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.”
