Crytek "investigating" Flash support in CryEngine

Crytek has confirmed to us that it has been looking into supporting Flash in its development platform CryEngine, saying it will announce a "truly cross-platform solution" in the near future.

Earlier this week Epic Games announced that its Unreal Engine 3 now supports Adobe's Flash, with CTO Tim Sweeney showing Unreal Tournament III running in a Flash-based environment during his keynote at Adobe Max 11 in Los Angeles.

The move means games with console-quality graphics will be playable in web browsers, powered by Adobe Flash Player 11. The new player sports hardware-accelerated APIs that enable it to render 2D and 3D graphics 1000 times faster than its predecessor.

In an email, Carl Jones, director of global business development for CryEngine, said Crytek had been thinking along similar lines to Epic for some time, and had a solution of its own in mind.

"It is an interesting approach we’ve been investigating as well," he told us. "We're developing a unifying technology to create high quality social and gaming experiences on all platforms including browser, smartphones, tablets, etc.

"We hope to be able to tell you more about it soon when we present our truly cross-platform solution."

Jones' indication that Crytek has something even more impressive than the prospect of Gears Of War 3 running in Flash in a web browser up its sleeve is intriguing. Crytek is currently developing Warface, a free-to-play multiplayer shooter aimed at the Korean and Asian markets.

While the game is in development for PC, making it playable in browsers, whether through Flash integration or its own bespoke solution, would mean it could reach a far wider audience - a great help for a game monetised only through microtransactions.