Ryse

Microsoft held talks with Crytek about the company becoming a firstparty studio prior to the development of the original Crysis. That’s according to Microsoft Game Studios vice president Phil Spencer, who told OXM that ultimately Crytek’s projects at the time were just too similar to Microsoft’s own slate. "The first time we met with [Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli] and the team was around seven or eight years ago, and we started talking about what it'd mean for them to become firstparty. And it was a process of what do you guys want to do, what's unique for us, and they were just going to do Crysis, and they'd just come out of Far Cry, and we said we've probably got enough military future shooters, so go do that.” According to Spencer, things have turned out very well for the two companies. "Then they came up with this idea around Ryse, and now they've really fallen in love with Kinect, and it's a perfect marriage for us." Revealed at E3 last year and expanded upon in trailer form at this year’s LA event, Ryse is a firstperson Kinect brawler set in Roman times.

The Crysis developer's next project is Ryse, formerly Codename: Kingdoms, demonstrated at Microsoft's E3 conference. Set in Roman times, the Kinect-based game appears to be a brawler with players able to block with a shield and swing their sword through gestures.