It’s interesting what job-announcements reveal about a developer’s plans: after the famous GamaSutra in-game pic of Duke Nukem, now a job posting on Crytek’s official site shows that the Germans behind FarCry and the upcoming Crysis are preparing a PS3 title.

Having a game engine like CryENGINE 2, whose outstanding performances are no mystery today, is clearly an advantage when it comes to the PC platform (for which it was built). However, next-gen consoles are gaining ground and the install base for PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 is not something you should not neglect as a developer.

This is apparently what Cevat Yerli and his gang at Crytek have thought of when they posted their PS3-related job announcement. The vacant place awaiting candidates refers to the “development of a Next-Generation GameFramework based on CryEngine 2.0” and to the “work on various aspects of porting to engine code to PS3 and creating solutions to get the utmost out of the PS3”. Since PS3’s Cell CPU is one of IBM’s creation “Power PC assembler experience” is also needed for future Crytek employees who want to work at the undisclosed PS3 title.

Several other clues indicate that Crytek is planning to extend the use of its proprietary game engine on consoles (mainly PS3, which is probably the only one that can support the massive processing involved in rendering the realistic environments seen in the Crysis previews). The recent opening of a development studio in Kiev, which will be working at an entirely new IP (intellectual property) and the impressive screenshots with the Obsidian Edge 2 (a CryENGINE 2 mod crafted by the team bearing the same name), which are apparently from a game developed for consoles.

Anyway, the job posting says it all and I really look forward to seeing the PS3 finally put to work by the CryENGINE 2, because none of the games released as of this moment for Sony’s console have truly harnessed Cell’s raw power.