At GDC Crytek showed off a brand new demo for VR, Back to Dinosaur Island. The demo was a bit of a tribute to the early days of Crytek – a reference to the X-Isle: Dinosaur Island tech demo that was meant to show off the capabilities of the CryENGINE. The VR demo, running on a Crescent Bay, as it turns out was only a teaser for what is to come from Crytek in VR. As Ben Lang from Road to VR previously reported, Crytek has a 50 man team dedicated to VR – which definitely hints at a full fledged experience coming from the former Far Cry and Crysis developers.
Well those hints got a lot louder today. Speaking with a representative from Crytek we have learned that the company intends to show off a “brand new VR demo” at E3 behind closed doors to press. At the present moment that is all the information we have about the experience, as Crytek is holding their cards close to the chest. We did learn, however, that we could expect to hear more news in the coming weeks leading up to E3.
It is a bit early to say definitively that it will be a demo of an upcoming full fledged title, but it would seem likely. Less than a year ago, Crytek was in a bit of a financial bugaboo, as the company struggled with declining revenue and was rumored to have been missing payroll. Recently however, the company announced a major licensing deal with Amazon worth between $50 – 70 million. While that seems like a big investment, that money can go quick – which is why a 50 man VR team is all the more significant. Unless that team was dedicated to doing something that was hopefully going to make the company a lot of money, there is no reasonable explanation for their existence – especially in the face of recent financial trouble. Were it a five man team, you could potentially dismiss it as an experimental R&D department; but 50? That’s a full team working on something much bigger than a demo.
We have already scheduled our demo so we will be sure to report back with our hands on at E3 next month and will keep you updated as more information becomes available.
Heres a look at the experience shown at GDC, Back to Dinosaur Island:
