Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) and award-winning developer Crytek GmbH today announced a creative partnership with renowned filmmaker Albert Hughes to produce an online video series inspired by the upcoming sandbox shooter, Crysis 3. Entitled, “The 7 Wonders of Crysis 3”, this cinematic series will set the stage for this latest installment in the Crysis series and introduce weapons, enemies, and gameplay features new to the franchise. These cinematic shorts will also showcase the stunning visuals, dynamic environments of the urban rainforest and intense adaptive warfare fans can expect when Crysis 3 ships on February 19, 2013 in North America and on February 21 in Europe.   

“When EA and Crytek approached me about being involved in creating ‘The 7 Wonders of Crysis 3’ video series, I liked the idea of creating emotional stories using only computer generated images,” stated Albert Hughes. “The challenge of producing something intensely human without ever seeing a human on screen was incredibly compelling, and the technology of the CryENGINE that Crytek developed enabled me to do that and venture into a completely unique medium of storytelling.”

At 20 years old, filmmaker Albert Hughes shot to stardom when he and his twin brother, Allen, wrote and directed the seminal film, Menace II Society. Albert then went on to co-direct such critically-acclaimed films including Dead Presidents, From Hell and Book of Eli. For “The 7 Wonders of Crysis 3” video series, Albert was intimately involved with the development team at Crytek, writing the scripts, storyboards and shot plan for each video that was created entirely using in-game assets powered by Crytek’s revolutionary CryENGINE® 3 technology.

More thanfive million players across Russia have now signed up for Crytek GmbH’s groundbreaking free-to-play FPS, Warface. Published in Russia by the Mail.Ru Group, Warface has amassed an army of avid fans and enjoyed a record-breaking rise to prominence since its release – attracting over one million players in its first month on the market. The game was also in the limelight this week after players voted it best online game in Russia as part of the long-established Runet Awards. The awards, which have been running since 2004, are designed to honor the best of the Russian-language internet.

“Reaching the five million registered users mark speaks volumes about the quality and appeal of Warface,” said Vladimir Nikolsky, the Vice President of the Mail.Ru Group Game Division. “With a combination of first-class visuals and gameplay that is second to none, Warface stands out from the crowd and promises to attract even more attention from players in the future.”

Seoul (South Korea) November 15, 2012 – Adding to its growing list of accolades, Crytek GmbH’s free-to-play shooter, Warface, was this week named Best FPS at the G-Star expo by a leading South Korean gaming site.

A panel of judges from popular website, Inven, decided that Warface stood head and shoulders above its rivals at G-Star and was worthy of top spot in the competitive FPS category. The Inven Award: BEST FPS Game G-Star 2012 follows on from Warface being named Best Social/Casual/Online Game at gamescom 2012 and Best Game of 2012 at Russia’s KRI Awards.

G-Star takes place in the South Korean city of Busan, and attracts around 200,000 visitors each year to discover games from across Asia and beyond. Gamers in South Korea put Warface through its paces in closed beta tests this fall, and players in the West will soon be able to go hands on with the game and find out for themselves how it raises the bar for free-to-play experiences online. 

You can learn more about Warface and see the game in action at the official website; http://www.warface.com.

Frankfurt am Main (Germany) November 13, 2012 – Crytek GmbH is this week celebrating the fifth anniversary of its groundbreaking action FPS, Crysis. Originally released for PC on November 13, 2007, Crysis drew widespread praise from critics and fans alike for its diverse sandbox gameplay and unparalleled visuals.

Five years on, Crysis has spawned two follow-up games, with a fourth title in the series – Crysis 3 – scheduled for release in February 2013. The original game also became available to a wider audience earlier this year following its release for PlayStation® Network and Xbox LIVE.

“It feels like yesterday that we were putting the finishing touches to Crysis,” said Cevat Yerli, CEO of Crytek.  “The game changed everything for us as a company, and we remain incredibly proud of what we achieved with it. What’s even more satisfying, though, is that Crysis struck a chord with players around the world and that the sense of wonder we felt while developing it was shared by millions of people who played it. We’re truly grateful for everyone who has supported the series and allowed us to keep dreaming up new ideas to take it to the next level.”

Five years ago this week, in partnership with EA, Crytek released Crysis: an innovative and futuristic action FPS which combined open level designs with stunning and realistic visuals. The game proved successful in multiple ways, and in celebration of its 5th anniversary, we’d like to take a moment and revisit the Crysis excitement of the past five years.

Crysis was the first game to run on CryENGINE 2 and used DirectX 9 and 10 to run on both Windows XP and Vista. At the start of development, the mission was clear: to deliver a high quality FPS game that would change industry standards. "The team was working incredibly hard to deliver the best experience to the player," says Michael Endres, Art Production Manager during Crysis. "The whole three years were a crazy rollercoaster ride, but we wanted to set the standards for a few years."