Crysis3.” No explanation, just an ‘answer to speculation’.
This could be a massive blow to the company, considering the potential for such an interactive title using the WiiU’s unique take on a controller. The touch screen could have been the perfect addition to the series, allowing simple tagging of enemies and quick changes of suit powers and weapons. The possibilities were literally endless.
The only glimmer of hope left in this crushing revelation is the word ‘currently’. At least this gives the impression of future re-consideration, perhaps Crytek want to give the game a general release before making the leap to Nintendo hardware.
Regardless of the reasoning behind this decision, I’m sure this announcement will come as a blow to a lot of fans of the series.
