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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt pushed back to February 2015

witcher 3 wild hunt pushed back february 2015 the
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CD Projekt RED, the developers of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, regret to inform you that you’re going to have to wait a little longer than originally expected to get your hands on its open-world RPG. After originally announcing a vague 2014 release for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the developer confirmed that the game won’t be ready until February 2014.

“Dear gamers – we know many of you would have liked to play The Witcher 3 sooner, as soon as possible, even,” The Board of CD Projekt RED said in an open letter to fans and shareholders. “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.”

Delays can be annoying, but since this game never had a firm release day – or even a release quarter – the announcement shouldn’t be seen as anything than what it is: a bit more time for the devs to apply polish. Delays happen all the time, and this one is no different. But while fans should not see this as anything more than a minor inconvenience to their gaming plans, the shareholders of CD Projekt RED might.

“Dear shareholders – we are aware of the responsibility that rests with us and thank you for the trust you have granted us thus far,” the letter continued. “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 Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has been in some form of development for years now, and was originally teased as far back as January 2013. Within a few weeks, the tease morphed into an official reveal for the PC, and a few weeks after that when the PlayStation 4 was unveiled, it was also confirmed as a next-gen console game for the PS4 and “other high-end consoles” (i.e. the as-yet-unannounced Xbox One). Taking that into account, a two-year gap between announcement and release is a bit longer than normal, but not all that unusual.

Wild Hunt will mark the third, and final Witcher game. The game’s story is loosely based on the Polish fantasy novels of the same name, which consist of six books (and a handful of short stories), all of which follow the character of Geralt of Rivia. The character is a monster hunter, bestowed with magical abilities that are enhanced by a lifetime of brutal training. Wild Hunt continues the story of Geralt, and is shaping up to be an ambitious endeavor, with CD Projekt Red claiming the game is “30 times bigger than [the world of] The Witcher 2.” 

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Ryan Fleming
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Ryan Fleming is the Gaming and Cinema Editor for Digital Trends. He joined the DT staff in 2009 after spending time covering…
The Witcher reveal repeats Cyberpunk 2077’s biggest mistake
A player points a gun at a cyborg in Cyberpunk 2077's reveal trailer.

On March 21, CD Projekt Red confirmed a new The Witcher game while revealing a new Unreal Engine 5 partnership with Epic Games. Shortly after that announcement, CD Projekt Red's Global PR Director Radek Grabowski had to clarify some crucial details about this new game and the Epic Games partnership in a tweet:
https://twitter.com/gamebowski/status/1506022957591797760
While this tweet clarifies the biggest misconceptions about CD Projekt Red's The Witcher announcement, it also highlights that the developer announced this game way too early and vaguely. CD Projekt Red is already losing control of some of the discourse around the game and risks repeating one of the biggest mistakes of Cyberpunk 2077's development and marketing: Overpromising.
Cyberpunk 2077's big mistake
CD Projekt Red announced Cyberpunk 2077 in May 2012 at a press conference. At the time, the developer promised features like a "gripping non-linear story filled with life and detail" and a variety of character classes, weapons, upgrades, implants, and more to choose from. It said the game would "set [a] new standard in the futuristic RPG genre with an exceptional gaming experience."
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Cyberpunk 2077 Teaser Trailer
For eight years, an RPG that was supposed to change the genre forever was promised, but in the end, all we got was a fairly standard open-world RPG with a bevy of technical problems at release. The massive backlash happened because people were so excited for Cyberpunk 2077, partly because CD Projekt Red hyped up all of these ambitious features over eight years.
The reality is that game development is an arduous journey that doesn't always go according to plan. Designs change, features are cut, and sometimes the finished product just doesn't come together. CD Projekt Red probably never meant to lie to its fans, but priorities and development timelines shifted and what the developer ultimately delivered with Cyberpunk 2077 wasn't up to snuff.
As CD Projekt Red made the mistake of announcing Cyberpunk 2077 too early and overpromising, I thought the studio would what to share more details on its next game until it was close to release. That was not the case. 
Initial Confirmation
CD Projekt Red was not willing to share a development time frame or release window as part of The Witcher announcement, so it's likely that this game is still several years away. Although the developer didn't reveal many details at this time, announcing the next The Witcher game so early gives s the Polish studio plenty of time to do so. For example, the game's director is already promising that there will be no crunch during the development of this game, something people may hold him accountable for as stories about the game's development emerge. CD Projekt Red must be cautious about what it shares about this new game before launch if it doesn't want another PR disaster, and it already seems to be getting a bit out of hand.  
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Meanwhile, CD Projekt Red is still recovering from the backlash toward Cyberpunk 2077's rocky launch. Announcing a follow-up title to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt now not only restores a little bit of goodwill with fans and investors but will also attract some Unreal Engine-experienced developers who might be nervous to come to CD Projekt Red following Cyberpunk 2077. 2022 has been a year of anticlimatic and purposefully vague game announcements. CD Projekt Red's The Witcher announcement is simply the latest one to be part of this trend, but it's also one of the most worrying because this developer has made this mistake before.  
While CD Projekt Red felt pressured to confirm this game early, they need to be very careful if they don't want to repeat the mistakes of Cyberpunk 2077. The best course of action for CD Projekt Red to take now is to stay completely silent until it has a clear idea of what the finished game will entail. If that isn't the case, this could all be building to disappointment in the year 2030. 

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In a surprise post on the franchise's website, CD Projekt Red announced that it is currently developing a new game based on The Witcher, one that isn't a spinoff focusing on Gwent.

https://twitter.com/witchergame/status/1505945110722326529

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