Witcher 3 dev vows: "no exclusive content for any platform"
Last year Microsoft featured The Witcher 3 on the biggest gaming stage: a platform-holder E3 conference at a time when both big new consoles were unreleased. There couldn't have been a clearer statement that this game was a big deal.
E3 2014 is nearly upon us now, and there's talk that CD Projekt Red - and The Witcher 3 - will be on stage again. "Hopefully," said company co-founder Marcin Iwinski, talking to me in Poland recently.
But whose stage, and why?
It's no secret that exclusives are gold at the beginning of a new console cycle. But whereas Sony tends to look to inwards to a solid stable of internal studios, moneybags Microsoft tends to spend. And it needs to spend to propel Xbox One out of its rut.
Is CD Projekt Red about to announce a Witcher 3 exclusivity deal with one of the platform holders?
"We are treating all gamers equally"
Marcin Iwinski
"We are treating all gamers equally," Iwinski answered me.
"We'll not deliver exclusive content to any of the platforms, nor will we artificially delay release of the game on any of the platforms because somebody's paying us money for that. It's definitely against our values. We are not doing that."
And breathe.
"What we are doing in terms of marketing cooperation," he added, "you'll see that at E3."
Iwinski also suggested we have more to learn about online connectivity in The Witcher 3. There's, hands down, no multiplayer, and we knew that, but it sounds like there could be some kind of social sharing online.
"We will be talking about it when the time comes," he said, which could mean E3. "It's too early right now."
The Witcher will be a rare next-gen-only multiplatform game when it comes out in February 2015. CD Projekt Red decided to forego the installed-base safety net of PS3 and Xbox 360 in order not to compromise what could be achieved on the new machines. What does being a next-gen RPG really mean? Last autumn I asked CD Projekt Red the same thing.
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