Back in November of 2009, Crytek detailed plans to offer free licenses to universities wishing to work with CryEngine 3. Apparently quite a few showed interest -- more than 250 different institutions over the last year, to be exact.

A missive on Crytek's site reads: "Academic institutions in a wide variety of fields including physics, computer science, architecture, film-making, art and design use Crytek's all-in-one game development solution for their projects." This should ensure that not only will future video games feature gun-wielding super soldiers in billion-dollar nanosuits, but also movies, paintings, science projects, book reports, fashion magazines and all of the skyscrapers downtown.

[Thanks, Andreas]