Crysis developer Crytek has revealed that over 250 universities from around the world have signed up for the CryEngine 3 educational license in the last year.
The free license is currently used by a variety of different academic institutions, including physics, computer science, architecture and film-making. The educational SDK can be used by university educators for course teaching and research projects.
Carl Jones, director of global business development for the CryEngine, said of the achievement, "We are absolutely delighted by the huge interest that academics from all around the globe have shown in CryEngine 3."
"It’s really an honor for us to be considered the first-choice technology for so many leading universities. We consider them as strong partners, both in developing great software and improving our engine; and are really interested in further expanding those relationships."
The third CryEngine development platform was first launched in October 2009 to developers. A free educational license for the engine was released 12 months ago.
Avni Yerli, managing director at Crytek, noted, "From its very first days, Crytek aimed to strongly support students and educators by sharing the CryEngine tools with universities."
"Thousands of students now have access to the same cutting-edge technology that the world’s best developers are using for their ongoing projects. With our CryEngine 3 educational SDK we want to enable them to achieve their vision and create their very own innovation to become the next generation of developers."
Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli revealed earlier in the week that a free SDK for CryEngine 3 will also be released this August. The SDK will be free to use for non-commercial purposes, though it can be used for commercial games as well, with Yerli saying the company "will offer an innovative low cost licensing model" for anyone going that route.
As a college bound student lined up for the Game Art major in college, I am quite excited to see the toolset of the Cryengine 3 incorporated before my four years are done, along with the traditional Unreal Engine used.
I've been working with CryENGINE 3 for a few months now and I must say its simply amazing. Kudos to Crytek and future students utilizing this powerful tool.
Through my 4 years in school, i have seen dramatic changes in the education development kits offered. Original started with Garage Games Torque, Followed by a short stint with UDK and Unity. Unity has been used at the fore front for educational use at my school, but with the release of the CryEngine3 i hope that were able to acquire the program and get back to developing programs that can compete with the current market today.
A lot of schools that are pushing Unity want there students to make serious games, and things like that (at least in my experience). my school really doesnt have a specific engine and we got to pick so we picked UDK (and we still end up being forced to make a serious game)....i want to make something fun, lol
