The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Delayed Until 2015

Wild Hunt

In an open letter from CD Projekt Red’s board, they announced that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt would be delayed until February 2015. The following are excerpts from the letter, detailing exactly why they have delayed the game.

“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.”

It’s an admirable goal and CD Projekt seems very genuine in their concern for quality. The Witcher has always been a unique franchise with a lot of potential, and Wild Hunt seems to be doing things the right way.

“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.”

They bring up a good point with the size of this game. When Wild Hunt was announced, they suggested that one single landmass was larger than all of Skyrim, so a task as detailed as this seems no easy feat, especially for a slightly smaller developer like CD Projekt.

“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.”

It’s very refreshing to see that at least one studio is willing to delay their game to make sure the quality is there. I’m looking at you EA.

“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.”

It’s nice that they took the time to address us as well. If the trailers are any indication of the final product, Wild Hunt is a game to keep your eye on.

“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.”

They finally go on to address the shareholders directly. We often forget on this end, but the amount of investing in the games we play is shocking.

Overall, it’s slightly disappointing to see Wild Hunt delayed, but I’d much rather a polished experience than a broken mess of a game like Battlefield 4.