No -- I get your question.I just hope they can stay focused, work at a healthy pace, and put it out when it's ready. 23:59:59, March 31st if they have to... or delay it again. Truly. Don't rush the fucking thing.
Would you mind elaborating on this, please? You're not suggesting they add ray tracing and/or 4k 60fps (barely doable on top of the line PCs even at this moment) on PS4 and Xbox One somehow, correct? What next-gen features are you talking about?
I'm not trying to be antagonistic about this. I'm genuinely curious what you mean. Next Gen and the expansions/DLC are two different things. There isn't even a running NCART model on PS4 to reduce frametime last I checked.
What I mean is: when CDPR released the game, it came with Minimum Requirements. Those cannot now be changed. Nor can the Recommended Requirements for the original version of the game.
What I can do, however, is release optional updates and enhancements that increase the Minimum/Recommended Requirements. These might be in the form of a "remaster" of the game...or they may be in the form of a "high-res texture pack"...or they may be in the form of optional graphical enhancement DLC...or they may be in the form of new graphical options to toggle on/off in the options menu.
But I cannot overwrite the old version of the game in such a way that people that originally bought it, according to the Minimum Requirements at the time of the game's original release, are now no longer able to run it. If I marketed that game, I must continue to support it as is. (Or I can't sell it. If I try to change the requirements after people have bought it, that would definitely be a bait-and-switch. That would be fraud.)
So, that leaves CDPR with only the ability to provide players with options.
Pretty easy to manage on PC. Maybe trickier to manage on consoles, but the core responsibilities of any studio to honor the purchases made by their customers still holds true. CP2077 on XB1 and PS4 cannot run the Next-Gen Update. People with minimum specs on PC cannot run the Next-Gen Update. They still need the game supported in that state.
Hence, there will always be a supported version of the non-Next-Gen version of the game. The vanilla version. If it's available for some...why restrict it for others? That would be needlessly complicating the situation.
Therefore, I'd be willing to buy a farm and then bet it that even PS5 and XBX will not be forced to use the more advanced graphics. They'll simply be an option or several options that can be toggled at will, or a single package that can be downloaded as DLC or not.
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Caveat: the various marketplaces (Sony, Microsoft, Steam, etc.) may create issues with this. Sometimes they have these weird rules about what data must be installed for purposes of licensing and copyright on a per-product basis -- not a per-title basis. But that's not anything CDPR can control. That's just very real matters of legality that turn into asininely silly and problematic requirements for paying customers.
So, for example, on Xbox, if I buy TW3 as a standalone game, then I go and purchase Hearts of Stone separately, then purchase Blood and Wine after that, I can choose to install one, two, or all three. If, however, I buy the GOTY Edition, I must install everything, as it's marketed as a single product. Because of licensing and support concerns due to the marketplace, players are not allowed to own the GOTY Edition and choose not to install B&W. You must install it. If you want to install only the base game and HOS, you must purchase the base game seperately and buy HOS for the base game. There, now you don't have to install B&W. Even though, logically, it's all the same thing, legally, they are 4 separate products.
^ Another big reason to make things that can greatly affect performance either options or completely separate packages.
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