Cevat Yerli, Crytek CEO, is predicting once again another new console will be doing the rounds in three years time, with Crytek ready for it.
While he's "not sure" it's the case for all platforms, Yerli just 'knows' something is cooking for 2011. CryEngine 3 stops developers becoming "victims of change and repositioning."
"If I want to make a next-gen launch title I could do that by pushing the boundaries of the engine," Yerli tells GamesIndustry.biz.
"For me that's significant because we offer this as an enabler for people like us to look out to the future and deliver in the future. Typically when an engine is designed, if it's for PS3 you can develop on the PS3 and you're done with it. When the next hardware comes along you have to start again."
"It's 2009 and Triple-A games take two to three years to develop. So if a game takes 36 months to develop then you better be ready for the next-generation. That's our assumption."
Should a new platform launch by Yerli's 2011 window then it's likely to come from Microsoft or even Nintendo, no one is expecting Sony to be thinking outside the PlayStation 3 for quite some time.
"I'm not sure that it's the case for all platforms, but my gut feeling is there will be a new platform by the end of 2011. Whether another arrives in 2012 or 2013 is hard to say."
"Whatever happens, we don't want developers to be the victims of change and repositioning," he added. The dev boss reveals their engineers have designed CryEngine 3 to be "ready for next-gen inherently," requiring just an update.
"Writing the driver layers for the next PlayStation or next Xbox will be quite simple for us," he noted.
"As soon as that knowledge becomes public, we'll be on it. And all those people working with CryEngine 3 will get an update and they'll be on it as well. That's why we made it next-gen ready, so that none of us are victims of new hardware."
Click here to read the full interview between Cevat Yerli and GamesIndustry.biz.