Hunt Showdown is currently celebrating its 5th anniversary with a big sale (opens in new tab) and a new DLC Hunter. While there is much to look back on, Crytek's eyes are on the future, with plans to update Hunt from the aging 5.6 legacy version of CryEngine to the latest 5.11 build.

"The game is currently running on a four-year-old legacy version of CryEngine," David Fifield, general manager of Crytek, explained to PC Gamer. One of the big things we're talking about for 2023 is updating to the latest version of CryEngine, 5.11, which is four years old."

Upgrading the engine from one decimal to a slightly higher decimal doesn't sound like a significant change, but it's a much bigger undertaking than updating the firmware on a cell phone. It is extremely rare for a game to replace the foundation of a game that is several years old with an established development pipeline, and for game developers, it is akin to replacing the chassis of a car with a new one that is theoretically better, but could cause new problems. Last year, Epic migrated Fortnite to Unreal Engine 5 with excellent results (opens in new tab).

Ideally, the 5.11 Hunt update would not only bring improvements to the game's already outstanding graphics, but also promises enhanced gameplay (although Crytek did not provide examples).

"It's going to be a long road technically, so don't expect it anytime soon, but it's in progress. As we get ready and reach meaningful milestones, we'll be talking more and more about what it means to move games from CryEngine 5.6 to CryEngine 5.11," Fifield said.

While this major update is still some time away, players can expect many other updates, including an overhaul of the onboarding tools for new players." They are working on improving the tutorials, with more scripted tutorials that provide more explanations and better instruction than the existing training missions.

Crytek's mission to keep "Hunt: Showdown" technically relevant suggests that the company will be taking a new approach to this cowboy escape shooter in the coming years. For example, if "Hunt 2" is in development or Crytek has an update in the works, you won't hear about engine upgrades, Fifield said of the game's year-over-year growth in player base." I'm curious to see how far the population, engagement, and everything else will grow." Last month's Devil's Moon event, where the entire map was set ablaze (opens in new tab), showed Crytek's commitment to tweaking Hunt's fundamentals to keep players engaged.

For more on Hunt: Showdown, we recently sat down with Crytek (opens in new tab) to talk about the anniversary, where Hunt is now, and where it's headed in 2023.