MS nearly brought Crytek in-house

Xbox 360 platform holder Microsoft has admitted that it at one stage considered making German developer Crytek one of its first party developers.

The studio rose to fame following its 2004 release Far Cry. This was followed by powerhouse PC release Crysis in 2007, expansion Crysis Warhead in 2008 and then Xbox 360, PS3 and PC release Crysis 2 earlier this year.

"The first time we met with [Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli] and the team was around seven or eight years ago, and we started talking about what it’d mean for them to become first-party," corporate VP Phil Spencer told OXM.

"And it was a process of what do you guys want to do, what’s unique for us, and they were just going to do Crysis, and they’d just come out of Far Cry, and we said we’ve probably got enough military future shooters, so go do that."

Crytek is currently developing Kinect title Ryse, which in Spencer’s words has seen the studio "fall in love" with the motion tech, and shooter Warface.