Last week, publisher THQ was forced to finally hang up its hat, auctioning off its assets to bidders. Crytek, already developing THQ's Homefront 2, decided to buy up the rights to the game for a little over half a million.
In an interview with VG247, Crytek General Manager, games Nick Button-Brown explained Crytek's motivations for buying up the IP and why the game's release date may possibly be pushed back from the original, vague one of 2015. “Crytek’s focus is fairly similar to THQ’s -namely to make the best game possible,” he stated, “so this will not have too much impact on the development itself. 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.”
“The main reason we wanted to purchase the IP was because the game is coming along so well. The team in Crytek UK has put their heart and soul into the game, and the progress is great – [our] last milestone 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. 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.”
Announcing a delay for a release date that wasn't made official to begin with is a strange move on Crytek's part, especially when considering that the game isn't due for another two years in the very least.
The original Homefront was released in 2011, and made quite a splash with its marketing campaign. Unfortunately, the game released to underwhelming reviews, due to its lackluster single player and myriad issues with its multiplayer. The original had the potential to be the blockbuster shooter IP like Call of Duty and Battlefield that THQ hoped it to be, but the project fell flat because of the game's developer. Hopefully, with the talent at Crytek, Homefront 2 becomes the game that the original was meant to be.
