That's why I want them to release the prologue for free as a kind of demo (not necessarily before the release though).
Benefits:
- no time or big effort needed to make an "extra" demo level because it's already part of the game itself with all the care and optimization they give to the whole product
- people have much less incentive to download illegal versions just to "test out" the game (and if you once downloaded and installed a pirate version the incentive to buy the whole thing is much lower in many cases...)
- people who haven't played a Witcher game so far could just check its general "look and feel" out before buying the game for full price
- people could continue with their save game from the prologue when they've bought the full game
- people could benchmark their systems under "real game" circumstances in order to make good purchase decisions for new hardware and/or the game itself
- a free "demo kind of thing" would really be a great fit to CDPR's overall "gamer friendly" philosophy and would further strengthen their reputation in the industry and beyond (we need good examples to bring the industry back on track which includes stuff like free demos instead of paid betas IMO)
I don't really think these benefits are quite as certain as you make them out to be. Based on the assumption that CDPR never had plans to release a demo (which is why this petition exists), one could easily say the following:
- Cutting out the prologue requires time and effort reallocated from optimization, no matter how small we believe those to be. Also, new marketing materials need to be created to spread word of the demo, because if a minimal number of people download the demo it will be seen in the studio as having been a waste of precious resources. You could say "release it
after the game's release then!" To which I might agree, except they also already have plans - to patch the game and release DLC. Whether you believe patching and DLC are a worthier use of resources is another matter entirely; the point is that CDPR already has plans.
- Unless you've pirated games to benchmark your rig before (or personally know someone who has), I don't think we can speak for or assume we know the motivations of the pirate community as a whole. Not every pirate pirates for a benchmark. And if the demo is released post-launch: as a pirate, you have two options: a free prologue or a free game. Which sounds more attractive to you? But regardless, there is also a problem with using the prologue to benchmark.
- "...check out its general 'look and feel' out before buying it for full price". A sound argument, but you forgot to mention the people who would check its look and feel out and get turned off enough to not buy the game. You can't say these people were never going to buy the game anyway either, because that is a gross generalization and isn't true for every single case.
- This is a matter of personal preference, but it does matter in the overall scheme of things. For example, I would
never do that. To me it would be like watching the first ten minutes of a movie a month before its release. It breaks narrative flow and reminds me more of a TV series instead. Then why not just
not play the demo then? Well if the demo is also meant as a benchmark, then everyone with the same preference wouldn't be able to benchmark - which is simply downright unfair. The only way this would make sense is if it was released post-launch.
- The prologue is not representative of the full game. The Witcher 2's tutorial, prologue, and first Act ran buttery-smooth on my rig, but when I got to the Siege of Vergen it exploded into a glorious 10 frames a second. This will be even worse for The Witcher 3 - White Orchard is obviously nowhere near as intense as Novigrad, and in an open world game circumstances are far more unpredictable with what could happen onscreen.
- Finally, yes, while I agree it would look good for CDPR to put out a demo, they have monetary/resource expense vs profit to consider. After the near-bankruptcy post-TW1 period, I prefer to think that they are considering their expenses far more carefully especially considering the monumental cost of TW3 and its delays. Releasing the prologue is likely not in their plans, so given the numerous benefits and cons and general uncertainty of such a course of action, they aren't likely to do so ever. It's sad that they have to be subjected to this consideration, but that's reality for you.