Witcher 3 Dev: Gamers Are Wary of Poorly-Polished Next-Gen Games

[Codey]

Miyamoto has apparently never heard of Duke Nukem Forever. Delayed for ages, and still terrible.

There's a huge difference between delaying to fix bugs and developing without a set end date.

DNF was an example of the latter. Sure, DNF had some proposed release dates, but their delay was never just about fixing bugs.
Personally, I wanted DNF to be good and for them to take all the time in the world to make it good, but ultimately 3D Realms just squandered it. Gearbox picked up the pieces with the help of a group of the original development team (under the name Triptych Games), but what they stitched up was sorely lacking, disjointed and could never live up to the hype.
Ultimately wanting to do everything and keep up with the times became the downfall.


The Witcher 3 is on the other hand a game that has reached bug fixing / optimization stage. If they can release a more polished game in day and age, where games are increasingly released unfinished and buggy, then kudos to them.

Even though I am not a console gamer, I long for the time where there was no way to update the game, once it was released. The game had to be finished, because there was no way to go back and fix stuff. That's where the "forever bad" comes from.

 

[BakedZnake]

Being only 3 months before it was delayed once again, doesn't really bode well. Even with the additional 2 months, I don't think once witcher 3 is released it'll be any less of a very buggy game.
From the previous 2 games they both remained quite buggy and not really well optimized for a good 2 to 3 months after release, only after 1 massive major patch that it became more stable

 

[Rozalia1]

Spoiler: Side Note - How Long will they call it Next Gen

They will call them "Next Gen" until replaced. Why? Because they were actually Last Gen from the start. Time was (PS1 and PS2 Eras) the new consoles were actually better than the best PC about at the time of release, but PS3 Era was roughly only equal best PC and now PS4 Era only as good as a mid Range PC at simlar price level.
The biggest improvements are due to moving to 64-bit, the new hardware is mediocre and even that isn't fully used, the main reason is to be a "Console" requires a Power source of 300W Maximum.

Can't they just increase the power? Not and remain a Console, the inevitable result of inreasing the power is, cooling and airflow needs also increase requires bigger fans and cases, that's a PC, not a Console. Valve's "Steam Box" is the inevitable result of this necessity. Not convinced? To increase the XBox One's Power, simply trying match the PS4's slight Hardware advantage, Microsoft had to remove the "essential" Kinnect, they are already at Maximum Power Capacity.

Consoles are Power Limited, without a 128-bit CPU, any new gen will fall much further behind PC, to bargain bucket level.
With 4k and 8k monitors and Virtual Reality on the horizon, power needs are increasing even more rapidly than normal.
Consoles may be on their "Last Gen" ever, without an answer to the power shortage. They delayed the "Next Gen" release, for years, trying to solve this problem, it may never be solved.
Of course I don't think they'll just give up, marketing may carry them along, for a while, with the help of the fanboys blind faith.

Sooner than they like customers will leave for PC, VR is on the horizon and 4k Monitors here already. If 4k TV's become the Norm, Sooner will become now.

Been said a million times for years, heard it all before in all its colours.

Its not quite "everyone who watches WWE will suddenly start watching Ring of Honor/New Japan any day now" levels, but its getting there with its lack of death. New consoles are doing better than great and everyone who predicted a death were massively wrong.
So save it for when your wanted event happens (if it does in your life time) buddy, otherwise this just exposes you as one who ignores reality in favour of "fanboys blind faith" as you put it.

That's pretty much what happened with JRPGs: many developers reached a point where they simply couldn't sustain the costs of developing 40 to 80 hours long games of home consoles and many migrated to handheld consoles.

That isn't completely accurate. Later in the life of the PS3 you saw Japanese devs really start to crank them out on console, and I don't think the PS4 will be any different. They need that time and some take longer than others.
Atelier's first game on PS3 for example for all its charm was horrid, not just graphically but it even defaulted to a generic battle system instead of the usual Atelier battle system.

Later games did it right, and they even later released a remake to put the original PS3 one right.

 

[omega 616]

Not intending to be rude but why did you put "witcher 3 dev" instead of "CD projekt"? I think we all have pretty good knowledge about who makes which series.

More on topic, I think thsee guys are gamers ... they seem to really know what pisses us off and how we want it handled. Well it's either that or they really listen to the community.

 

[Fappy]

Makes me wish EA gave Bioware another 6-8 months to polish DA:I. My biggest gripe with the game is its lack of polish. I keep spotting so many places where it could have been improved with just a little bit of extra time to iron-out the folds.

 

[pilar]

Miyamoto has apparently never heard of Duke Nukem Forever. Delayed for ages, and still terrible.

There's a huge difference between delaying to fix bugs and developing without a set end date.

DNF was an example of the latter. Sure, DNF had some proposed release dates, but their delay was never just about fixing bugs.
Personally, I wanted DNF to be good and for them to take all the time in the world to make it good, but ultimately 3D Realms just squandered it. Gearbox picked up the pieces with the help of a group of the original development team (under the name Triptych Games), but what they stitched up was sorely lacking, disjointed and could never live up to the hype.
Ultimately wanting to do everything and keep up with the times became the downfall.


The Witcher 3 is on the other hand a game that has reached bug fixing / optimization stage. If they can release a more polished game in day and age, where games are increasingly released unfinished and buggy, then kudos to them.

Even though I am not a console gamer, I long for the time where there was no way to update the game, once it was released. The game had to be finished, because there was no way to go back and fix stuff. That's where the "forever bad" comes from.

[HEADING=2]Too Much Competition in February[/HEADING]
This language is more like Watchdogs, which was supposedly delayed six months to fix bug and other issues--AHAHA! They were afraid of GTA V effecting console sales. Turns out they were right.
This February just happens to have some big AAA console exclusives, not to mention Dark Souls 3 in early March; whereas May is pretty empty. Warner Bros wants the game isolated for better sales.

I bet Witcher 3 is already finished and being mass produced; so any fixes will come through 1-3 GB patches and updates for all platforms.

Of course, I won't be proven right until launch day.

 

[Codey]

This language is more like Watchdogs, which was supposedly delayed six months to fix bug and other issues--AHAHA!

I admit the comparison to Ubisoft's Watch_Dogs looks rather apt, but I have more faith in a smaller studio/publisher like CD Projekt Red than a big studio/publisher like Ubisoft. Ubisoft was (and still is) obviously running the numbers game and sadly didn't spend enough time even by pushing the release.
While Ubisoft has a release pipeline with multiple games, CD Projekt Red is working on one game.
Sure, there's a benefit to releasing in a month without big releases, but you can't guard yourself from the other games having delays as well. If they are as you say doing that, I hope they spend the time efficiently.

I bet Witcher 3 is already finished and being mass produced; so any fixes will come through 1-3 GB patches and updates for all platforms.

Of course, I won't be proven right until launch day.

I don't think so, but I don't know if I'll be able to prove you wrong. Bugs are bound to be found after release when it's in consumer hands. That's inevitable, but at least having it working properly for the most part is a goal to set.

I may give them too much credit, but I'd think there's more credibility on the line for them than Ubisoft.

 

[pilar]

This language is more like Watchdogs, which was supposedly delayed six months to fix bug and other issues--AHAHA!

I admit the comparison to Ubisoft's Watch_Dogs looks rather apt, but I have more faith in a smaller studio/publisher like CD Projekt Red than a big studio/publisher like Ubisoft. Ubisoft was (and still is) obviously running the numbers game and sadly didn't spend enough time even by pushing the release.
While Ubisoft has a release pipeline with multiple games, CD Projekt Red is working on one game.
Sure, there's a benefit to releasing in a month without big releases, but you can't guard yourself from the other games having delays as well. If they are as you say doing that, I hope they spend the time efficiently.

I bet Witcher 3 is already finished and being mass produced; so any fixes will come through 1-3 GB patches and updates for all platforms.

Of course, I won't be proven right until launch day.

I don't think so, but I don't know if I'll be able to prove you wrong. Bugs are bound to be found after release when it's in consumer hands. That's inevitable, but at least having it working properly for the most part is a goal to set.

I may give them too much credit, but I'd think there's more credibility on the line for them than Ubisoft.

CD Projekt is no longer a small developer. NaughtyDog builds single player, linear campaigns. CD Projekt making a huge open world game and they have the resources of Warner Bros to bank on. And Warner Bros is certainly chasing Ubisoft's dominance in this industry, so they're playing the game, too; and which is why they'd rather delay this game to keep it isolated from other AAA titles. As badly as you want this game to be a success, their livelihoods depend on it.

 

[Pseudonym]

If you made a mistake in planning your development this is understandable. If you just admit that you can't stick to your planning and adjust it, that's fine. It's a lot better than releasing your game in a broken condition and trying to patch it up while people lose trust and interest.

 

[Codey]

CD Projekt is no longer a small developer.

Of course not, but I didn't say "small", I said "smaller". And what I meant was primarily in terms of output of the development branch. They are pretty much banking on one game and one game only.
They are obviously huge in other respects (their subsidiaries), both by being a Polish distributor of many American studios for several years (cdp.pl) and running GOG.com.

I looked up the Warner Bros connection, and yes, I see WB are handling the North American distribution and publicity. But CD Projekt is still their own and working on their main franchise. They care about their work, because yes, their livelihoods depend on it. I don't think WB has any influence on them though.

Well, I'll reserve my right to be blue-eyed.

All that matters to me in the end is that the game will be good and working.

I know I won't be playing it right away though, since CD Projekt also has the history of producing hardware demanding games. I'll need an upgrade, before I'll be able to play.

 

[pilar]

CD Projekt is no longer a small developer.

Of course not, but I didn't say "small", I said "smaller". And what I meant was primarily in terms of output of the development branch. They are pretty much banking on one game and one game only.
They are obviously huge in other respects (their subsidiaries), both by being a Polish distributor of many American studios for several years (cdp.pl) and running GOG.com.

I looked up the Warner Bros connection, and yes, I see WB are handling the North American distribution and publicity. But CD Projekt is still their own and working on their main franchise. They care about their work, because yes, their livelihoods depend on it. I don't think WB has any influence on them though.

Well, I'll reserve my right to be blue-eyed.

All that matters to me in the end is that the game will be good and working.

I know I won't be playing it right away though, since CD Projekt also has the history of producing hardware demanding games. I'll need an upgrade, before I'll be able to play.

According to CD-P, there's High settings (Consoles) and the next step is Ultra (PC). Not to mention how each new trailer looks a little more graphically downgraded than the last. This is 3 platform title, and two of which are barely a year old, so I have no idea what to expect versus what they've promised.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

Even though I was a bit sad about the delay it really takes a lot of guts to actually go ahead and push your game a few months just to work more on it.

More power to you CDPR and I have faith that you will deliver us one of the best RPG's in the past decade.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

I looked up the Warner Bros connection, and yes, I see WB are handling the North American distribution and publicity.

Oh fuck, I just remembered that Namco Bandai are the distributors for Aus... and the shit eating maggots are making GOG.com charge more for the digital version just like they did with TW2... ehhhhnnn... at least the GOG version kicks over near $20 of GOG store credit AND the afore mentioned maggots don't see a single cent from me.