Crytek, the developer behind Crysis and the original Far Cry, is preparing for the next generation of consoles, claiming that the next PlayStation will be out inside the next four years.

Speaking at GC Asia, the company's CEO, Cevat Yerli, said of the PS4, "Sony knows, but they wouldn't tell us... But our estimate is 2011, or 2012." He added that he expects the neXtbox (or Xbox Pure or Xbox 720) to be out a year or so before the next PlayStation.

Sony, which launched the PS3 in late 2006, has said that its console will have a ten-year lifespan, meaning the company expects to have it on shop shelves until 2016. That doesn't mean, of course, that a new console won't be launched before the PS3 is put out to pasture.

The developer, which licenses its proprietary CryEngine technology to other developers, plans to have the next iteration of its engine out in 2012. Yerli stated, "The future, in our terms, starts next year. Next year we start researching our 2012 engine.”

Discussing the pitfalls of this generation, Yerli said that there is a risk of overly sophisticated graphics hampering animation before the next console generation hits and that different aspects of development must grow together. He pointed to other aspects of development as the real growth areas for this generation, stating, "Games will differentiate more and more in artistic style, physics, and AI, to be different... Huge gains are possible in physics and AI."

Yerli wound up by saying, "The action is simple. We are linking ourselves to the console cycle. Frankly we are linking ourselves to the PS4." Crytek would, of course, be keen to focus on console gaming, having said it won't develop exclusively for the PC again thanks to rampant piracy of Crysis.

He called the console a “driving beacon”, despite the fact that Sony hasn't given Crytek full details. "That's probably the most important information that our company is missing", he said. Could that perhaps be because, even if a 2011 or 2012 release date is correct, Sony doesn't have all that information yet?

^{Source: Edge Online}