With the first game's developer, Kaos Studios, shut down earlier this year, the sequel to Homefront will be handled by a division of Crytek, the makers of Crysis and Far Cry.

THQ announced today that Crytek will take over development duties for the next Homefront. We knew such a game was inevitable, although this developer announcement does come as a surprise -- back when Kaos was closed in June, THQ said its new Montreal studio would "take over product development and overall creative management for the Homefront franchise."

Instead, it'll be Crytek UK that works on the new Homefront. Crytek UK is the former Free Radical Design, developer of the TimeSplitters series and Crysis 2's multiplayer component. The new Homefront will run on the newest version of the CryEngine technology that also powered Crysis 2, so if nothing else, the game should look quite nice.

"We see Homefront as a really strong universe that has a lot of potential and that has been expertly created and marketed by THQ," said Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli. "We believe that bringing our level of quality, creativity and production values to the next Homefront title creates an opportunity for both THQ and Crytek to deliver a truly blockbuster game. It's really important to us that THQ has the faith in giving us a lot of creative freedom over one of its most important properties to allow us to bring the Homefront world to life in a new and innovative way."

The original Homefront, released this past March, didn't receive especially positive reviews but it was the best-selling game in the United States during its debut month behind Pokemon Black and White, according to the NPD Group. Today's announcement deemed it a "commercial success for THQ," though we'd previously heard the company refer to it simply as having been "moderately successful."

The new game won't be out for some time; the press release indicates it'll be available on consoles and PC in fiscal 2014, meaning it could be released anytime between April 1, 2013 and and March 31, 2014