On March 11, CD Projekt RED announced that its upcoming addition to its Witcher series, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt , will be releasing in February, 2015 .
As reported by DualShockers , CD Projekt RED’s explanation behind the delay of Witcher 3 was detailed during the studio’s financial report presentation. According to the presentation , the game was delayed to 2015 so that there would be less competition, and it would give the studio more time to improve the effectiveness of its marketing campaign targeted at those who are aware/have yet to be aware of the game.
Aside from those reasons, the delay was also so CD Projekt RED could give Witcher 3 a better polish, stating that “ the last 20% of time stands for 80% of the game’s attractiveness.” What’s more, the delay is so that there are more current-gen consoles on the market, and thus more potential buyers of the game.
During the presentation, the studio also detailed Witcher 3’s development progress, outlining what has already been done and what still needs to be done. The full rundown is listed below.
What has already been done:
Dialogue lines are closed & implemented.
They are currently recording voice overs for each language version of the game.
The world of the game is completed – locations are finished, all important gameplay mechanics are already implemented.
Graphic assets and animations are nearing completion.
The game can already be played in full.
REDengine 3 supports all 3 platforms.
The physical elements of the collector’s edition are in production.
What needs to be done:
Implementation of the remaining side quests.
Importing voice overs and testing their quality/changing them.
Gameplay testing and balancing.
Continuous work on improving the quality of graphic assets, animations, effects and sounds – this will last until just before going gold.
REDEngine3 optimization.
CD Projekt RED also listed off what plans the studio has for later on this year, such as pre-orders for The Witcher 3 as well as the game’s aforementioned marketing campaign. What’s more, the studio will be working on comics (both paper and digital) set within the Witcher universe and releasing its Witcher Adventure Board Game later on this year. The studio will also be releasing the board game’s companion mobile app and another unannounced multiplatform mobile title.