The Witcher 3 has been delayed to early 2015. This much is already well-known to fans of the series and RPG fans alike. There seem to be some really good reasons behind the delay, and recent leaks and rumors have shed some light on CD Projekt Red’s The Witcher 3, somewhat helping us understand why this delay was inevitable. First and foremost, let’s speak about the game’s world. CD Projekt Red has stated from the very beginning that The Witcher 3 will be entirely different from the previous titles of the series, providing an open-world for the first time and removing barriers that prevented exploration.
Thus, horse riding was inevitably added to the game. And it seems that Geralt’s horse will have its work cut out, as the game’s world promises to be huge. Perhaps using the word huge is an actual understatement. Let’s talk numbers then. Skyrim’s world has a playable area of roughly 14.8 square miles. In comparison, based on recent information from this year’s GDC, the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will have a map of around 52 square miles, more than 3 times the amount of space Skyrim provided. This land is divided almost equally between the city of Novigrad and its surroundings and the region of Skellige. Thus, refining a world this vast and ensuring at least decent (if not perfect) quality assurance is a monumental task indeed. CD Projekt Red recently commented on the matter, answering the inevitable flood of questions regarding The Witcher 3’s open world and its size:
“The world of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is really big and entirely open–this is something we’ve been saying from the very beginning and that hasn’t changed. However, what we think is really important, is what can you do with and within that space, and not the size of it in square miles. Game worlds would be nothing without the stuff that makes games magnetic–the intensity, diversity, the magic behind what makes RPGs awesome. Characters in this world are real, you could believe they exist. The stories here stick with you and your choices are meaningful–this is what counts!”
Enjoying breathtaking sights as this one will likely require the best hardware on the market.
Alright, so they have their work cut out with the world, quests, NPCs, AI, bug hunting and what not. But that’s not their only concern. Optimization seems to be a pressing issue as well. An undisclosed source close to CD Projekt has revealed that at its current state, The Witcher 3 simply can’t run at 60 FPS with maxed out settings, not even on a GeForce GTX 780 TI. Still think the recently revealed $3000 Titan from Nvidia is over the top? We’ve been seeing trends of increased hardware requirements lately (good examples would be Watch Dogs or Shadow of Mordor), and frankly, none of those games are even close to The Witcher 3’s graphical capabilities. So do these reports of massive hardware requirements for The Witcher 3 come as a surprise? Not so much, but the news is still worrying, as not many gamers have top of the line configurations sitting on their desks.
That being said, CD Projekt did confirm that further optimization tweaks are in the works, explaining the game’s delayed release furthermore. They’ll have to do significant tweaks to make it accessible to a large number of players though. This being said, it’s doubtful we’ll be seeing The Witcher 3 run at 60 FPS 1080p on the Xbox One and PS4. In any case, it’s clear that Geralt’s last game still needs considerable amounts of work. In the grand scheme of things, we’re glad it got pushed back instead of being released in an unpolished state. From what we’ve heard and seen so far, there’s little doubt that The Witcher 3 will be the single-player RPG many people will be talking about for years to come.
What are your thoughts about the system requirements and open world of The Witcher 3?