While it might not have been the best game of the Xbox One era, Crytek's Ryse: Son of Rome is surely one of the most memorable - an addictive hack-and-slash adventure with visuals that still rival some of the biggest releases of 2026!

We've waxed lyrical about our love for Ryse before here at Pure Xbox, as well as our disappointment that the game never received a sequel. Former Xbox boss Phil Spencer simply stated back in 2018 that there's "never an easy answer to why something didn't happen", insisting that he really liked the game despite Ryse 2 never materialising.

Now, in a new report from IGN, it's suggested that the reason we never got a Ryse 2 was because Crytek refused to sell the IP to Microsoft, and neither party wanted to budge on it. That said, work on a sequel was "never formally cancelled", and instead "simply stopped after the original game underperformed both critically and commercially".

The report also mentions that Ryse 2 might have moved away from Rome entirely. Ideas were being floated around to do a Viking game, or set a sequel in feudal Japan, although it's suggested that not everyone on the team was convinced. Gameplay may have been more "open-ended" as well, along with new mechanics such as vehicle navigation, PvP multiplayer, and more dynamic single-player combat.

Here's just a sample of what the report has to say about this, referencing a quote from one of the original project managers on Ryse: Son of Rome, Yannick Boucher:

"Had those planned sequels happened, they would have featured a more open-ended design than the original Ryse. “When we talked about correcting some of that game’s weaknesses,” says Boucher, “changing the levels was among the first things that came up, as most of them were basically just a straight corridor.” The vision at the time was not far off from God of War 2018: not quite open-world, but not completely linear either.

The team also thought about introducing new game mechanics, many of them cut from or left out of the original Ryse due to time constraints, including vehicle navigation and a PVP multiplayer mode (Son of Rome ended up having both solo and co-op PVE where you fought off waves inside the Colosseum)."

Boucher paints a picture of a somewhat disappointing feeling following the release in 2013 — he says he worked 30 days straight on the title before it shipped, and then was met with a mixed average rating of 60 on Metacritic.

Nevertheless, Ryse: Son of Rome has undoubtedly become a cult classic over the years, and there are countless people still discovering the game for the first time even to this day. It remains to be seen whether Ryse 2 could ever become a thing, but even if it doesn't, the legacy of the first game will continue to live on for decades to come.

What would you have liked to see from a Ryse 2? Let us know down in the comments below.

[source ign.com]