Witcher 3 Won’t Exist Without Consoles

[TwistedDictator]

 

Co-founder Marcin Iwinski and studio head Adam Badowski disproved claims that the console versions pulled the PC edition down in graphics:

"If the consoles are not involved there is no Witcher 3 as it is," Iwinski said. "We can lay it out that simply. We just cannot afford it, because consoles allow us to go higher in terms of the possible or achievable sales; have a higher budget for the game, and invest it all into developing this huge, gigantic world.”

"Developing only for the PC: yes, probably we could get more [in terms of graphics] as there would be nothing else - they would be so focused, like if we would develop only on Xbox One or PlayStation 4. But then we cannot afford such a game."

 

Iwinski was not looking to mislead anyone including that though the development process that had no idea of the technical limitations they'd encounter.

"Maybe we shouldn't have shown that [trailer], I don't know, but we didn't know that it wasn't going to work, so it's not a lie or a bad will - that's why we didn't comment actively. We don't agree there is a downgrade but it's our opinion, and gamers' feeling can be different. If they made their purchasing decision based on the 2013 materials, I'm deeply sorry for that, and we are discussing how we can make it up to them because that's not fair."

 

Source

So that means we should be grateful to the consoles! I LOVE YOU XBOX AND PS lol. But damn I think we all knew this in a way. They also speak about the dev process. They wasnt trying to mislead people, they had to face a few challenges and decided FPS and gameplay over graphics.

[terrytek]

Serious bullshit. If it struggles on PC, it should do worse on consoles.

[wyattzx]

The game was able to be developed from the funding CD Projekt Red received from Microsoft for their promotions of the game on Xbox One. 

[Victorious Secret]

I guess this makes CDPR a 'peasant company', or do you all still "trust in CDPR because they are good guys". 

 

Not misleading anyone? then why did 2013 and 2014 footage (which looked better than this) end with "pre-order now"? You damn well knew exactly what you were doing. Baiting consumers with one presentation then saying "oh but challenges showed up" which you didn't acknowledge till AFTER the game was already on sale and you had collect 1 million preorders worth of income. 

 

Yea, not misleading anyone indeed. 

[Lethal Seraph]

I think they ought to have shipped the game with console minimum required settings then have a totally different tier of settings for the PC.

[BonSie]

So if consoles didn't exist and everyone had PC, the downgrade wouldn't have happened.

Those bloody peasants. 

[Syntaxvgm]

Actually there's truth to developing only on console looking better (on consoles, at least). They said only on ps4 OR xbone

Look at teams like naughty dog. For PS3 games, they've made them look amazing. That's because they had a set of constraints to work with, and instead of dialing a game back to work on everything, they developed the game ground up to work on the ps3, and worked to push the limitations of the ps3 as far as they could. 

Naughty dog had Jak 2 on the ps2 be open world, 60fps, and have no loading screens. They did shit like use the ps1 processor on the first game, which they were not supposed to do. If sony then wanted to make the slim ps2 not backwards compatible, the Jak games would not have worked. I bet they kinda forced sony's hand. 

Anyway, if their games were multi platform, they would not have looked so good. If they were pc as well, the PC version would be held back by the console version, which since it wasn't developed with 1 console in mind, would not be all it could be. 

 

My point is, from experience, focused development is always best. PC only titles will always be best, as they will not have the constraints of the consoles to hold them back. But a single console only title, the developers are more likely to do an amazing job of optimizing the game, as they have 1 set of limitations, 1 machine to make it work on. PC only development, developers just tend to not really improve the game's performance at all. Multi platform games, they perform bad, and look bad. 

[Xorbot]

[DaRk0]

Well, dude has a point. More sales - bigger budget. Hopefully they will bring excluded effects back to PC version.. as they promised.

[GoldSrc]

 

Co-founder Marcin Iwinski and studio head Adam Badowski disproved claims that the console versions pulled the PC edition down in graphics.

I call BS on that.

 

 

Developing only for the PC: yes, probably we could get more [in terms of graphics] as there would be nothing else - they would be so focused, like if we would develop only on Xbox One or PlayStation.

Yup, consoles turned down PC graphics.

[Briggsy]

Anyone who has actually been playing witcher 3 on PC can attest to the amount of effort they put into this game, both graphically and content-wise. Those still on about the graphics downgrade are grasping at straws and might want to go play it first.

[GlassBomb]

Serious bullshit. If it struggles on PC, it should do worse on consoles.

It's not about performance. It's about sales numbers.

I think we all know how much more console games sell compared to its PC counterpart.

[Victorious Secret]

So if consoles didn't exist and everyone had PC, the downgrade wouldn't have happened.

Those bloody peasants. 

 

Lol okay. 

 

If consoles didn't exist, all the casual gamers who buy consoles wouldn't go build/buy PCs if consoles went away. They are CASUALS for a reason. Casuals > enthusiasts in this segment on a level you probably can't remotely comprehend. 

 

Don't show me those silly "pc hardware reports". PC hardware ≠ gaming hardware. Gamers are nothing in the grand scheme of things in any industry. 

 

These people wouldn't switch to the PC platform like all you PC Mustard Rats think they would. Consoles not existing would royally cock up a vast majority of the industry. That is a revenue stream of millions gone, and many studios (even your beloved CDPR) wouldn't survive. Not with how games in the triple A segment cost these days. 

If you want crappy indies, go ahead. Let consoles die. Watch a lot of franchises close up shop with them. 

[shirokado]

So if consoles didn't exist and everyone had PC, the downgrade wouldn't have happened.

Those bloody peasants. 

No, because Microsoft and Sony probably gave them money to develop on consoles. I don't think anybody on the PC side would do that.

[sof006]

Yet the creators of StarCitizen can afford to JUST develop for the PC platform?

 

If you're confident in your fan base you'll get the money another way. Robert Industries did and look at them, they have enough money to create the game AND self publish.

 

Its clear CDPR have no confidence in their fan's and in their ability to support Witcher. CDPR have spat in the faces of all their fans in my opinion. 

[The_Strict_Nein]

Yet the creators of StarCitizen can afford to JUST develop for the PC platform?

If you're confident in your fan base you'll get the money another way. Robert Industries did and look at them, they have enough money to create the game AND self publish.

Its clear CDPR have no confidence in their fan's and in their ability to support Witcher. CDPR have spat in the faces of all their fans in my opinion.

Because Star Citizen has got, what, $50,000,000 of funding. CDPR is probably opperating at much less tgan that

[Valentyn]

No consoles no Witcher 3? Has CD Projekt Red forgotten who bought the Witcher 1, and the Witcher 2? Both were PC exclusives for the majority of the time, with only the Witcher 2 getting a shabby Xbox 360 port very late after the PC version.

 

Let's not forget that it was PC gamers that buy off of GOG.com, further funding them. It's always been PC gamers, and now they have the gal to say that without consoles the game wouldn't exist?

 

 

Well, dude has a point. More sales - bigger budget. Hopefully they will bring excluded effects back to PC version.. as they promised.

 

Ignoring the fact that games like GTA V on PC sold well over a million on their very first day. The PC Gaming market is far larger. Steam alone has more active gamers online than both Xbox Live, and PSN combined. All they needed to do was do right by the people that supported them from the start.

[sof006]

Because Star Citizen has got, what, $50,000,000 of funding. CDPR is probably opperating at much less tgan that

Which is what I'm getting at.. What I'm saying is. If CDPR reached out to their fans like Roberts Industries did then what's to say that they can't build up that amount of money too? Says to me that CDPR lack confidence in their fans.

[WereCat]

Serious bullshit. If it struggles on PC, it should do worse on consoles.

It doesn't struggle at all. You should maybe try to play it before you start to spit opinions based on before launch benchmarks.

According to those I should have 20FPS but I run smooth 60FPS with mix of high and ultra settings. Of course some unnecessary things are turned off.

[DaRk0]

Ignoring the fact that games like GTA V on PC sold well over a million on their very first day. The PC Gaming market is far larger. Steam alone has more active gamers online than both Xbox Live, and PSN combined. All they needed to do was do right by the people that supported them from the start.

I must say Witcher 3, no matter how good it is, it's not in the same league as GTA:V. GTA just made too many sales on both PC and consoles.

While I agree that there are a lot of Steam users, we have to take in to account that some of Steam's user base is dedicated to f2p games.

I support the fact that they should develop a game with PC in mind, with graphics from last year demos and make a console version with gimped graphics. There's always a Kickstarter if they don't have enough funding.

[Derangel]

 

No consoles no Witcher 3? Has CD Projekt Red forgotten who bought the Witcher 1, and the Witcher 2? Both were PC exclusives for the majority of the time, with only the Witcher 2 getting a shabby Xbox 360 port very late after the PC version.

 

Let's not forget that it was PC gamers that buy off of GOG.com, further funding them. It's always been PC gamers, and now they have the gal to say that without consoles the game wouldn't exist?

 

 

 

Ignoring the fact that games like GTA V on PC sold well over a million on their very first day. The PC Gaming market is far larger. Steam alone has more active gamers online than both Xbox Live, and PSN combined. All they needed to do was do right by the people that supported them from the start.

 

 

Witcher 1 was a fairly cheaply developed game using an engine they could get cheap and modify the hell out of. Witcher 2 was obviously more expensive but I'd bet both games COMBINED cost significantly less than Witcher 3.

 

As for Steam. How many of those active players only play free-to-play games and will never buy a game like Witcher 3? Look at the Steam hardware stats and try telling me there is a large market on Steam for graphically advanced games.

Which is what I'm getting at.. What I'm saying is. If CDPR reached out to their fans like Roberts Industries did then what's to say that they can't build up that amount of money too? Says to me that CDPR lack confidence in their fans.

 

So if they engaged in bullshit pre-order tactics and made promises there is no chance in hell they will ever reach in a satisfiable AND somehow had the magic nostalgia forumla from a near-dead genre they could maybe just maybe get enough money to make the game and not risk their company's future in the process?

[Sharkyx1]

Which is what I'm getting at.. What I'm saying is. If CDPR reached out to their fans like Roberts Industries did then what's to say that they can't build up that amount of money too? Says to me that CDPR lack confidence in their fans.

I wouldn't have bought the game if they did that

The point they are making is that witcher 3 would have been a smaller linear game like 2 without console sales numbers

[Trik'Stari]

Oh, okay, so that's how it is.

 

f**k you then CD Projekt Red. F**k you.

 

Never mind that PC game sales surpassed console game sales (consoles combined) last year, no, we should thank the walled gardens for throwing money at game devs to make their continued existence seem reasonable (the consoles that is)

 

I'm glad I didn't buy this game. I wont be buying it, or anything CD Projekt Red creates, ever again.

[GoodBytes]

I don't think you guys understand what he is saying.

He is not saying that there won't be a Witcher 3 without console, he saying the game would have been significantly smaller in scope, due to less budget, due to reduce sales. Remember that they take a loan of sorts, either by the bank or publishers (usually publishers). They need to not only repay it, but also bring money to them, extra, for future game development.

Also, he is not saying that the game would have inferior graphics BECAUSE of console, per se. He is saying that due to lower sales, it means less budget, and less to invest in graphics. Or if they do, then the game itself (which is more important) gets the hit. What's the point of beautiful graphics, if the game is sucky.

One quote the OP forgot to mention that was said by the company, is that they mentioned that they changed engine during development of the game. They thought it would be better for everyone, but it ended up not being so on the PC side. The company admitted that perhaps it was not the best of move. It is hard to predict the engine capabilities to your game, when it doesn't exists yet.

[Derangel]

I don't think you guys understand what he is saying.

He is not saying that there won't be a Witcher 3 without console, he saying the game would have been significantly smaller in scope, due to less budget, due to reduce sales. Remember that they take a loan of sorts, either by the bank or publishers (usually publishers). They need to not only repay it, but also bring money to them, extra, for future game development.

Also, he is not saying that the game would have inferior graphics BECAUSE of console, per se. He is saying that due to lower sales, it means less budget, and less to invest in graphics. Or if they do, then the game itself (which is more important) gets the hit. What's the point of beautiful graphics, if the game is sucky.

One quote the OP forgot to mention that was said by the company, is that they mentioned that they changed engine during development of the game. They thought it would be better for everyone, but it ended up not being so on the PC side. The company admitted that perhaps it was not the best of move. It is hard to predict the engine capabilities to your game, when it doesn't exists yet.

 

If they took a loan it would be from the bank. After the issues they had with both of their previous publishers I think CDP decided to go the self-funded route and not make funding deals with publishers. They definitely got money from Microsoft (all the XB1 promotional stuff with the game is proof of that) and they might have got some from Sony but I doubt they took funding money from any of the retail publishers so that way they can retain control over what they decide to do with the game and future content for it.