Warface Developers Leave Crytek To Form Own Studio

The developers of Warface, a game I forgot existed, have broken off to form the new independent studio Blackwood Games. Once known as Crytek’s Kiev studio, Blackwood will take over all development of Warface from here on.

“It was a tough decision to leave Crytek after all these years, but sometimes you need change to evolve,” said Michael Khaimzon, Head of Blackwood. “It’s very important for us to focus on developing Warface in a way that lives up to players’ expectations. We have kept the development team intact, and their expertise will allow us to move forward with our plans and ideas. Yet we’re very thankful to Crytek for all the great years together and for their commendable support of this move.”

According to the team, Warface is actually alive and kicking just fine, thank you. It currently has more than 65 million players worldwide, and Blackwood believes that number will rise.

Face Time

Warface launched back in 2013 under the Crytek Kiev banner. The free-to-play shooter came out to mixed reviews, but that didn’t stop it from showing up across multiple platforms. It launched for the Xbox 360 in 2014, then discontinued the following year. In 2018 it relaunched for modern consoles, save for the Switch.

It features the usual suspects found in most free-to-play shooters. Warface is class-based, with unique weapons and abilities separating each respective class. Weapons can be customized at your leisure to include scopes, suppressors, or bipods, which you slowly unlock as you play.

I played it once before. At least, I think I played it. Or am I thinking of Dirty Bomb? Either way, Warface has hardly stood out from the slew of free-to-play shooters that seemed to follow the same formula back then. But Blackwood assures us that it’s still popular. Who am I to say? The company does plan on developing the game further, so there’s a chance the team has a few good ideas to get us talking about the game that doesn’t involve changing studios again. Maybe Blackwood will turn it into a battle royale game? That’s worked for companies so far.