sv3672;n10961327 said:
If The Witcher 3 is anything to go by, 99% of the content of substance is either in the base game (as released on 19th May 2015), or in the paid DLCs. In other words, I would find it surprising if a core feature was implemented only in a patch. Of course, that does not mean patches will not improve what is already in the game (good MP does require ongoing maintenance), what I mean is if something is considered important by CDPR, it will probably be included on the day of release, or come in the expansions. That is why I mentioned the government grant, the fact that CDPR requested it for MP in my opinion suggests that they do consider it important. Regarding the job postings, they still have positions even for concept artists, so that does not necessarily tell much about what phase the development is in.
Well said. This is probably one of the first times I agree with you on
anything, even if it's small. This calls for celebration.
Post-release in the form of a paid (
maybe free, so as not to make people mad? Tough to say...) DLC seems the most likely, as it allows them to not only recoup costs through people getting excited and buying the base game, but also through people buying the DLC.
I'm betting this hypothetical DLC doesn't just include multiplayer, though. That'd piss off singleplayer fans. They'll probably throw in a nice new zone or story for SP fans to toy around in as well, but the bulk of the content will almost certainly be MP.
It could be in the base game, but that'd be really strange to me. Even GTA V didn't include GTA:O in the base game, for precisely the same reasons I've laid out here (they could then take the revenue from the base game and shovel it all into the development and release of MP - even if it was a bit delayed).
Suhiira;n10961504 said:
Multiplayer really has to be built into a game from the beginning (that doesn't mean it has to be implemented).
The game code needed to run a strictly single-player game will not handle multiplayer well (perhaps not at all). We've seen the sorts of horrible things that happen when a multiplayer mode is tacked onto a game because someone thought it would increase profits. This is one of the major reasons MMOs take longer and cost more to create then (most) single-player games.
Probably correct. They can probably spend time working on netcode and other important multiplayer aspects without dedicating too much of their resources to it early on. They can then later focus on the actual content, the stuff that will take the most time.