Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli has released a statement explaining why the highly anticipated PC FPS has been delayed.

The game, which is now scheduled to arrive at some point during EA's next fiscal year - the 12-month period beginning April 2007 - has been delayed to ensure the final game delivers the experience gamers are expecting.

"I want to assure everyone that Crytek are working as hard as we possibly can to deliver this game to our fans and consumers in the earliest timeframe that meets our high quality threshold," explains Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli. "Taking the extra time in the studio is the right decision because it helps us be sure that we can bring you the experience you expect from this new game."

There's also good news for PC gamers not equipped with quad core CPUs and top-end graphics cards. Yerli says that the development team is working on "the widest variety of PC configs, starting from entry-level PCs up to the hard-core game rigs."

Multiplayer elements will also benefit from the extra development time, Yerli stating that the thoughts of fans have been taken onboard.

"Multiplayer is also an area of big focus for us right now, and we listened very hard to our fans," said Yerli. "This includes the post-launch modding and community plans."

When exactly we'll see the game in stores is still unknown, with Yerli stating: "We are tracking well and trying our very best to release the game as soon as we can but Crytek and EA can't provide a hard date just yet.."     

By James Orry