Homefront 2 'progress is great,' but release date may change, says new owner Crytek

Homefront 2 development "progress is great," although its unannounced release date may change in the future, Crytek told VG247.

The game has been in development at Crytek UK — the German publisher's Nottingham, U.K.-based studio, which was formerly known as Free Radical Design — since fall 2011. Homefront 2 was set to be published by THQ, but when the bankrupt company's assets were put up for auction last week, Crytek purchased the Homefront rights for just under $545,000, making the company both developer and publisher of the game and any future projects in the franchise.

"The main reason we wanted to purchase the IP was because the game is coming along so well," said Nick Button-Brown, Crytek's general manager of games. "The team in Crytek UK has put their heart and soul into the game, and the progress is great — [our] last milestone was excellent."

He added, "We wanted to buy the IP to make sure the team can finish off the game they wish to make."

Button-Brown said the acquisition "will not have too much impact on the development itself" — reaffirming what Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli said last month — but noted that Crytek may change Homefront 2's release date. Neither Crytek nor THQ ever announced even a release window for the game, but according to THQ's bankruptcy filing, the publisher planned to launch the game by the end of March 2014.

According to Button-Brown, Crytek wants to begin revealing information about Homefront 2 sooner rather than later, and be more forthcoming when it does. "We would like to be a little more open, than if we were working with a publisher," he said.

THQ released the original Homefront, which was developed by the now-defunct Kaos Studios, in March 2011 to a lukewarm critical reception but better commercial success — more than 2.6 million copies have been sold to date.