Ouch! Developer CD Projekt Red has just crushed many an RPG fan’s hopes for the year, announcing that the highly anticipated Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will be delayed until February 2015. Geralts next adventure was originally scheduled for a “Q2 2014” release, with CD Projekt seeming confident enough with progress to already release several screens and chunks of information about the game.
The developer announced the delay via an open letter to fans, the press and the company’s shareholders. Read the letter in full below:
An Open Letter from CD Projekt RED about The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Release Date
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 S.A.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC-only RPG and is set to conclude the story of old Geralt of Rivia, the series main protagonist.
While the news comes a massive blow to those that have been eagerly anticipating Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt this year, we’re not entirely surprised or disappointed by the announcement. If anything, the Witcher 3 looks like a massive project of impressive proportions, and getting it right is no easy task. CD Projekt Red has the advantage of not having a publisher breathing down its neck, and their decision to post-pone the game’s launch is surely justified. Considering that The Witcher 3: Wild Hund will be the last installment in the series, our expectations are exceedingly high, and the developers seem to understand this. Overall, we’d rather see a memorable game emerge (on that we can still mention smilingly decades later) later, rather than having a forgettable experience sooner. CD Projekt Red have managed not to disappoint so far, and while the decision surely isn’t easy to digest, we’re glad to see at least some developers focus on quality rather than quantity and speed.
What are your two cents? Can you handle waiting for The Witcher 3 a few extra months?