‘The Witness’ is coming to Xbox One sooner than you think

By Gabe Gurwin August 23, 2016

For nearly seven months, Jonathan Blow’s latest philosophical adventure The Witness has been available on only two platforms: PlayStation 4 and PC. The game has largely been marketed as a PlayStation-first title in a move that contrasts with his last game, Braid, which first released on Xbox before making its way to other consoles. But fear not, Xbox One players, because The Witness is coming to Xbox One a lot sooner than you might think.

“We’ve gotten lots of requests to bring The Witness to Xbox One. People tweet at me about this all the time,” Blow says in the announcement on Xbox Wire. “So we are happy to say that this is happening soon: The Witness will be downloadable on Xbox One starting September 13.”

We could still see the game come to other consoles, as well. The game’s official website still states that it will come to “other platforms” — plural — at a later date, with the Xbox One presumably the first. A Mac release seems likely, and we wouldn’t even rule out Nintendo’s NX console.

Also promised was an iOS port, and developer Thekla has not abandoned the project, but stresses that there will have to be substantial revisions to get it running on the weaker hardware. It will apparently feature a “tap-based” movement system similar to something like Runescape, and currently has no planned release date.

The Witness remains one of the highest-scoring games Digital Trends has reviewed all year, and Danny Cowan favorably compared its puzzles and world to the classic adventure game Myst.

Though there are certainly plenty of places online to look if you’re struggling with the game come September 13, Jonathan Blow advises against using the extra help.

“The most enjoyable part of this game is what happens in your mind when connections come together.”

Indeed — and the resolution inside your imagination is infinite.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

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