A lot of people think that the year 2012 is significant. Some think the world's going to end by then. People in the games industry, on the other hand, think that it will be a beginning instead of an end: the beginning of the next console cycle. Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli is one of those who believe that 2012 is when the next generation of game consoles will start showing up. *UPDATE* Two demo videos have surfaced from GamesCom 2009.

Thanks, Peter Bauer!

Electronic Arts and Crytek are partnering up to bring the next Crysis game to home consoles so you don't have to sell your kidney to get a powerful enough PC to play it.

The acquisition by Crytek seems to be going great for Free Radical, er, Crytek UK. Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli has revealed that they've pretty much given the developer free reign in what projects they're pursuing.

It was September of last year when Cevat Yerli, Crytek CEO, announced that they were in fact already preparing for the next cycle of consoles. This announcement was coupled with his prediction that the next consoles race will by on by 2011 or 2012. What was interesting at that time was that he said that they are gearing up for the PS4 with their CryEngine 3. At the GDC 09 today, jaws dropped as Crytek presented the demo for CryEngine 3. Watch the vid after the jump to see what the fuss is all about:

More intriguing news are coming from the Games Convention Asia happening in Singapore. This time, it's Crytek's Cevat Yerli dishing out the buzz on Crytek's CryEngine 3, and their predictions on the next wave of the consoles race. PS4 in 2012 anyone?

It's still a hot topic whether Crytek will actually bring Crysis to consoles or not. However, developer Crytek's president Cevat Yerli may have placed the final nail in the coffin by revealing the stance his company has taken after its most recent title suffered from piracy. Find all the details at the full article.

Crytek "wow-ed" everyone last year with the powerful visuals from its featured title Crysis, running on the heavy spec game engine CryENGINE 2. This year, the game developers have announced that an exclusive demo for the PS3 and Xbox 360 version of CryENGINE 2 will be showcased this February 20 to 22 at the Game Developers Conference 2008 in San Francisco.

Read more in the full article after the jump!

Looks like a console version for Crysis is getting more promise: Crytek's lead level designer Sten Hubler recently gave some rather interesting comments which hinted that Crytek is already in the process of making it a reality.

Those of you who missed the last update for Crysis, the specs for the game demand a whole lot from the PC. The high demand on hardware was the reason Crytek announced last year that the game won't make it to the consoles. However, the company loosened up just earlier this month when they saw anticipation surrounding Crysis.

Now Hubler gives us a clue as to how the game might find its way into the consoles:

Obviously consoles have memory constraints, so we would have to look at the size of the levels and maybe introduce some sort of streaming ability. Gameplay-wise we would need to consider the controller and how actions can be carried out on it. But Crytek have spent the last 6-7 years working on PC titles. We haven't done a lot with consoles; we'd have to discover how it all works.

With the way he talked it seemed like Crytek has seriously considered, if not already decided, to translate Crysis for the consoles. However, it was mentioned earlier this month by Cevat Yerli, Crytek boss himself, that there are just some things that can't be sacrificed, like AI and gameplay dynamic so it's worrisome to ponder on which part of the game will have to be cut down for the transition.

Even though he thinks console shooters are still "at the level of PC shooters 5-6 years ago", Crytek boss Cevat Yerli did give those wishing to play Crysis on consoles some hope. Here's a quote from Yerli during a recent interview with Game Informer:

...first we want to see how the game is received, publicly and critically, ratings wise, et cetera. We believe it will be received at least as strong as Far Cry. I hope personally a 5% average increase... That would give us an argument to, "OK, let's see how we can bring Crysis to consoles."

If they ever do get to make a console version of the game, Yerli assured gamers that nothing would change apart from the controls. "If we would bring it to console we would keep the sophistication," he said. "We would just make it so people could play it with the joypad and that it would be a great time. We would not dumb down the experience."

"The AI and our gameplay dynamic is our heart," Yerli added. "We can't change that. If you change that, you lose Crysis."