Crysis 2 ‘backfired a little bit’

German developer Crytek has admitted that its decision to target the wider games market with Crysis 2 has "backfired a little bit".

The studio has been open about its intentions to bring the franchise to a wider audience. It has also said on record that it had reservations about Crysis’ reputation as a high-end PC game and was concerned that the belief alienated a lot of the title’s potential audience.

The result? A lower-spec, console friendly approach to the sequel. Sales have been strong, but the flip-side is that the first game’s loyal PC fanbase reacted angrily to what it regarded as a watering down of the franchise.

"Crysis 1’s intention was, if I were to play it three years later, it looks great,’" Crytek CEP Cevat Yerli told Gamasutra.

"And it does, actually, it fulfilled that. But it made it difficult for entry-level players. So with Crysis 2, we took a different direction, and it backfired a little bit."

As a result the company will on Monday (June 27th) release a patch for the PC version that introduces support for DirectX 11 and brings a host of graphical upgrades for high-end PC users.

"This is much more like a gift to the high-end community," Yerli said. "And I think gamers will appreciate that. It lifts up Crysis 2 and gives a sneak peak of how PC gaming will evolve in the future, if you support a high-end preference."

Yerli says Crytek won’t charge for the patch and that it doesn’t expect a any sales boost following its release.