Xbox One Surprises Witcher Dev, Skips Poland At Launch

[Andy Chalk]

Xbox One Surprises Witcher Dev, Skips Poland At Launch

Marcin Iwiński of Polish studio CD Projekt Red says the omission of Poland from the list of countries supported by the Xbox One at launch is "a sad situation."

You will no doubt recall yesterday's news that the Xbox One will only have Live support in 21 countries at launch, meaning that Microsoft's forthcoming console, thanks to its reliance on a daily connection to the internet, won't work anywhere else. We noted in our report that among the countries not on the list was Poland, a noteworthy fact because Poland is the home of CD Projekt, the creator of the vaunted Witcher RPG series - the final chapter of which made a pretty big splash [www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/previews/10408-The-Witcher-3-Wild-Hunt-Preview-A-More-Tactical-RPG-Combat] at E3.

As it turns out, nobody at CD Projekt had any idea that this was going to happen. "I was just in a restaurant and saw the list," Iwiński told Game Informer. "I was surprised, and I really hope that it isn't final. I think Polish gamers will speak out loud. From my perspective, it's a sad situation."

The Xbox Support twitter account suggested [https://twitter.com/XboxSupport1/status/344882041755668480] yesterday that the list of supported countries could grow prior to the launch of the Xbox One but right now, this is just one more bit of ugliness in an E3 that really hasn't gone Microsoft's way.

Source: Game Informer [http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2013/06/12/cd-projekt-red-reacts-to-lack-of-xbox-one-in-poland.aspx]


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[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I think Polish gamers will speak out loud. From my perspective, it's a sad situation.

They probably won't care. That's my prediction.

 

[hooblabla6262]

I find this kind of funny actually.

Last article I read about CD P. was that they were going to support the Xbone regardless of their own stand on Microsofts shady business practices.

Seems Microsoft will not be reciprocating that support </3

 

[WashAran]

I think Polish gamers will speak out loud. From my perspective, it's a sad situation.

They probably won't care. That's my prediction.

Considering PC is way bigger in europe, you are probably right.

 

[Vie]

I was wondering if they had mentioned this to the Witcher crew... ..apparently they didn't.

Ohh boy.

I hope somebody at MS is REALLY good at brown nosing, because the Witcher guys are just about the only people who have come out and say that they are Ok with MS's strategy on DRM. And if they get dicked over like this.. ...they might change their tune.

 

[ron1n]

They'll all be too busy playing it on PC to care.

 

[1337mokro]

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

Remember how they said they would still continue development for the Xbone just a while ago? I guess they are not!

 

[CJ1145]

What's that? Microsoft still has a friend in the world? Well, they'd better fix that pronto!

 

[RJ 17]

Seriously, the at this point the head honcho at MS (and I mean MS in general, whoever's currently in charge of the whole shebang) should cut their losses, cancel production of the XBone, and announce that it's shutting down the MS Entertainment Division because...well...I think this picture best sums things up:

 

[Jhooud]

At this point, I'm really looking forward to whoever ([a href="http://www.amazon.com/Opening-Xbox-Microsofts-Entertainment-Revolution/dp/0761537082/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1371149931&sr=8-3&keywords=inside+xbox"]Dean Takahashi maybe[/a]) writes a book exploring just what happened with the development and early promotion of the X1. There's got to be one hell of a story there...

 

[neppakyo]

Hmm, maybe CDPR should pull support of it's games from the xbone then.

captcha: propane accessories.. *gives captcha a strange look*

 

[Terramax]

I think Polish gamers will speak out loud. From my perspective, it's a sad situation.

They probably won't care. That's my prediction.

Considering PC is way bigger in europe, you are probably right.

....Really?

This is a serious question. How do you know this?

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

One of the Facebook comments is just gold.

"Microsoft is getting so evil I am surprised they haven't moved from excluding Poland to invading it."

OT: Wow, pretty shitty of them not to let the fucking devs and publishers know what countries their games will be available in.

 

[Andy Chalk]

They'll all be too busy playing it on PC to care.

This is probably true, but it's less about neglecting the Polish market (which is almost certainly a tiny, tiny slice of the pie) and more about not shitting on a developer and publisher that's very popular at the grassroots level. The fact that MS apparently didn't even feel it was necessary to give CDPR a heads-up about it just doesn't look good.

 

[unacomn]

Ya done backed the wrong horse there CDP, this horse will kick ya any chance it gets, even when you're tryin' to feed it.

 

[Weaver]

Guess there's one more developer who won't be working on the XBone.
MS clearly has no idea what they're doing.

 

[IndomitableSam]

One of the Facebook comments is just gold.

"Microsoft is getting so evil I am surprised they haven't moved from excluding Poland to invading it."

OT: Wow, pretty shitty of them not to let the fucking devs and publishers know what countries their games will be available in.

I laughed more than I should have. Does that make me a bad person?

Honestly, I wondered what CD Projekt was doing when they started showing it during the XBone conference. Now... I'm not sure if they know, either.

We all know MS will have Poland all hooked up and ready to go for the game's release, but, still... To pull that kind of shit on one of the more popular game developers? Wow.

 

[Fappy]

They'll all be too busy playing it on PC to care.

This is probably true, but it's less about neglecting the Polish market (which is almost certainly a tiny, tiny slice of the pie) and more about not shitting on a developer and publisher that's very popular at the grassroots level. The fact that MS apparently didn't even feel it was necessary to give CDPR a heads-up about it just doesn't look good.

I wonder if all the Japanese devs assumed Japan would be left too considering Microsoft's pitiful market share over there.

 

[Trishbot]

This... this CAN'T be unintentional. This has to be some sort of psychological condition where "finding everyone who MIGHT like our product" and then doing everything in their power to ensure that they don't.

 

[Rellik San]

The problem as everyone said by doing this, is shitting on CDP:R because those guys with their approaches to DRM and offerings on sites like GOG.com have garnered MAAAAA-HOO-SIVE respect from gamers around the world, so to realise that one of the largest sources for indie and older titles home country is excluded from the XBones launch is just going to ensure even more people give MS the cold shoulder.