Source: GamesIndustry
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Crytek was formed in 1999 by Cevat Yerli together with his brothers, Avni and Faruk, who gave up their businesses - an ad agency and civil engineering consultancy - to try their luck in the games industry.
It was a bet which paid off, eventually. According to Cevat, the fledgling studio had "almost run out of money" by the time May 2000 rolled around, but a simple tech demo shown at E3 impressed graphics specialist Nvidia so much that they were asked to make a second one for that year's ECTS show.
The new demo, titled Exile: Dinosaur Island, in turn impressed Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot. In May 2001 a deal was signed to develop Far Cry, which went on to become a global success.