If it's already finished.

[Gothfather]

Where did I ever claim that the only reason it's held back is shipping? I work in the software industry and I know precisely what it entails. If you really want to get technical, the development team would have moved on weeks before a version is declared gold, because as soon as they are done with coding, they all need to be put together, compiled, QAed, sent for certification from MS/Sony and only then it is declared gold. The developers aren't involved with most of this and would have moved on during that time to support by developing next set of fixes into patch or developing DLC.
All I said was it would cut down on the weeks of time that exist now. If you really believe that companies would still take 5 weeks to release a game after a version is declared GOLD(which itself is weeks after they had finished working on that version) if they were digital only, I think you are wrong. So, how about you stop calling people ignorant.

What weeks are you talking about? The game went gold on april 16th, that is less than a month ago. What weeks will be shaved off of the time if the game was digital download only? You just said you understood that the game needs to transition you claimed to understand that yet you then say hey if there was no shipping then we'd get teh game weeks early HOW? They haven't stopped working oncethe game went gold. The developers are not going "woooooo thank god we have a physical copy of teh game to ship so we can frak about for a month between gold and the games release date while it ships." They are frantically coding and tweaking and bug crushing now. If you don't beelive that then you have no idea what you are talking about. My friend who use to work at Relic was a ghost between the time a game went gold and the game was released. And he was in the art deparment not exactly the department the first comes to mind for bug fixing.

Gamers have a disease it is called Unreasonable expectation syndrome, and it manifests itself every time they don't get something they want, which they take as a personal attack on themselves. And start creating these elaborate reasons why the world doesn't make them the centre of attention, these include shipping is why a game isn't out when declared gold, Consoles are ruining the pc market. Developers go out of there way to lie to gamers and so on. Or the latest Downgrade!!!!

 

[azrael.1289]

What weeks are you talking about? The game went gold on april 16th, that is less than a month ago. What weeks will be shaved off of the time if the game was digital download only? You just said you understood that the game needs to transition you claimed to understand that yet you then say hey if there was no shipping then we'd get teh game weeks early HOW? They haven't stopped working oncethe game went gold. The developers are not going "woooooo thank god we have a physical copy of teh game to ship so we can frak about for a month between gold and the games release date while it ships." They are frantically coding and tweaking and bug crushing now. If you don't beelive that then you have no idea what you are talking about. My friend who use to work at Relic was a ghost between the time a game went gold and the game was released. And he was in the art deparment not exactly the department the first comes to mind for bug fixing.

Gamers have a disease it is called Unreasonable expectation syndrome, and it manifests itself every time they don't get something they want, which they take as a personal attack on themselves. And start creating these elaborate reasons why the world doesn't make them the centre of attention, these include shipping is why a game isn't out when declared gold, Consoles are ruining the pc market. Developers go out of there way to lie to gamers and so on. Or the latest Downgrade!!!!

Did yo even read my post? Where did I claim developers stop working after game is declared gold? Going gold means QA department was happy enough with the number of bugs that they are happy to release the game in that state. But they would still have found bugs that a part of the development team will work to fix. Some other part would move on to developing DLC. And most of the art department and storywriters would have moved on long before a game releases onto the next project. I expect most of them to be busy with Cyberpunk or W3 expansions now. Will a few of them still be there to support the game? Ofcourse. All of that still doesn't change the fact that digital distribution would cut down the time between game going gold and game getting released. It's just logistics and nothing to do with development cycle.

And I'm going to ignore the second part because this has nothing to do with unreasonable gamer expectation. I'm just excited about the future where internet is fast enough in most places to act as a content delivery platform so that media could reach us sooner. I am not demanding anything from anybody. I am not demanding a game should be released as soon as it's gone gold. I am just excited about a future where that's a viable option for companies. I am not feeling entitled to anything.

The rest I agree with you, so don't know why you included them in response to my post. Also, you need to take a chill pill and stop being so rude.

 

[Gothfather]

Did yo even read my post? Where did I claim developers stop working after game is declared gold? Going gold means QA department was happy enough with the number of bugs that they are happy to release the game in that state. But they would still have found bugs that a part of the development team will work to fix. Some other part would move on to developing DLC. And most of the art department and storywriters would have moved on long before a game releases onto the next project. I expect most of them to be busy with Cyberpunk or W3 expansions now. Will a few of them still be there to support the game? Ofcourse. All of that still doesn't change the fact that digital distribution would cut down the time between game going gold and game getting released. It's just logistics and nothing to do with development cycle.

And I'm going to ignore the second part because this has nothing to do with unreasonable gamer expectation. I'm just excited about the future where internet is fast enough in most places to act as a content delivery platform so that media could reach us sooner. I am not demanding anything from anybody. I am not demanding a game should be released as soon as it's gone gold. I am just excited about a future where that's a viable option for companies. I am not feeling entitled to anything.

The rest I agree with you, so don't know why you included them in response to my post. Also, you need to take a chill pill and stop being so rude.

Again where do you get this idea that the developers have STOPPED working on W3? This idea that the game is gold so most of the team is on to a new project is utterly false. that isn't how it works. There is still work for this very game being done less than 5 days before launch. I have two friends in software one use to work for relic the other makes business software for hospitals. Both of their busiest times are between gold and release. They might have stopped development of the product at gold as in the features are set now but there is still a hell of a lot to do. this is why you have day one patches because they are still working on the product. Those patches are not down to a few people because the rest have gone off to a new project.

If there was no game to ship there would still be a month between gold and release because that time isn't idle or being used to a new project. You have no idea what you are talking about. The shipping time is running parallel not in sequence to all the other things they are doing the month before launch. Removing shipping doesn't shorten the time because its not tacked at the end of the process it is tacked on beside the process.

You whole premise is based on your desire to have the game NOW. Which is predicated on you thinking your want isn't being served because of an imagined reason in this case those terrible physical copies. Right now CDPR has people frantically working to finish off various things before the launch. Removing shipping doesn't help them finish what they are working on any faster because they were never waiting on shipping for their work.

So again HOW DOES NO SHIPPING magically shave off weeks??

 

[azrael.1289]

@Gothfather This will be my last post on this. You seem to be purposefully misreading it and putting words in my mouth. If you read my post, I said " But they would still have found bugs that a part of the development team will work to fix" I told they would be working to fix additional bugs after going gold. And I got the "idea" that some of them have moved on to expansions and DLC from developer quotes and common sense.
And just because they are fixing hard to stamp out bugs, doesn't mean game isn't good enough to play right after it's gone gold. Reviewers have played it and have given glowing reviews. Do you you think after day 1 patch is released, there wouldn't be any more bugs? That they wouldn't continue to work on the game to fix even more bugs? No. The game will have work to be done on it for a long time and developers will continue working on additional patches. The point at which a game is deemed fit to be good without it requiring major additional work is when it's called gone gold. It means the game is good enough to be released.
And ofcourse I desire games to be released early but I never said CDPR is at fault for it. I never said physical copies are terrible. I just said that without them CDPR would be free to release the game a little earlier.
Also, it doesn't magically shave off weeks. The PS4 version has day 1 patch already released. So, there is a week shaved off already even with day 1 patch. Anyways, I'm done with this. We'll just agree to disagree.

 

[Thothistox]

In my country thy fine a store that breaks the street date

good idea

 

[gtcarlson]

Yeeeppp. I hear you. It's an anachronism and, frankly, an annoying one to those of us with the foresight to order digital.

Shall we say....five years? No. But ten, surely.

On the bright side, Monday is a holiday here, soo...yeah. FORTUNE HAS SMILED UPON ME. And everyone else in B.C. Who likes the Witcher.

Haha cool, I'm in BC too. Yay for Queen Victoria

On topic: I find the comments in hear directed at CDPR disgusting. There are legal contracts and all that stuff binding them to a release date, as well as distribution and marketing. You don't set a release date only to just release it early just because some shop in Italy decided to sell it. Movies don't get released in theaters early, phones, and other electronics all have release dates too.

To the people complaining about CDPR not releasing it because some guy in UAE has it, you're no better than complaining about having to pay for it because someone pirated the game. There's not enough thumbs down/ dislikes on the internet for you.

 

[TheWitcherAR]

i'm in argentina and i will play the game at 19 hs on the 18. but i will be lost in the game for a few weeks, so sorry i wont share nothing about my progress XD.
on the console theme... diversity its always good. the consoles give a lot of people the freedom to play worry free for years. they don't have to think on pc parts upgrade, drivers etc. and its always cheaper to buy a console.... they've made many players over the years and on the time of nintendo snes and sega megadrive they had parity with PC. because of the growth of players that the consoles made we can enjoy super VGA and super gaming rigs. the gaming world evolves on all platforms and that its always good. digital distribution its the future.... but the games cannot have the same price that the physical distribution. that its insane, there's no distribution cost, no disk, no manual, so it should cost 10 to 15 us less or 25% less. I would like to be able to buy the extras from the final versions or collectors versions separately. the disk has no value, but the maps, miniatures, stickers, poster, etc do.

 

[la_verne]

The world's not gonna end just because someone played The Witcher 3 earlier than you. Some comments here are just disgusting and childish.
Personally, I will rage about it for a few minutes, maybe growl with frustration at those lawbreakers, but I'd soon just put them out of my mind. The stress will just make me older and put lines on my face. Cheers to Triss and Yen for their magicked lovely faces!

4 days to go. Banzai!

 

[elusivehonor]

We have to wait. I've never been one of the lucky ones who gets their games early. Despite being really hyped for this game, there is plenty to do in the meantime.
But I do wish that game companies would push their release timetables forward/back to coincide with the weekends. I understand the reasoning for why they do it in the middle of the week, but still.

 

[Solid_Altair]

I wonder why they don't let us pre-load the whole game. Hopefully the almost 10GB we pre-load will be enough to keep us going until the rest is DLed.

In Inquisition it was just about right. In SoM, the firt part was actually very short and I had to wait a lot.

 

[dragonbird]

I wonder why they don't let us pre-load the whole game. Hopefully the almost 10GB we pre-load will be enough to keep us going until the rest is DLed.

In Inquisition it was just about right. In SoM, the firt part was actually very short and I had to wait a lot.

You may want to follow-up on that in the preload thread. Most of us pre-loaded over 20GB of the game.

 

[Solid_Altair]

Whoah! On PS4?

 

[Vik]

Physical copies will obviously exist and can act as backup. There wouldn't be a need to hold the digital copy hostage for weeks just so physical copies can be shipped when the retail market becomes a niche.

Yeah, I like physical copies. Especially if they still work 10 years after purchase. (Not necessarily.)

Btw this whole argument about an early release is not the sign of impatiance, more like the sign of an unnecessary wait for a game gone gold 5 weeks ago and the day one patch probably being finished already. Oh, did I mention this game has been delayed twice (if I remember correctly)? Plus nowadays most PC gamers use digital distribution channels and don't care about how difficult would be to hasten the retail release of The Witcher 3.

 

[Sardukhar]

Plus nowadays most PC gamers use digital distribution channels and don't care about how difficult would be to hasten the retail release of The Witcher 3.

Well, some of us do care. actually, since chaos in the distribution stream is rarely a good thing for a producer..or their downstream consumers.
-I- think we should let the multi-million dollar, highly successful video game developer/producer make these calls on their own, though.

Or, you know, clutter up their forums with demands they will totally ignore. Whatever.

 

[Vik]

I wonder why they don't let us pre-load the whole game. Hopefully the almost 10GB we pre-load will be enough to keep us going until the rest is DLed.

It's a simple copy-protection method. There is no DRM in The Witcher 3 but there is no torrent version of it before release either.

 

[Pustovshka]

What's the reason behind making us wait until the 19th? I don't want to start a flamewar or complain about anything, I'm pretty sure most of us have been waiting for a very long time.. But I don't understand the reason behind holding the release until the 19th, if there are already some countries which have released to stores the hard copies of the game.
The game is already working and some lucky folks are already playing it, I'm truly curious about what's the reason for this.
Thanks.

To give all distributors a fair chance at selling the game. Say they said "what the hell sell it now". Gamestop may not have it stocked yet but walmart does so Walmart sells the most copies and Gamestop gets screwed. Or everyone downloads it digitally from Xbox or PSN and GOG or STEAM then the retailers selling physical copies get screwed because again they don't have it stocked

 

[Valvatti87]

To give all distributors a fair chance at selling the game. Say they said "what the hell sell it now". Gamestop may not have it stocked yet but walmart does so Walmart sells the most copies and Gamestop gets screwed. Or everyone downloads it digitally from Xbox or PSN and GOG or STEAM then the retailers selling physical copies get screwed because again they don't have it stocked

Yeah. And talk about guys who wait it trough mail. Would probably have to wait until tuesday anyway. if it was releasd now.
And ironically. theses are the guys who preordered the game and should actually have it first..
Gotta admit i had hopes of receivng my copy today but not happening. I have preordered from this retailer before and always had games way before release day ohwell

 

[Saixon]

please release the witcher earlier

see title, because there are a lot of people playing it already, stores in france, germany and the netherlands are selling it. A lot of people are streaming it on twich for the last couple of days. So we had a lot of spoilers already, so isn't it possible that you release it earlier llike they did with "shadow of mordor"??

 

[Sainur]

I'm Dutch and bought it on Steam, it says it wont be availabe until 4 days and 5 hours, this is utter bullshit.

 

[NoBlackThunder]

ohh i wish they would do it but they someone stated it earlyer that this would not happent becouse it would take quite some time to get that out to the retail stores. and i think they use the final days now to test the day one patch just to make shure that this is not creating a new major bug that would break the game totaly