The Xbox One’s launch wasn’t a very successful one, but one of the 2013 console’s launch games almost became something bigger.
Ryse almost became Xbox’s next big franchise
The launch of the Xbox One was mired in controversy with its big focus on TV and media and its packed-in Kinect, which ballooned the console’s price by $100. However, it offered a solid lineup of three major exclusive launch titles in the graphical showpiece Forza Motorsport 5, the continuation of Capcom’s zombie-slaying playground series Dead Rising 3, and an all-new IP from Crytek, Ryse: Son of Rome.
Of the three, Ryse: Son of Rome was arguably the most interesting as a new IP. It offered a brutal third-person adventure with a bloody combat system and cinematic storytelling. Despite being one of the Xbox One’s shiny new games, it didn’t quite measure up in terms of critical reception and sales, earning a 60 on Metacritic and racking up around 1.3 million sales, which is somewhat low for one of the big launch titles of a brand new Xbox generation.
Ryse’s future looked like assassin’s creed
A bunch of new information has just come out about Ryse: Son of Rome and the future developer Crytek had in mind for it thanks to a new report from IGN. In speaking with former developers, IGN learned that the team had to cut about two thirds of Ryse: Son of Rome in order for the game to make it out the door in time for the Xbox One’s November 2013 release, leading to a much shorter time-to-beat than initially anticipated internally.
It was also revealed that Crytek had plans for a number of sequels that looked to take players on a world tour through history, just like the Assassin’s Creed franchise had been so successful in doing up to that point. Vikings and a Feudal Japan setting were two of the biggest ideas floating around at the time, both of which have recently been covered in the Assassin’s Creed series over the past six years. At the time, though, a Ryse game set in Japan would have certainly garnered a lot of buzz and attention.
It wasn’t just about these different settings and time periods for Crytek, but future Ryse games would’ve changed up their world designs and gameplay elements, too. Future titles would’ve opened up their levels a bit more, breaking away from the linearity some complained about with Ryse: Son of Rome. The former devs also brought up the idea of vehicles and different types of battle formations with NPCs that players could engage with during combat.
One of the more interesting pieces of information gleaned from IGN’s report is that Ryse‘s continuation was never officially canceled; it just stopped being worked on. Microsoft reportedly wanted to own the Ryse IP if it were to continue with sequels, but Crytek was unwilling to give it up, leaving the once promising franchise in limbo ever since.
It can’t be known whether a sequel to Ryse: Son of Rome will ever see the light of day. Crytek is currently focusing on its live service multiplayer game Hunt: Showdown and reportedly has its fourth Crysis game in development. Whether they’d be willing to work on a Ryse sequel at this point or sell the IP off to Microsoft instead is a mystery, but if these grand ideas for a potential Assassin’s Creed-like Ryse franchise do ever come to fruition, it’ll take a long while.
Ryse: Son of Rome is available on Xbox and PC.
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