A new Crysis is almost certainly happening

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It looks like that 'April Fool' about a new Crysis game wasn't a joke at all.

(Image credit: Crytek)

Our April Fools' 2020 roundup includes a mention of crysis.com, which had been updated with a flashy new image of Nomad (or whoever), suggesting that a new take on one of PC gaming's greatest "can you run it" shooters might finally be on the way. It seemed especially meaningful given the CryEngine Showcase video, released by Crytek in March, which ends with a brief clip of Crysis gameplay.

Alas, looking at the source code on the Crysis webpage revealed that hidden among the meta tags were the words, "April Fool." Hope dies hard, but that's pretty unambiguous, and seemed to put an end to the matter. 

This is the first tease out of the Crysis Twitter account since December 2016—a tweet which was preceded by a half-dozen other tweets that year (mostly promoting merchandise), one tweet in 2015 (also merchandise), and then all the way back to 2013, the year Crysis 3 was released. You can practically see the dust sitting on the brand. 

This is far from a routine tweet, in other words, and we're way past April 1 here—although, for the record, that "April Fool" tag is still in the source. With the traditional E3 timeframe less than two months away, it's not unusual for us to see game announcements begin to appear this time of year. And though we'll always think of Crysis as a PC game, a new generation of consoles could be a potential showcase for a new Crysis. I've emailed Crytek to ask and while I don't expect anyone there is going to spill the beans, I'll let you know if they do.

Here's that video, by the way—the relevant bit starts at 2:20.

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Update: The post original indicated that the Crysis footage at the end of the video above was remastered. A couple of people in the comments have said that's not actually the case, Crysis just still looks that good, and after watching it a few more times and squinting, I'm inclined to agree and have removed the "remastered" description.

Also, this happened:

Andy Chalk
Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.