The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf - FAQ

[PanKarol]

Some PC gamers feel abandoned. With this announcement, some have expressed that they feel we’ve “betrayed” PC Gamers because we’re making a console game.

Oh stop it! We’re not abandoning the PC platform and we don’t plan to do so at any point in the future. CD Projekt and RED started out working on PC games, and we have no intention of ever changing that. No worries. We are not “betraying” anyone, either – we’re not about to focus exclusively on consoles, as some have suggested. We fully realize the potential of both platforms and we pay the same attention to them. The only thing that we’re focusing on right now is to create the best RPGs around. We’re not even dumbing The Witcher down for its move to consoles; we don’t want to drop any elements that made The Witcher what it is right now – an epic story, unique atmosphere and an original world. Creating the first Witcher was a huge challenge for us, as we were entering an area we’d never been before. Imagine a new developer that that sets out with the goal of making “the best cRPG in years”… seems crazy, right? It was, but in our opinion we’ve come damn close. Now it’s time to expand our horizons and to set out on new quests with new, even crazier goals. Bringing The Witcher to the consoles – and establishing the game as the ultimate console RPG – is one of them. That’s pretty crazy, too. We hope you guys will support us in that, even if you’ve been a lifelong PC gamer.

 
Some other PC gamers think that we’re porting the PC version and adding better features and graphics, just so that console gamers get the best version of the game.For us, the Enhanced Edition is the ultimate version of The Witcher for PC. We are proud of it and we think that we’ve done our best to make The Witcher a pinnacle of computer gaming. Nevertheless, after spending four years developing The Witcher and another year working on the Enhanced Edition, we realized that we need to let the game be what it is and put all your heart, effort and ideas in a new one. We want to grow ourselves, take on new challenges and take our games to the next level; that means that we have to close this chapter in our history and go further.  That’s what we are doing, and players – PC gamers and console gamers alike – will benefit.

Rise of the White Wolf is not an ‘improved’ version of The Witcher, and you shouldn’t think about it that way.  It’s the classic story you saw in The Witcher, but presented in a totally new way, with all the features that are offered by our new console engine. It’s very difficult to compare the two titles. And please, for the love of [insert deity of choice], don’t call it a port!


And yet other PC gamers think we are now working only on console projects… even though we haven’t said a thing about the other two games we’re working on.Let us remind you that we have still two more titles in development. We want as many people as possible to experience The Witcher, a game you guys loved on PC, and there are a lot of console gamers who want the same deep gameplay experience. We want to give them this opportunity as well.  Of course, we would like to point out that we are not putting aside any of our projects. All of them are very important to us and we don’t favor any of them. Works on them are going simultaneously, so ‘Rise of the White Wolf’ doesn’t influence our other games – you can sleep well knowing that.

Lastly, some of you beloved community members have noted that we shouldn’t ever announce console games to our PC fan base (ah yes, and we should also never make console games).  Remember, we’ve sold a million copies of The Witcher on PC but are only now starting to make some of our money back – it’s only a natural business decision to bring the title to consoles. And this is our company’s website… where else should we promote upcoming titles?


In closing…We love PC games, and we love PC gamers. We’re fully committed to making the best PC games – and the best console games – that take full advantage of each platform’s capabilities. We can’t make any announcements yet about future games, because the future titles are massive in scope and we’re just not ready to announce them. Remember, it took us four years to make The Witcher, for [again, insert deity]’s sake! When we do deliver our next PC game, we’ll take everything we learned from The Witcher on PC – in terms of gameplay, technical issues and community support – and will use that experience to deliver something even more drool-worthy. Give us time!

[lovely_psycho]

Thank you to whatever body wrote this, and thank you, PanKarol, for posting it, and for clearing a few things up for people. It all seems pretty straight-forward to me, so here's hoping it brings a little light to scare away the monsters some have imagined in the dark

And please, for the love of [insert deity of choice], don’t call it a port! ...  Remember, it took us four years to make The Witcher, for [again, insert deity]’s sake!

[the Water Lords]

[madmax17]

I thought there is going to be some real news, these are more 'reassurances', still nice of you to take the time and write it  so as everyone can see they still care about the pc I hope we can move on now.

[mothra]

I'm ashamed of my fellow board members that such an explanation and clarification does even NEED to exist, be posted or thought out.
BAD pc-gamers. BAD. I hate those "they will dumb it down" threads and don't take part in them. you can only judge once it's done and I did the same for the Witcher.
I'm a PC gamer and don't intend to buy a console any soon, still I hope that CDProj.RED gets to make the projects they want the way they want no matter on which platform.
It's not EA we are talking here.

anyways, good luck with the "retelling" (it's NO port )

[Petra Silie]

On the behalf of [inserted deity] the Waterlords [/inserted deity] !
This should revoke all concerns and doubts 

[AdrianXII]

Thank you CD Projekt and Red for writing these. This is your best quality... you put your soul in the games you make. Do not ever lose it! Now I can start to save money for a console, because for sure, it will be something special! And take all the time you need. Better "when is done" that some half realised game.

[Hamon]

Some other PC gamers think that we’re porting the PC version and adding better features and graphics, just so that console gamers get the best version of the game.For us, the Enhanced Edition is the ultimate version of The Witcher for PC. We are proud of it and we think that we’ve done our best to make The Witcher a pinnacle of computer gaming. Nevertheless, after spending four years developing The Witcher and another year working on the Enhanced Edition, we realized that we need to let the game be what it is and put all your heart, effort and ideas in a new one. We want to grow ourselves, take on new challenges and take our games to the next level; that means that we have to close this chapter in our history and go further.  That’s what we are doing, and players – PC gamers and console gamers alike – will benefit.

I don't support any kind of platform war as I also own an xbox 360 aside the PC myself. To create the "pinnacle" of PC-gaming you seem to have overseen and neclected some serious bugfixing, still. The state in which the EE is, I'm glad i didn't spent a dime on it. Call me ungrateful but especially the blurr-bug is an unnecessary failure, which decreases the gameplay alot. I have an eye for detail. This kind of bug wouldn't be tolerated by console gamers aswell. To close this chapter you should at least get the job done by releasing a patch. Sorry for my hard words, but this gets me close to the edge, when a once ambitious project created from talented people is layed cold in that way.

[Tom Ohle]

I don't support any kind of platform war as I also own an xbox 360 aside the PC myself. To create the "pinnacle" of PC-gaming you seem to have overseen and neclected some serious bugfixing, still. The state in which the EE is, I'm glad i didn't spent a dime on it. Call me ungrateful but especially the blurr-bug is an unnecessary failure, which decreases the gameplay alot. I have an eye for detail. This kind of bug wouldn't be tolerated by console gamers aswell. To close this chapter you should at least get the job done by releasing a patch. Sorry for my hard words, but this gets me close to the edge, when a once ambitious project created from talented people is layed cold in that way.

We're working on that update and it should be ready for release soon.

[VincentD]

So the story will be the same for the console AND the PC version?

[Joebob998]

I really look forward to this release. i'd gladly own the game for both console and PC

[Petra Silie]

So the story will be the same for the console AND the PC version?

The story will be the same with a few minor changes.

[Hamon]

We're working on that update and it should be ready for release soon.

that's great! The word I responded to, sounded too final. And my conclusion was, that there was no support anymore. mea culpa.

[Cryocore]

Heres a repost of something I said in another thread

Let me say firstly that I love the Witcher, and have a great deal of respect for CDProjekt. They obviosuly care about us PC gamers (GOG demonstrates that clearly). However claiming that they will remain focused on making the best PC games is just delusional. how many Devs have stated "We love PC, we wont abandon you!!!" and then go make a console game... see the sales, and then focus on them, and maybe port over there console games to PC to the detrement of the games. Rockstar, Bioware, Bethesda, Epic.........................

I understand why it happens, but I dont have to like it. Devs make games to make money, the moneys in the console market, as are the younger crowd, the oppressive big brother companies (MS and Sony), and the inherant limitations of any console be it controller or processing power.

By spreading the development over multiple platform you lose quality (and/or dramatically increase production cost, and dev time), as you have to make allowances for the shortcomings of each platform you develop for, each platform specific architecture, and all of the issues/bugs/etc specific to each platform. Add to this the simple dollars and cents. Console market is bigger, so most of the effort goes into that as you will see the biggest return on your investement, we the PC faithful get a "port" or a delayed version. FO3 and Oblivion are prime examples. Made for multiple platforms, and specced to the lowest platform (360) the PC version id better but still limited by the design spec of the console version.

Or you could go The Witcher route where you make a PC game then adapt it for the consoles (by far the better way to go, as it allows for the most creative freedom), but this is not ideal as the resources used to redesign the game may work a couple of times, but eventually the bean counters see it as a waste of resources (which on that level is is), and push for less overheads and shorter Dev time, which brings us back to the "port" option or at best the simultanious devolpment. Both lessen the title.

Sorry I cant help but see this as yet another coffin in the PC market. CDP I had such hopes that you would remain steadfast, but you are in business to make money, and the descision to go console is the smart one. Its a shame your products will suffer for it even though the bank balance will look healthy. Bioware and Bethesda are THE prime examples of how brillant RPG Dont Devs lose their way. Oblivion and FO3 should have been alot better, and Mass Effect and Jade Empire suffer greatly from consolitis.

I sincerly hope I will be proven wrong, but I highly doubt I will.

In business the bottom line will always win out. It takes a brave company to conciously allow lower profit margins to provide a specialist or niche product. In the modern economic market this just doesnt happen very often, and the bigger you get the more difficult it becomes.

[Ausir]

I'm pretty sure that The Witcher 2 will be multiplatform from the get go. I hope, though that they'll still have different gameplay mechanics for PC and console versions suitable to their platforms, just like they do in the case of TW and TW:RotWW.