1UP
The Witness is looking like a very interesting game, as is to be expected given that it's being developed by Thekla and Jonathan Blow, the man behind Braid. Unfortunately it sounds as if console gamers might not have the opportunity to play it. Blow has stated the aging technology of Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 would make it a real hassle to get the game running on either of them.
When 1UP got to check out the game over the summer, Blow expressed interest in releasing The Witness on multiple platforms -- Steam, Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, and, in particular, iPad. He now seems to be less interested in getting the game on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 as a result of the challenge doing so would pose.
"We like 360 and PS3, but their specifications are over five years old now, and that's a lot in computer years," he told Edge. "The kind of tricks we'd have to perform to get this game working on those platforms are such a lot of work that to port it over at this point is just not worth it for us. The budget of this game we would hope to make back through Steam and iOS, plus I would like to make a profit. But breaking even is most important as it allows me to keep making games, and I can do that without consoles."
You shouldn't take this as a definitive statement that Blow's latest project won't be released on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Things could always change. As of right now, though, he isn't counting on it.
"Maybe this time next year I'll be singing a different tune because I found out I was wrong, but I don't think so," he continued. "By the time this game comes out in a year or more, we might be on an iPad 4. We do have to compress the game for that platform, but we don't have to do the certification stuff we would have to on consoles, so we can live with doing just one of those giant tasks. And I like this as an iPad game. It's a natural thing. But we'll see how that plays out."
http://www.1up.com/news/xbox-36-ps3-hardware-too-old-braid-the-witness
