One of the latest ones we have heard about is Crytek. Right now they are claiming that due to heavy losses with Crysis 2 (which was one of the most pirated games in 2011) they will move completely away from retail (including online retail through companies like Steam). But will a free to play service be able to handle the graphics that Crytek has traditionally put into their games? It is certainly possible if they enlist the help of nVidia where they can leverage the GeForce Grid to make sure frame rates are where they should be (locked in at 60 FPS or 120 if you are gearing for 3D).

Crytek will be certain to make their money back, but we do think that this will stop more than a few people from picking up their titles. If they are considering this move, they might want to look around and see some of the complaints (and legal action) hitting Blizzard right now all because of their decision to make their games online only. Still with so many companies pushing for the cloud to maximize their revenue we are not surprised to see this (again if it is true). What remains to be seen is; can Crytek provide a secure service for gamers to connect? We know that many others have not been able to so Crytek might find that their decision will end up costing them much more than what they “lost” in pirated games. But then again, moving to the cloud has always been about maximizing revenue even if it is at the expense of the consumer.

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