The Witcher - Announcement of a New Game

[Redglyph]

On a completely different note, this amused me:

Game director on new Witcher game takes stance against crunch (GamesIndustry.biz)

Not really the fact they could make up an entire article from four words in a tweet related to this announcement, but mainly because I cannot believe that it's possible to avoid it in any competitive business these days.

CDPR talked about "non-obligatory" crunch policy, but how does it look to say 'no' for an employee when the whole company is under enormous pressure?

I'd be curious to see what happens this time, but I expect it will be the same as before.

 

[Arkadia7]

Yea, regarding the crunch thing - to me that is a very silly and mostly game "journalists" driven movement, since game "journalists" aren't taken seriously by most people, so they started a cause to champion, about crunch in the gaming industry. So yea, the workers in the game industry deserve to work bankers hours, 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday...uh huh. Gimme a break.

There are many jobs where working more than 40 hours is standard, and I really doubt the game journalists will get their worker utopia in the games industry. Because most gaming companies want to be competitive, and obviously are in a hugely competitive industry, competing with other huge companies for billions of dollars every year, and want to make money.

 

[JFarrell71]

I'd be curious to see what happens this time, but I expect it will be the same as before.

I would expect them to do quite a few things differently than they did with Cyberpunk and with the lead up to Cyberpunk. I would think they know they can't have a second consecutive disaster on that level, and with the IP most associated with them no less.

 

[JFarrell71]

Yea, regarding the crunch thing - to me that is a very silly and mostly game "journalists" driven movement, since game "journalists" aren't taken seriously by most people, so they started a cause to champion, about crunch in the gaming industry. So yea, the workers in the game industry deserve to work bankers hours, 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday…uh huh. Gimme a break.

There are many jobs where working more than 40 hours is standard, and I really doubt the game journalists will get their worker utopia in the games industry. Because most gaming companies want to be competitive, and obviously are in a hugely competitive industry, competing with other huge companies for billions of dollars every year, and want to make money.

Every company in every industry wants to make money. Including banks.

And like with every other industry, there are diminishing returns as you demand more and more from employees. Most people are willing or even eager to work longer hours when deadlines approach or when the game they're developing is at a critical stage. But if you require people to work 80 hours a week for months on end, as is sometimes the case, you're going to burn those people out and what was once a feeling of teamwork and desire to make what they're making the best it can be is going to turn into exhaustion and resentment.

 

[Voqar]

I generally can't stand Epic due to EGS and the crap they've been doing with exclusives, but, Unreal Engine has always been a boon to gaming, and Unreal 5 looks to have insane potential.

So while part of me wants to throw up a little, as long as this does not result in an Epic exclusive (or semi-exclusive with Steam getting left out), it could yield some nice results.

 

[GothicGothicness]

He is quite literally not THE witcher, he is A witcher. We meet like a dozen or so in the games.

I do think they should continue to have a specific protagonist, whether that's Ciri or someone else.

Geralt's story should be over. He earned his ending. I could see doing a prequel, though.

Yes, that is my point Geralt story should be over, and yes he is a Witcher among a couple of dozens others or so, but they are very pale compared to him IMHO, so that is why I said he is THE Witcher, I wouldn't want to play the Witcher 4 as Lambert or something... so that is why I think they should do something else, and not the Witcher.

Maybe playing as Ciri could be something, since the TV series gave her a bit of personality and made her a little bit more interesting, but in TW3 she was rather boring. No better to just leave the franchise be... do another Cyberpunk, or a new Fantasy game in another setting.

 

[wolfgrimdark]

Seems to be a new school for the game: https://www.cbr.com/witcher-school-cd-projekt-red-confirmed/

 

[danutz_plusplus]

What do you mean original? You mean because it was based on an existing book series? Every game is going to share some tropes of the genre no matter how original it is. That said, I thought The Witcher was one of the more original fantasy games I've played.

I mean original, as in a new IP. A new world, setting, time, etc. The Witcher does have plenty of original elements, but overall it's still very much a twist on dark fantasy. I'd like to see something new. Or if not, a game in a setting that hasn't been done in video games. I imagine the devs would also like to get out of the same old world and taste something new.

Seems to be a new school for the game: https://www.cbr.com/witcher-school-cd-projekt-red-confirmed/

This seems so underwhelming to me, if this is the type of news they expect us to get excited by. The current existing witcher schools were so unimportant and generic to me that them adding a new one says nothing to me. Just that they don't have anything more significant to announce.

I don't know, maybe I'm just in a depressed mood, but to me the only exciting thing about the new witcher game is that it's using UE5, and I'm curious how they're gonna make use of that. And that's not really good, if the tech is more exciting than the game. Maybe I'll get more excited when I actually learn more about what they're planning.

But I have a feeling we're a long way off till we finally see something. I have a feeling they announced the new witcher game a lot earlier than needed to, just to appease the stock market. They likely don't even know what they want to do. I could very well be wrong, but this is the sort of cart-before-the-horse thing that you see from publicly traded companies.

 

[JFarrell71]

But I have a feeling we're a long way off till we finally see something. I have a feeling they announced the new witcher game a lot earlier than needed to, just to appease the stock market. They likely don't even know what they want to do. I could very well be wrong, but this is the sort of cart-before-the-horse thing that you see from publicly traded companies.

They've probably had discussions about what they might do for a new game in the Witcher universe since before the third game was even released, and I'm sure those conversations have ramped up considerably in recent years.

I don't care much about the Witcher schools either, but I don't think that's important. It was a useful visual shorthand they could use for a teaser that a new game is in development. I hope they do take their time in revealing any real details of the new game. I'm sure it's years down the road, and I would prefer they don't engage in endless hype the way they did for CP2077. We don't know a thing about Elder Scrolls VI either, and it's been 11 years (!) since the last one, and several since they formally announced its existence.

 

[Couchpotato]

Nod I agree we probably wont have much info for at least a few years. Only because the seven year PR cycle did not work with CP2077. So CDPR admitted they would not talk about any future game till it's ready from now on. Sorta like Bethesda.

 

[Kos]

A game with Ciri would just be bonkers. She can use magic through different worlds at the same time, just that.

Ciri is not a person you send all over the place to solve peasant issues. She is someone you invite for a dinner, tie her to a rock and have some rite with her, in a very medieval way, to extract her power while having a MUHAHAHA laugh.

Because, you know, when she does something, anything, a lot of alarms goes off all over several worlds.

Anyway, hope they do a game about that. They could call it the Witcher III.

 

[Morrandir]

But I have a feeling we're a long way off till we finally see something.

Agreed.

I have a feeling they announced the new witcher game a lot earlier than needed to, just to appease the stock market. They likely don't even know what they want to do. I could very well be wrong, but this is the sort of cart-before-the-horse thing that you see from publicly traded companies.

I'm not so sure about that.
All their employees doing pre-production had little to do since pre-producing CP77. If you're a big company with specialist employees and you don't want to lay off large parts of your staff (or outsource), you have to have multiple projects rolling in different development stages for everyone having work to do.
Also they've hinted another Witcher game since years.
So my guess is that the pre-production guys have been working on this Witcher game for some time now and they already know what they'll do.

Btw. I'll call the new game "TWANS" from now on. Too bad that Geralt isn't called the "Ritcher".

 

[Andrew23]

I would guess these early announcements are often more related to hiring staff as it has potential to attract developers interested in working on high profile project.

 

[Vaako]

Not sure what to think of this. While I'm a big fan of Witcher 3, I dislike Epic games.
I suppose if this means the game will be an Epic exclusive, I will still be able to buy the next Witcher game from the online Good Old Games store. But I also don't know enough about Unreal engine 5 to know if this is a good thing or bad thing, or what it means for the next Witcher game.

If CP2077 is any indication, this game won't be released for another 7-8 years. Epic Games may not even exist by that time.

 

[Morrandir]

I would guess these early announcements are often more related to hiring staff as it has potential to attract developers interested in working on high profile project.

I guess the reason is rtaher that they have to inform the shareholders at some point anyway. And as this information would likely leak, they do a public announcement before.

 

[wolfgrimdark]

I'm interested either way but not hyped. I never finished any of the Witcher games past the 20 hour mark myself. They are great games and W3 looks fantastic - seen many videos and screenshots plus did play the first chapter roughly - but simply couldn't connect to playing as Geralt. Sometimes I can connect to a set protagonist, like Shep, and other times I can't.

I loved C2077 and it showed me what this dev is capable of doing with stories and characters. So, if the new witcher game lets you make your own character, or at least has some flexibility, I might finally play one of them.

EDIT: From another thread post: https://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1061676130#post1061676130

'The Witcher 4' has been in development for at least 3-4 years now, but it's unclear at what specific stage of work it is now. Some of the activities are probably mainly pure planning that is part of the pre-production process, although the plot of the game has already been created since 2018. It is the responsibility of an experienced employee of CD Projekt RED - Marcin Blacha, working for the company successively as a producer and scriptwriter. He has written stories for both the previous installments of The Witcher as well as Cyberpunk 2077 (source: own).

 

[JDR13]

I mean original, as in a new IP. A new world, setting, time, etc. The Witcher does have plenty of original elements, but overall it's still very much a twist on dark fantasy. I'd like to see something new. Or if not, a game in a setting that hasn't been done in video games. I imagine the devs would also like to get out of the same old world and taste something new.

Ah ok, you meant instead of a TW4. I thought you meant you wish they never made the series to begin with which seemed a little strange.

To me, whether a game is an original IP or one based on someone else's is irrelevant. It has no bearing on whether or not it's going to be a quality game. There are enough IPs out there that I don't feel like new ones constantly need to be created.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Ah ok, you meant instead of a TW4. I thought you meant you wish they never made the series to begin with which seemed a little strange.

To me, whether a game is an original IP or one based on someone else's is irrelevant. It has no bearing on whether or not it's going to be a quality game. There are enough IPs out there that I don't feel like new ones constantly need to be created.

That would be a serious shame to not have the Witcher series. I loved all 3 of them, in different ways. It's a fantastic series, ever increasing in ambitiousness and scope. But I would love something else. Somehow, I'm not excited at all about TW4. But they might win me over when they first reveal it.

 

[Couchpotato]

I'm glad they went with a new engine as by the sound of it they were wasting to many resources and time on updating the Red Engine for every new game release.

One of the software designers spilled the beans about this very same problem.

Link - https://wccftech.com/cd-projekt-red-switched-to-unreal-engine-5-the-witcher/

Speaking on Twitter, former CD Projekt Red employee Bart Wronski provided some context for why the studio switched to Unreal Engine 5, revealing that for each new game, the studio basically rewrote REDEngine from scratch, hoping it would work better than the previous time, but then had to hack it due to crunch, which made it not maintainable. As this would be happening again, the studio opted for an engine with a solid base to avoid making the same mistakes of the past.

 

[Morrandir]

Yep, that makes a lot of sense.

Using an engine for only one game is pointless. You either have to licence your engine to others to make money, or licence another engine and pay money but save workload.