Atari today announced that the companies have entered into a publishing agreement for The Witcher, whereby Atari will market and distribute CD Projekt's upcoming fantasy role-playing game (RPG) throughout North America. The Witcher is scheduled for release on Games for Windows, the new brand optimized for Windows XP and Windows Vista, in North America in Fall 2007.
The Witcher transcends traditional fantasy role-playing by throwing players into a unique world rife with political intrigue, in which the lines between good and evil are blurred. Based on the world created by best-selling Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski's novels, The Witcher casts players as Geralt, a legendary monster slayer and master swordfighter with supernatural abilities and reflexes. The Witcher presents a fresh approach to traditional role-playing, blending an expansive, twisting plotline – in which the impact of individual decisions can drastically alter the outcome of the game – and fast-paced combat against a wide variety of foes. Using advanced graphics and physics systems, The Witcher delivers brutal action, multi-faceted RPG options and an intriguing story to engulf all players who dare.
"The Witcher is a tremendous game that has been on everyone's radar since CD Projekt began development," said Jeremiah Cohn, Product Manager, Atari, Inc. "With this publishing deal, Atari continues its quest to bring highly impressive titles to North America and we have our sights set on making The Witcher one of the most anticipated RPGs of the year."
"We are delighted to begin a mutually beneficial relationship with Atari, a publishing partner that shares our commitment to delivering a top-quality role-playing game," said Michal Kicinski, Joint CEO of CD Projekt. "We are very much looking forward to working with Atari to bring this distinctive fantasy world that we love to a broad audience."
CD Projekt RED confirms The Witcher 4, 5, and 6 will be released over a 6-year period, promising shorter development cycles ahead.
Unless these games are bite-sized, it's a disaster waiting to happen or a major over-promise. Based on the tech demo they showed off, to get anything near that fidelity, and assuming the world is larger, no way they're cranking out 3 games in 6 years, unless they have some super AI doing a ton of work.
This sounds like a good move to me; CD PROJEKT Red make the game engine once and craft the world and the full story, then for each of the next two chapters they spend two years on making the adventure. I wish Bethesda had done this with Skyrim so we had new adventures.
Remember, GTA III was released in 2001 with its sequel GTA: Vice City just one year later in 2002. And GTA: San Andreas in 2004. Same engine but tweaked for all the games and they are all time classics.
Venom, I get that, but the world of game development has changed dramatically since GTA3 and SA...these games will be extremely similar to each other, short, or downgraded quality.
But maybe CD PROJEKT Red has the secret sauce...we will see.
mods literally solve all of that, thats why skyrim sold so well for god knows how many years. You can choose to add content, change the combat up completely, get a bunch of new spells, visually change whatever parts of the world you like you name it. Especially some of the overhauls I really enjoyed
All this company does is lie.
I think their CEO might be a compulsive liar. The last interview I read of him he claimed they popularized/ created "Dark Fantasy" ignoring all super popular "Dark Fantasy" games already out.
Depends. Technically, they could spend many years on The Witcher 4, upgrading everything and polishing a new gameplay system with the story all planned out with the tools to create new content all set up.
Then release The Witcher 5 three years later. Then release Witcher 6 three years later. They would be iterative sequels.
It would be a 6 year release schedule from the perspective of a player but could be 11+ years of development. Unreal Engine 5 does also make games easier to make even if it has issues.
But even if 6 years is possible, they're probably just saying nice stuff for investors. The Witcher 3 sold for so long that sequels releasing close to each other might need even make them more money.
They could also finish The Witcher 4, and dedicate a polish/finalizing team for the last 12 months to it, while gaining an extra year towards the 5th game, and do the same for the 6th.
well they've probably set this up for a bunch of years. I would be surprised if by the time 4 releases they wouldn't already be mostly done with 5 and done a bunch of the legwork for 6 if they manage to pull this of. I'm extremely skeptical and also think they can't even be close to as large and content rich as w3.
They’re just yappin to appease investors when they will be delayed a minimum of a year and half easily or will be alot smaller and reusing assets.
There's only one studio that really gets away with this and that's RGG but it's because their stories are so good their fans don't mind exploring the Same places over and over
Can cdpr do that I doubt it
It’s easy to say that but something is going to give unless they build up their studio to several massive teams and even then delays are likely. Either that or quality/size will be lesser.
I assume this means they will build the world once and then just add story and minimal changes in the next two games.
They might have a tool to help shape landscapes and areas faster, or with AI help included.
Shorter development time doesn't always mean less changes.
Games during the 64 days were made in 2-3 years tops, and look at Mario Kart World.. that was made in 8 years and while it has a decent track selection the open mode is basically a giant desert lacking content..
Long development time doesn't always mean lots of content.
Will in be like a Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom? Not necessarily a bad thing if done right.
CD Projekt RED and the ESA got The Witcher into the stratosphere and into outer space thanks to some help from a Polish astronaut.
The value of the company has almost doubled in a year and 2027 could mark a record with the arrival of The Witcher 4.
Maybe we see what's up on release before we start saying "historic success." I love all of CDPRs games. But CP2077 was going to be a historic success as well. I loved the game on release but it was a disaster launch. I was one of the lucky ones who's pc experience was playable, but it was still a broken mess and CDPR needs to prove themselves again before we all circle perk them over a game that has not released.
i got it day 1 for PS4. The game was broken, but I still put serious hours in it. Then ´put even more on the PS5. It wasn't the broken part that got me, it was the lack of interactivity and the AI. Witcher 4 is going to go off. It's not a compact city.
...and, just like 'Dark Messiah M&M', I don't see this remaining PC exclusive. The early footage, with A.I. and physics demonstrations, as well as amazing graphics, make this game very appealing...and very doable on the 360.