The Witcher 3 delayed for 11 months

[endtherapture]

Release Date of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt ? An Open Letter
Ever since we started working on the third installment in The Witcher franchise, it has been our aim to produce a title that would take our 11 years of experience in creating RPGS and distill them into a quintessence, into a game that would effectively crown those years. At the same time, we have wanted The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt to expand creative boundaries, set new benchmarks, develop the genre as a whole. Ultimately, you, the players, must get an unforgettable adventure to experience in a vast, open world ? and that?s most important. We?ve created a story that flows naturally, cinematically, rendered it in amazing sound and visuals, while preserving full freedom of choice ? all for you. We knew this to be an ambitious plan, but believed we could achieve it by bringing together our team with its creative energies and current gaming platforms with their technical capabilities. A project this vast and complex would inevitably require special care in its final stages, manual fine-tuning of many details, thorough testing time and again.
We recently reexamined what we had achieved thus far, and faced a choice about the game?s final release date. The decision we made was difficult, thoroughly considered, and ultimately clear and obvious. We could have released the game towards the end of this year as we had initially planned. Yet we concluded that a few additional months will let us achieve the quality that will satisfy us, the quality gamers expect from us. Consequently, we have set the release of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt for February 2015.
Dear gamers - we know many of you would have liked to play The Witcher 3 sooner, as soon as possible, even. We?re sorry to make you wait longer than you, or we, initially assumed you would. At the same time, we believe the game will prove to be worth the wait and meet the expectations you have of us. We believe The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will be an exceptional RPG, one of the best, providing many hours of wonderful entertainment.
Dear shareholders ? we are aware of the responsibility that rests with us and thank you for the trust you have granted us thus far. We firmly believe that quality ? more than any other factor ? determines a game?s success, and that the decision we have made is thus equally valid in business terms.
The Board of CD PROJEKT SA

Thoughts on this? I'm personally not really surprised. I'm glad in fact because TW3 will probably now end up as a truly great game - hopefully bug free and with a lot more content.

Plus it'll give me time to afford a PC good enough to play it on

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I'm relieved to be honest. I also want to upgrade my PC for TW3, and there are other games that I want to play this year. As long as those other games don't get delayed, my wallet will be happy. February is also kind of a dry month for gaming, so that's another good aspect of this. And of course, the most important thing is the fact that the game quality will benefit from the delay.

 

[Wulfram77]

Well, it's probably good that it's coming out at a different time to Dragon Age.

 

[endtherapture]

I'm relieved to be honest. I also want to upgrade my PC for TW3, and there are other games that I want to play this year. As long as those other games don't get delayed, my wallet will be happy. February is also kind of a dry month for gaming, so that's another good aspect of this. And of course, the most important thing is the fact that the game quality will benefit from the delay.

Inquisition, Divinity and Pillars of Eternity are all out this year and at least one of those will require a big upgrade. I'm definitely glad I'll be able to get money together for a good PC for Iniqusition and TW3 and play them on release since they're coming quite late. I definitely don't want spoilers for TW3.

Now I'll be able to focus on Divinity and PoE

 

[Maximum Bert]

I may have my PS4 by then so it dosent bother me in the slightest its pretty much the only next gen game I am interested in except Guilty Gear Xrd but thats coming out on PS3 as well. As long as it is good when it is released I dont have a problem.

 

[spartandude]

Part of me is glad that they are trying to get everything they can into this game, the other part of me which is really impatient really wants it now anyway... good thing sensible me is winning this though.

 

[Aerosteam]

Hah, like other people here I'll have a gaming PC by then and CD Projekt Red is one of the few developers I trust on actually improving the game during its delay time.

 

[-Seraph-]

God this is gonna be an agonizing wait now, but good things come with time I guess. I had already started saving up up for my new rig, and now I guess I'll have even more time to save. Witcher 3 is the game that will push me get get my new computer and I wanted to get the best parts for the job. Crown my new rig with this game and now I'll have plenty extra to drop on whatever uber awesome collectors edition they got for us this time.

This also gives me time to clear out some of my backlog too because lord knows I'll only be playing this game for the first month and nothing else.

 

[The Madman]

Unfortunate but also completely expected really. With a project as ambitious as Witcher 3 seems to be I've always considered it ridiculously optimistic that they were planning on releasing it this year, but having seen what the developer has managed to do with Witcher 2 and how much they improved it even post release, I have confidence that a few extra months time of development will mean good things for the game in the end.

In the meantime there are a good collection of other games also coming out I'm looking forward to as well, so it's not like I'll be left completely empty handed by this delay.

 

[hazabaza1]

These are the guys who said their other game will only be done when it's done so fair enough I say, good of them to stick to their principles.

Hopefully it's even better.

 

[endtherapture]

I'm glad in fact because TW3 will probably now end up as a truly great game - hopefully bug free and with a lot more content.

Can we please for the love of god get over the fallacy of more development time=better/polished game? Arguably, it's more likly to create a rushed/ buggy game. We don't exactly know what the main issue is here and we don't even know if they're telling the truth.

So what do you expect the Dev's to do with the extra months they've delayed the game for?

It's not a delay to get a holiday release...so why? Maybe bug testing, extra content, polishing up existing content and making sure the game is great?

Or do you think if the game is released now it would be in exactly the same state it is in 11 months time?

 

[RandV80]

Great, wish more developers could do this. To be fair to other developers though it's much easier to delay when you're company basically only has one game/franchise it builds. Much harder to resist shareholder pressure when you're part of a conglomerate like EA.

 

[endtherapture]

Do you honestly think that more development time creates a rushed and buggy game? What's with being so pessimistic?

Nope, never said that mate. I made a point on possibilities instead of assuming the truth.

So what do you expect the Dev's to do with the extra months they've delayed the game for?

It's not a delay to get a holiday release...so why? Maybe bug testing, extra content, polishing up existing content and making sure the game is great?

Or do you think if the game is released now it would be in exactly the same state it is in 11 months time?

All we know that the game isn't up to their standard but what is their standard? Well, that totally subjective point is up to you. Technical problems can hinder development for quite some time.

The game id doubtless going to be better for it. What do you think they're going to do if they've got technical problems? Release it anyway? No they'd get crucified! Scrap the whole project? No that'd be pointless. Delay it? Yes. Of course it's going to be a favourable outcome...

We know CDProjekt's standard from TW2. AAA production values, minimal bugs, well balanced game, no paid for DLC, no DRM...

 

[MarsProbe]

I'm glad in fact because TW3 will probably now end up as a truly great game - hopefully bug free and with a lot more content.

Can we please for the love of god get over the fallacy of more development time=better/polished game? Arguably, it's more likly to create a rushed/ buggy game. We don't exactly know what the main issue is here and we don't even know if they're telling the truth.

Do you honestly think that more development time creates a rushed and buggy game? I fail to see your logic in being so pessimistic. Also, the developers are obviously telling the truth about the delay, because it's been confirmed. Look it up yourself.

That is indeed some crazy ass logic our friend seems to have here. I'd be interested in having them back up their statement with an explanation.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

I'm quite sad by these news that at first I didn't actually believe it.

I really was looking forward to that game, but waiting almost another year for it..hype can keep you sustain for so long without anything extra shown. Maybe E3 they will show more, but that's a long way as well.

It would of won game of the year for me most definitely and wanted it to pit against Dragon Age Inquisition, but since it releases next year all of that went away. :-/

Captcha: I am fine...no captcha I am not. First Dark Souls 2 gets delayed 1 month and now my most anticipated game gets delayed almost 1 year.

 

[Threkki]

Am I missing something or is it only being delayed by a few months rather than the 11 months claimed in the thread title?