Studio CEO Cevat Yerli reveals company has plans for possible free-to-play/retail hybrid; next Crysis won't be called Crysis 4.

Crysis 3 is not yet out the door, but that is not keeping Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli from opening up on the franchise's future. Speaking to Eurogamer, Yerli revealed that the company has "radical" plans for the series, which includes development of a free-to-play Crysis and a Crysis 3 sequel that will not be called Crysis 4.

"It's the end of the story of Crysis, but that doesn't mean it's the end of the franchise," Yerli said. "It's the end of Prophet's story. Prophet started the journey in Crysis 1 with Psycho and Jester and others, and we're bringing those buddies together in Crysis 3 to finish up the story and effectively make sense out of the trilogy. But obviously the DNA of Crysis and the franchise, we are very excited about it and we think there can be literally tons of titles out there within the franchise. Unlike Far Cry, this time around we feel very flexible about Crysis."

Asked outright if Crytek will make Crysis 4, Yerli said he would not call it that because doing so would insinuate that Prophet's story would move on, and this is not planned to be the case. Whatever the case, a Crysis 3 follow-up is not coming for some time.

"Because we want to make this something much more radical and new we are looking at it as a bit more of a long-term thing," Yerli said. "It's too early to talk about it for these reasons."

Crytek has been outspoken regarding its admiration for free-to-play games. The company is currently developing the free-to-play shooter Warface and has previously stated all of its upcoming games (after Crysis 3 and Homefront 2) will be free-to-play. This includes a new Crysis game that could be a retail/free-to-play hybrid.

"We do have a plan for a [free-to-play] version of Crysis, but how this looks and when this will be done, whether this is the next one or the other next one, is to be decided," he said. "But we have a very clear picture of how this will look and how a transitional period where retail and free-to-play can coexist for one title."

Crysis 3 is due out for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC during February 2013. For more, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.

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