Shortly after Electronic Arts posted its public message about the leaked, near-final PC version of Crysis 2 appearing on BitTorrent, Crytek CEO Cevat Yerti released a statement to reassure fans that PC gaming is still important to the developer despite recent events.
"While we are deeply disappointed by these events, we are all completely overwhelmed by the support we have received from you, our community," Yerti said. "Despite this unfortunate incident, we can assure you that PC gaming is very important to us and will always be important to Crytek in the future. We are all still focused on delivering a great gaming experience to our true and honest fans. I hope you will enjoy Crysis 2 on PC, as we think it is our best PC game yet!"
News of the leaked PC version of Crysis 2 arrived on Friday, reporting that the 9.22 GB torrent included the near-final build, the multiplayer portion, the DRM SolidShield master key for online authentication, and the CryEngine 3 editor. As of the writing, Electronic Arts and Crytek have not disclosed any information on how the game actually slipped through security.
"Piracy continues to damage the PC packaged goods market and the PC development community," Electronic Arts said Friday. "We encourage fans to support the game and the development team by waiting and purchasing the final, polished game on March 22."
There's no question that piracy is a huge problem for the gaming industry no matter the platform. Unfortunately, it's driven some PC-only developers to bring their franchises to the current-generation consoles. Even though their games will undoubtedly be pirated across the board (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC), the overall revenue will nonetheless be higher than simply developing exclusively for the PC.
Recently DICE revealed that the PC version of Battlefield 3 will be the "lead platform." This is good news, as it implies that PC gamers won't get a watered-down console port, but rather a high-quality experience that only the latest PC hardware can bring. Developers supporting the three major platforms should use this method of attack for every project. After all, as one Tom's reader said on the forums, PC games are what drive the gaming hardware industry towards evolution.
