» Mon Nov 28, 2011 7:26 pm To whom it may concern at Crytek and Crytek-UK,
This is an open-letter voicing the sentiments, concerns, and queries of your customer base. In this letter I hope to bring to your attention specific issues regarding the “Crysis 2” multiplayer that we feel have been left unattended. These specific issues include, but are not limited to, communication with the customer base, DLCs, and other concerns.
Firstly however it must be made clear that it is mine and the community’s firm belief that “Crysis 2” is a fresh breath in a genre which has been exploited over and over ever since its inception. Publishers and developers would simply tweak around with the formula, repackage, and rerelease the same game over and over, never quite pushing the boundaries or bothering to experimenting with the FPS genre. “Crysis” and its sequel “Crysis “2 offered a unique and original gameplay in such a genre, a feat that was considered impossible. Many people went and bought “Crysis 2” in a market where bigger and more established titles such as “Call of Duty: Black Ops”, and “Battlefield: Bad Company 2” were present and where titles such as “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3” and “Battlefield 3” were anticipated. Those two series hold the majority of the FPS market yet a significant amount of your target demographic still went and bought “Crysis 2” implying that not only are people starting to want a more unique gaming experience but are also looking to Crytek to provide it.
Before any other question is raised, the one which is most important shall be asked: Where is the support for “Crysis 2”? There have been countless posts on the forum filled with gloom and despair regarding the state of the game and how it has been supposedly left unattended to. A customer publicly decrying support from a developer is terrible news. The question is can this sentiment, which is a cross-platform one, be changed or affected by the company? The answer is yes, a most definite yes. Being a customer myself, I can say that a statement from Cevat Yerli regarding the “Crysis” franchise and specifically the “Crysis 2” game would alleviate most concerns. It would clearly show the unequivocal support that Crytek put behind “Crysis 2” and as a result, people would flood the gamesas community as well as the multiplayer in anticipation of what may come. In addition to that, having someone constantly on the forums that can be a spokesperson for the company is very useful. Users Cry-Tom and Cry-Adam used to be very good at this but since late June, there has been little to hear from them in a time when the community could really use some feedback. So in summation, communication with the customer base is very essential to maintaining a presence in the gaming community as well as keeping the morale of the customer base up. The more you can excite the customer base, the more they will look forward to future releases by Crytek.
Although these days multiplayer is often put more emphasis on than single-player, the latter is still central to the experience that is a good FPS. The “Crysis 2” single-player campaign, although thoroughly enjoyable and fresh, was considered by many fans to be much too short. Keeping in mind that “Crysis 2” had significant sales across platforms, that it still has a fairly active community on gamesas forums as well as the fact that many people still play multiplayer, perhaps extending the single-player wouldn’t be such a bad idea after all. A DLC release seems like a perfect option here. The customer base is practically begging for it. A small scale DLC which adds only 3-4 hours of gameplay however, would not cut it. It would be panned by critics since cheap cash-ins are quite common and looked down upon in the industry and thus be commercially unsuccessful as customers look to sites such as IGN and GameSpot for ratings. Thus, a bigger more thought out DLC would be needed; perhaps not as grand as “Crysis Warfare”, but still big nonetheless. On the sales side too, it would be successful. Some may point out that many people didn’t buy “Retaliation” and “Decimation” expansion packs, but that was more because those two are affected by connectivity issues in multiplayer. A storyline DLC would be plagued by no such disadvantages and would be able to sell quite a bit. In terms of marketing, if the trailers are put out right (the trailers will be impressive as this storyline DLC will be canon and there’s a lot of material to pull from), and perhaps even a demo is released, then sales are guaranteed.
After the game’s launch a large amount of the customer base sold the game or abandoned it because of excessive lag, hit-detection, and miscellaneous connectivity issues. Thus, when “Retaliation” came out, sales were less than expected. The customer base had a less than impressive response, and why not? After all, why spend $10 on something which may or may not work. As far as I understand, with the “Decimation” DLC, customers were supposed to be attracted to the added weapons and accessories. But the problem this time around however was that people had no confidence in new maps. They had never played the “Retaliation” maps so what was the guarantee that this would have a fate any better? Surely enough, the playlists on both DLCs today are dead with few people visiting them, much less finding a game in them. My proposal to alleviate this would be to follow what Treyarch did with “Call of Duty: Black Ops” DLCs. Release DLC A and give it its own playlist, however when DLC B is released, integrate DLC A into the normal playlist so as to lure customers to buy DLC B. This makes sense, since “Retaliation” has few sales and “Decimation” is suffering from increasingly diminishing returns. Therefore it’s better to try to get the most out of “Decimation” by integrating “Retaliation” into the normal playlist. Additionally, as a customer, I was appalled by the lack of marketing that was dedicated to “Decimation”. I couldn’t find proper trailers for it, unlike “Retaliation”, nor was there an online viral campaign. Both of these are sorely needed for any DLC, and perhaps it isn’t too late. The possibility of a third map-pack DLC is still on the horizon, but all these issues must be dealt with before anyone can be convinced to spend more money.
The existing customer base of “Crysis 2” consists of customers that have braved consistent let-downs but are still dedicated to the game. These people should not be taken for granted, and they deserve a proper response to their many questions and concerns. Many have, despite knowing the lack of games on the “Decimation” and “Retaliation” DLCs have still bought them, just to show their support. These are the people that will, given proper support and responses from Crytek, buy another DLC, keep playing multiplayer when “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3” and “Battlefield 3” are released and be there when “Crysis 3” is released. These individuals deserve attention and support for all they've done for Crytek.
Keeping the existing customer base in mind, it should also be noted that Crytek can still expand “Crysis 2” and that it is still a viable product. Properly managed and well executed DLCs (such as the one mentioned earlier in this letter) could have the effect that “Undead Nightmare” had on “Red Dead Redemption”. Many consumers didn’t know about “Read Dead Redemption” upon its initial release and only found out about it when “Undead Nightmare” hit the market and was critically acclaimed. If Crytek can manage to pull this off, it would extend the lifeline of the “Crysis 2” product significantly, satisfying both sales expectations as well as the customer base. All this would ultimately lead to a bigger and more anticipated release of “Crysis 3”.
I realize that none of the issues that I have raised in this letter have easy solutions and that it is not easy to manage a product in such a cut-throat industry. However, I am optimistic about your response to this letter and incredibly hopeful about the future of the “Crysis” franchise. I wish you and your team the best of luck.
Sincerely,
Saad Jamil
