Support NeoGAF

[jett]

Of course they're forthcoming now that the game is out and they got their pre-orders. :lol They've been bullshitting us for a really long time.

CDPR living up to the PR part of their name.

I did build a PC last year based on the Sword of Destiny trailer, myself. Where my compensation at?

 

[GlamFM]

So when they say nothing was downgraded from 2013-14 and it will look even better that's not a lie? Ok then.

Have not read that. Sorry.

 

[Count of Monte Sawed-Off]

The Witcher 3 is a fantastic game and it looks great. That's all that matters.

Yeah, I'm having fun. Don't have anything close to gaming computer, and don't plan on getting anything like that. So if it hadn't released on consoles I most likely never would have gotten it. And now is the perfect time when not much else is releasing.

 

[derExperte]

PC-GAF has gone straight up insane. Must be something in the water. I can't believe what I'm reading in here, so I'm out.

Going to go enjoy The Witcher 3, suggest everyone else who cares about playing a good game goes and does the same instead of arguing about how CDPR raided PC-GAF's village, burned their crops and killed their families.

somethingsomethingHIVEMINDsomething

 

[Renekton]

I want to add that non-highend PC is also a market.

They have to sell to peeps with i3/750Ti as well.

 

[pastrami]

No we're saying CDPR was bullshitting us with that "gameplay" trailer, and what's worse is that they said the game had not been downgraded from what we've seen in 2013 trailers.

Context please. Do you understand what hoojidonk is saying? Did you see the comment we were responding to?

 

[witness]

Well with 1.5 million preorders, looks like it worked out for them.

 

[scitek]

Ok. So Console sales made W3 possible. That doesnt mean you have to butcher/downgrade and have a parity clause with the PC version. These guys are idiots.

And now they are admitting they fucking downgraded it. Lying scum.

Lol. Such drama.

 

[hooijdonk17]

Not because consoles, but because open world.

It's not like the "Verticle Slice" in the Gameplay Debut trailer took place in 3'x3' room.

 

[GlamFM]

It's not like the "Verticle Slice" in the Gameplay Debut trailer took place in 3'x3' room.

You reaaaaaally have to read the quotes in the OP.

 

[Interfectum]

Ok. So Console sales made W3 possible. That doesnt mean you have to butcher/downgrade and have a parity clause with the PC version. These guys are idiots.

And now they are admitting they fucking downgraded it. Lying scum.

You are taking this way too personal. Chill out.

 

[JimmyRustler]

News at 11. That era died with Crytek.

This.

That said, I bought the game on PC even though I consider myself as console gamer primarily. I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed about the downgrade (the early trailers looked sooooo good) but after the reviews confirmed that they made a great game I bought it full price immediately nonetheless. Good work needs to be supported.

 

[Head.spawn]

I appreciate the open and honest answer; which is quite rare in this neck of the woods.

 

[Tenebrous]

Can we also thank consoles for the dumbed down mechanics from Witcher 2/the novels? Gotta appeal to the masses now, I suppose.

 

[BMX Bandit]

Of course they're forthcoming now that the game is out and they got their pre-orders. :lol They've been bullshitting us for a really long time.

CDPR living up to the PR part of their name.

I did build a PC last year based on the Sword of Destiny trailer, myself. Where my compensation at?

Why'd you build a PC a year ahead of release, bud? I mean even if the game looked exactly like that trailer you still should have waited.

 

[hooijdonk17]

You reaaaaaally have to read the quotes in the OP.

I reaaaaaaaaally have.

 

[Tripolygon]

Now back to my point why blatantly lie about it. Its not that hard to understand.

The truth rarely matters in these things, people (PC Master race) will still be outraged. I believe they are telling the truth now and yet we have people who still don't understand what a vertical slice is thinking the word "gameplay" means finished game.

A vertical slice is a finished and sometimes polished level of a game to test out most of the systems that are planned to be used in the whole game. It is playable just like Uncharted 4 vertical slice from PSX last year. Sometimes (rarely) the finished game tends to be similar or better than the vertical slice in some ways.

 

[CryptiK]

Have not read that. Sorry.

Here.

“Please keep in mind that the game is still in production phase. Certain things are still being worked on. The final version of the game will look better than what can be seen in the latest screenshots – no matter the platform. As you probably know, when publishing screenshots, some of them can be subjectively less appealing than others (depending on one’s opinion), that’s perfectly normal. The most important thing here is that the game will come out looking gorgeous when we are done working on it. There will be no downgrade.”

Read more: http://wccftech.com/the-witcher-3-graphical-downgrade-final-version-pc/#ixzz3amOsUAm1

 

[GlamFM]

I reaaaaaaaaally have.

Maybe you should read them again, but more carefully this time?

 

[Tigress]

They basically admitted to scrapping the renderer that made the game look great in 2013 because consoles, how is that hard to believe? I mean, I have trouble BELIEVING CDPR, but apparently you don't, so what gives?

Either the 2013 video was not gameplay (probably a lie) or it was not improved (lie) and scrapped for a renderer that worked for consoles (probably truth but who knows?)

No, you are condensing two of their statements into one.

One statement said they scrapped an engine because they couldn't get all the features to work right (the first engine required a lot of work to get the lighting to work right and would have required way too much processing power if they wanted it to look good in all lighting <- which also implies that it would only work on really high end PCs so it's not just consoles they were worried about there because even most PC players don't have the really high end PCs).

The other statement says they could not have made a huge game like they did without consoles because they needed the money from consoles to even justify tackling making such a big game. Without consoles the game would have never been trying to be that ambitious in the first place (no trying for such a large world, probably no open world).

 

[hooijdonk17]

Why'd you build a PC a year ahead of release, bud? I mean even if the game looked exactly like that trailer you still should have waited.

He probably built it a year ahead of release because the release got delayed.. twice..

 

[Uno Venova]

PC gamers must bu so conflicted, shitting on consoles for holding back PC gamers and CDprject when it comes to making TW3 look like the first trailer, but they wouldn't have even gotten the game, especially with it's scale and budget if it weren't for the XB1 and PS4.

 

[codhand]

CDPR living up to the PR part of their name.

 

[Alienous]

What we really have here is a company that wanted to make the best game they could. It's The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, their first frontier into the open world genre. They dive in and feel confident about what they're making, release a trailer then, in the following months, they realize that their tech just doesn't scale that large. The current-gen consoles (the next-gen consoles) just won't be able to handle what we're doing.

At that moment there was a fork in the road. Path A, and path B.

Path A: "Hi Witcher 3 fans. Due to circumstances we were naive of Witcher 3 is undergoing an overhaul in terms of technology. As such, although we assure we will make the best game and the best looking game we are capable of, it is possible that the game will not look the same as the 2013 trailer. There are features in the aforementioned demo that just aren't tenable on current technology, console or PC. We will do our best to remove footage from the 2013 trailer from our promotional materials now and going into the future. The Witcher 3 will still be our most ambitious product, and we are still aiming for it to be the best looking game CDPR ever makes, and the best that you will have ever seen. Thank you"

Path B (exaggerated for the purposes of comedy): "Downgrade!? Hah, downgrade? I laugh in your face, "downgrade". The Witcher 3 won't look as good as the 2013 trailer. It will look better! Far better! We have a new shader, and it's better! It will look so good that we don't want to ruin it by showing you Ultra settings now and allowing you the opportunity to compare the graphics, you'll just have to believe our word and wait until launch. But trust us it will look every bit as good as the 2013 trailer and then some. Seriously."


They took path B. In short, they fucked up. They lied.

 

[Phanatic8390]

This I've already known regardless of what the PC guys try and claim. Without console sales there are no big budget games, unless gamers are paying for it to be made. And who wants a future of that??

I'd like that. Big budget games have killed a bunch of great developers and honestly think the industry as a whole would be better off without them.

 

[UrbanRats]

Of course they're forthcoming now that the game is out and they got their pre-orders. :lol They've been bullshitting us for a really long time.

CDPR living up to the PR part of their name.

I did build a PC last year based on the Sword of Destiny trailer, myself. Where my compensation at?

I bought a PS3 for Last Guardian.
Moral: Don't spend money on promises, if you're not ready to lose them.

That said, it does put in perspective whatever vertical slice they will show about Cyberpunk.

 

[jett]

Why'd you build a PC a year ahead of release, bud? I mean even if the game looked exactly like that trailer you still should have waited.

Well honestly I needed a new PC anyway, and Witcher 3 pushed me over the edge. Wouldn't have made much of a difference to be honest to build now than last year. Intel CPUs haven't gone down in price and neither have GPUs in my neck of the woods. Maybe I would've saved $50?

Really, I'm half-kidding about their "we're looking on how to make it up to them" comment.

edit: and the game was originally supposed to come out in 2014.

 

[SparkTR]

Can we also thank consoles for the dumbed down mechanics from Witcher 2/the novels? Gotta appeal to the masses now, I suppose.

Games are dumbed-down for mass appeal, not consoles. PC gamers aren't exempt from that, Skyrim is amazingly (topping Oblivion) the most dumbed-down Elder Scrolls game, and yet it sold nearly 9 million copies on PC, and is possibly the best selling version of that game.

 

[Cthulhu_Steev]

I have a grievance. There is a difference.

If somebody offers to sell you something on a promise, and you feel that promise was not adhered to, then don't buy the product. The game on the shelves is what they are selling to you, you aren't buying the gameplay demo from two years ago.

Your grievance is childish.

 

[StevieP]

This I've already known regardless of what the PC guys try and claim. Without console sales there are no big budget games, unless gamers are paying for it to be made. And who wants a future of that??

There are large budget PC games

Pretty much what I said in the other thread. Trade show eyes-only PC builds are "hope" builds to entice a press conference audience. Unless a game is playable on the show floor, don't believe the hype.

Even when they're playable, at console sections even, there's often a very high end PC in the drawer that dwarfs the consoles.

 

[Neuromancer]

Seems like the long and short of all this is simple:

In a fantasy world where game development didn't cost money, the PC-only version of Witcher 3 would look much better on the highest-end PCs.

In the real world, where making games costs money, a PC-only version of the Witcher 3 wouldn't look anything like those renders because it basically wouldn't exist. The size and scale of Witcher 3 only happened because they could count on console sales.

Good summary.

For what it's worth I think the game still looks great. I'm playing on PS4 and have zero complaints.

 

[hooijdonk17]

If somebody offers to sell you something on a promise, and you feel that promise was not adhered to, then don't buy the product. The game on the shelves is what they are selling to you, you aren't buying the gameplay demo from two years ago.

Your grievance is childish.

Please remember this post next time you feel cheated.

 

[Dictator93]

This I've already known regardless of what the PC guys try and claim. Without console sales there are no big budget games, unless gamers are paying for it to be made. And who wants a future of that??

This is a terribly uninformed post.

 

[codhand]

Lying scum.

they blatantly lied.

So when they say nothing was downgraded from 2013-14 and it will look even better that's not a lie? Ok then.

 

[Brigandier]

The PC version on ultra looks stunning and is a huge step up from console versions.

Sure it isn't the 2013 build we hoped for but I and many others are still happy with what we got at the usual great pc game price point.

Some of the replies and the level of idiocy self entitlement I have read in this thread hurts my brain it's like gamefaqs.

So some of you are "boycotting" a superb game that still looks phenomenal because of graphics?, Childish.

 

[BMX Bandit]

Well honestly I needed a new PC anyway, and Witcher 3 pushed me over the edge. Wouldn't have made much of a difference to be honest to build now than last year. Intel CPUs haven't gone down in price and neither have GPUs in my neck of the woods. Maybe I would've saved $50?

Really, I'm half-kidding about their "we're looking on how to make it up to them" comment.

Ah OK gotcha. Usually with vidcards at least something drops worth looking at within a years time. At least you got use out of it in the mean time B).

 

[Tenebrous]

Games are dumbed-down for mass appeal, not consoles. PC gamers aren't exempt from that, Skyrim is amazingly (topping Oblivion) the most dumbed-down Elder Scrolls game, and yet it sold nearly 9 million copies on PC, and is possibly the best selling version of that game.

Consoles are mass appeal. Witcher 2 sold several million copies on PC with mechanics fitting the lore of the novels. Witcher 3 goes against that so much at times I can't help but cringe, and I don't believe keeping a real potion/meditation system would've impacted on sales that much in the first place... It's dire.

 

[gundamkyoukai]

Common sense.

Clearly the game wouldn't be possible if it was restricted to any single platform. Neither individual consoles or pc would provide enough revenue to have the game at the same scale and sizeable development

unless it done by a first party.

 

[Vincent Grayson]

Good summary.

For what it's worth I think the game still looks great. I'm playing on PS4 and have zero complaints.

Yup. I'll grab the PC version in a few years when I've upgraded my hardware and any patches/upgrades/mods will be out and useful.

For now, the PS4 version is the best-looking game I've seen on the console, and easily my favorite one to play so far too.

 

[SparkTR]

Consoles are mass appeal. Witcher 2 sold several million copies on PC with mechanics fitting the lore of the novels. Witcher 3 goes against that so much at times I can't help but cringe.

And I'm going to go as far to guarantee you that TW3 will sell many more copies on PC alone than TW2 did in the same amount of time. I guess we can wait and see but getting that mass appeal isn't just a console thing. It's a AAA thing. The type of games you want are mid-tier stuff.

 

[martino]

Probably not with this scale though.

Are we speaking about marketing expenses ?
If so i'm ok. If not i want the receipt.

 

[Cthulhu_Steev]

Please remember this post next time you feel cheated.

I hope I would look at my feelings a little more critically than 'I wouldn't believe them even if they told me the sky was blue!', and if I didn't I would find it reasonable to be considered childish. If you bought something sight unseen - or because of an advert - then you are part of the problem. If you don't like what's been offered, don't buy it. It's the strongest protest you can make.

 

[charsace]

Capping IQ at console technical capability is not a necessity for downward scalability. You could argue budgetary concerns, but what they showed at VGX was done. It's pretty much Watchdogs all over.

How the hell was it done if it took 2 more years for the game to release? Creating the renderer doesn't take as much time as creating the assets and seeing how they work with the renderer and the rest of the engine. Just because they had some scenes that were ready for preview doesn't mean the game was done. The same can be said for Watchdogs. If you are that concerned with graphics get Blender, Maya, UE4 or any of the other ways you can get your hands on a renderer and run tech demos on them to your heart's content.

 

[JimmyRustler]

Games are dumbed-down for mass appeal, not consoles. PC gamers aren't exempt from that, Skyrim is amazingly (topping Oblivion) the most dumbed-down Elder Scrolls game, and yet it sold nearly 9 million copies on PC, and is possibly the best selling version of that game.

Don't hit him with the truth. If it wasn't for consoles we'd still play games on PC where you first had to study the manual for hours before you can play it. True story.

 

[Insane Metal]

They were honest in their answer. Nice, I like CDPR.

 

[Interfectum]

Please remember this post next time you feel cheated.

How do you feel cheated? The game still looks great and is a fun experience.

Maybe this should be a lesson for you and pre-ordering games. Don't do it if you are going to be this sensitive to graphics downgrades or changes mid-development. Wait for impressions and make informed buying decisions.

 

[Chobel]

Context please. Do you understand what hoojidonk is saying? Did you see the comment we were responding to?

Fair enough, I only started with your comment.

 

[Tenebrous]

And I'm going to go as far to guarantee you that TW3 will sell many more copies on PC alone than TW2 did in the same amount of time.

Probably, but because it's a better game, or because of the hype around it? I've not seen any game from a mid-tier developer ever gather so much prerelease coverage in my life.

 

[dracula_x]

There are large budget PC games

Single-player games?

 

[ironcreed]

They would be stupid to ignore consoles anyway. As we can see, they are going to have a huge market there. Thanks for the incredible game, guys.