Crytek celebrates fifth anniversary of original Crysis game

When the original Crysis video game launched on November 13, 2007, it was epic. The visuals and graphics that the game generated brought even high-end gaming PCs of the day to their knees and spurred gamers around the world to upgrade. The game also spawned one of the best-known Internet memes of the day when it seemed everyone was asking, "But will it play Crysis?"

It's interesting that we're celebrating the fifth birthday of Crysis. I played through the game again not long ago, and the game still has visuals good enough to look like a much newer game. Since the original game launched in 2007 there have been two other games released in the franchise.

The fourth game, Crysis 3 is scheduled to launch in February of 2013. Earlier this year, Crytek started offering the original Crysis as a digital download on the PlayStation Network, and Xbox LIVE. EA and Crytek are also offering the original Crysis as a free bonus to those who pre-order Crysis 3.

Perhaps the most interesting thing I've heard about the Crysis franchise in years also surfaced this week. The head of Crytek studios announced this week that the entire franchise was just now nearing break even. I can only imagine that creating a video game that still looks new and impressive today, five years ago, must have cost a fortune.