Release date, should CDPR be concerned?

[nukeheal]

Release date, should CDPR be concerned?

As of today games that also coming out in Febuary...

Evolve, The Order 1886, The Witcher 3 and Dying Light. Possibly Arkham Knight, Battlefield Hardline and Bloodborne?

IMO they should move the release date to mid January min 2 weeks before FEB. To have a chance on gaining sales as big as possible on consoles especially you need a window when no other AAA games are coming out...

I would rather release the game before set frenchise with huge fan base start selling big... for few first months sales will split between those 7+ games...
Looking at Watch Dogs which was decent but not amazing.. It sold huge numbers bcoz there wasnt anything else we could play at the time, would it do as well if Batman and any other AAA game came out same week?
I don't think so.

Batman vs Superman film release date was moved few months bcoz Captain America 3 release date was set for the same week. There is no shame in moving the date few days to January.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

I don't see a problem for them. They aren't competing for limited attention, since it's not like a theatrical release of some film where people need to make a choice and after a while it's gone from theaters. People can buy the game any time they want.

They might compete for PR attention which surrounds the release, but they put a lot in marketing in general, and they aren't limited by the narrow release time in that effort.

 

[Blooddrunk]

Considering there is a marketing juggernaut around TW3 i don't think Reds have to be concerned about anything. Watch Dogs sold because the game was massively overhyped and in the end it failed to deliever, i really doubt release date had anything to do with it.

L.A Noire and TW2 were released on the exact same date and both games sold successfully.

 

[Sibladosi]

I don't know man, don't think realising earlier than anticipated is a good idea, if they would move it it would probably be later on. But I see your point Saoe, however I think TW3 is strong enough to stand on its on against all these titles. For better or worse CDPR is going a bit "main stream" (Not sure if this is the best word to discribe it, but I hope you guys get what I am trying to say), releasing in other consoles, investing more on publicity and so on. All that + the already existing witcher fan base, I do belive that it will be enough to fight, and win, against these titles!

:victory:

 

[gregski]

You don't delay a release date to delay it again. Shareholders would take it much, much worse this time.

There will always be games coming out at the same time as TW3, so what? None of the games you mentioned competes directly with TW3 and none of them has a hype train made of meteorite steel like TW3. It's those titles - maybe except Batman - that should be pissing in their pants and thinking about delays, not TW3.

 

[nukeheal]

Are you talking about game genres? Does that really matter these days? As much as we like Witcher, games like Batman will always outsell W3. Even platform exclusive Bloodbourne or Order 1886 will sell 4-5 million copies without any sweat why bcoz there isnt anything else to play on PS4/X1 before Febuary.

Not everyone can afford to buy all the games in one month avarage kid that doesnt know the Witcher will choose things like Batman or Evolve (60 euro each) especially if they sit at home without any income. So what will happen is they will buy one they really want and "copy" the rest for free.

No one is pissing pants thats what some PC gamers might think. PC wont be the leading sales platform.. instead of getting few million copies sold like Watch Dogs on PS4/X1 everyone will have to split the sales in first few months... months that are most important when it comes to making money.

 

[Kinley]

No one is pissing pants thats what some PC gamers might think.

Where the hell did that come from?

 

[crimzonwarrior]

Are you talking about game genres? Does that really matter these days? As much as we like Witcher, games like Batman will always outsell W3. Even platform exclusive Bloodbourne or Order 1886 will sell 4-5 million copies without any sweat why bcoz there isnt anything else to play on PS4/X1 before Febuary.

Not everyone can afford to buy all the games in one month avarage kid that doesnt know the Witcher will choose things like Batman or Evolve (60 euro each) especially if they sit at home without any income. So what will happen is they will buy one they really want and "copy" the rest for free.

No one is pissing pants thats what some PC gamers might think. PC wont be the leading sales platform.. instead of getting few million copies sold like Watch Dogs on PS4/X1 everyone will have to split the sales in first few months... months that are most important when it comes to making money.

No the average kid is going to hear how the witcher 3 has soft core porn in it, and will want to get it for that reason alone. Kidding of course. I expect the Witcher 3 to be making massive waves that will be shutting down the fellow competition if there even is any.(blood born maybe?)

 

[sidspyker]

There is nothing to be concerned about. CDPR don't have a "we need to sell X million copies or we'll sink" situation. They aren't overshooting with their budget and owe money to everyone.

No one is pissing pants thats what some PC gamers might think. PC wont be the leading sales platform.. instead of getting few million copies sold like Watch Dogs on PS4/X1 everyone will have to split the sales in first few months... months that are most important when it comes to making money.

Yes I'm sure nobody will buy the game on PC that's a PC game for the past two games and came out only on one console in its history. And we all know that everyone owns a next-gen console platform by now so that's where the sales will lead instantly.

CDPR is not as big and popular as say Ubisoft or any other big publisher/developer. They aren't all that comparable.

 

[shinobi2u]

For better or worse CDPR is going a bit "main stream" (Not sure if this is the best word to discribe it, but I hope you guys get what I am trying to say), releasing in other consoles, investing more on publicity and so on.
:

Most of your post I certainly agree with, but this stands out. Maybe it was just a bad choice of words like you were saying. I wouldn't consider it mainstream to have a multiplatform release and a bigger budget. CDPR made a lot of money with Witcher 2, even more so than Witcher 1. With each iteration they have gained more fans and had a bigger development budget the next time around. As a business increases its captial, they have more abilities. They are spending more to make Witcher 3, so it makes sense as a business to be able to reach as much of the market as possible and inform those unaware to increase it again. It's just common business and it's smart. And as much as people say the new consoles are holding back a PC port, they wouldn't have made a game so advanced that only folks with high end PCs could play it either. Alas, that is another can on worms.

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Not everyone can afford to buy all the games in one month avarage kid that doesnt know the Witcher will choose things like Batman or Evolve (60 euro each) especially if they sit at home without any income. So what will happen is they will buy one they really want and "copy" the rest for free.

No one is pissing pants thats what some PC gamers might think. PC wont be the leading sales platform.. instead of getting few million copies sold like Watch Dogs on PS4/X1 everyone will have to split the sales in first few months... months that are most important when it comes to making money.

Yes, the mainstream crowd will generally go with the brands they are familiar with. And you might be surprised with how big the PC sales will be. A lot of people want to play it at it's best, to be able to import their saves from the last two games, and the user base for the PS4 and XB1 is not huge yet compared to when, for instance, Witcher 2 was released on the 360.

 

[nukeheal]

They made fans happy already now they should concentrate on making money.. nothing else. If they move the game by 2 weeks ahead of schedule people will love them even more and they will make even more money, they could come up with smart planned video thanking fans etc.

Some of you might dont care ..yet. But when you start your company or do buissness that is based on calculated investment spend a lot of money to make some money. you will know know you have to use every opportunity and dont take any unnececery risk to have any chance on growing.

 

[Garrison72]

As of today games that also coming out in Febuary...

Evolve, The Order 1886, The Witcher 3 and Dying Light. Possibly Arkham Knight, Battlefield Hardline and Bloodborne?

Actually, this is murderer's row right here, and since TW3 is CDPR's strongest attempt at bringing the franchise to the masses, these games could be a point of concern. The reason being, they're already mainstream in their DNA - shooters, multiplayer, console friendly, Hollywood tropes galore. Whether we like it or not, the industry is still rooted in this approach and it's The Witcher that remains an exception. The bulk of the industry craves the familiar more than the unique imo. Of course they can't delay it again, and TW3 will have a much longer sales life than your typical shooter. Still, they better get Platige to cook up something special.

 

[Percival_Dickenbutts]

I'm more inclined to think that those other games should be worried, honestly.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Are you talking about game genres? Does that really matter these days?

Of course it does. Different genres have different audiences. Not necessarily completely different, but can be significantly different. Why would it be less so these days in comparison with the past?

 

[Cs__sz__r]

The competition is really just time. Some or maybe a lot of us will buy all the games we want in a given weekly or monthly period. The ones who won't are people waiting for reviews, younger people that might not have joined the workforce yet, or those who might be waiting on the next paycheck.

The ones who will be getting it immediately being us core Witcher fans, rpg general fans, impulse buyers, and early current gen adapters looking for a game that might not be those or another re-boot.

I know The Order is coming out later that Friday, with W3 being Tuesday. And like @gregski said they can't afford to do another delay like some of these powerhouse publishers/developers, *cough* Ubi *cough*.

With the pretty excellent marketing I think W3 will sell well into the end of spring/early to mid summer.

 

[RedFire01]

I agree, this is should be a major concern for CDPR, moving the game up to mid-late January might be a very good move for them, but i do wonder what we would lose if that were to happen in terms of content. I would be fine with it releasing in January and getting a couple dozen bugs that could be fixed in patches, but if we got a bug that would take too much time to fix in a patch, or we lose a possible sidequest, then i don't think that pushing it to January would be good. Not to mention that DA:I got pushed back to November, so being only two months apart might split the market of general RPG fans.

 

[Sam44]

I would rather wait those few extra months and play a polished game. First impression is everything for a game.

 

[HellKnightX88]

The publishers of Battlefield 4 and Call of Duty (forgot the rest of the name of the last CoD) tried releasing the games as early as possible so their sales wouldn't be affected by the other too much. What ended up happening was both games being complete crap. Dunno about CoD since I don't keep up with it but even now BF4 is still pretty crappy with basic mechanics you would would expect from a shooter simply not working correctly.

I'm sick and tired of bad early access games or games still in internal beta labeled as finished and pushed out the door because a publisher is more concerned about short term winnings rather than it's reputation or treating it's audience with respect. It's slowly becoming a trend.

My opinion is that out of the lineup posted in the opening post TW3 is the "main contender" so to speak. And even that would be a big leap of faith since the games listed are quite different and appeal to different audiences. The one that has the most in common with TW3 is Bloodborne. Evolve is leaning more towards a competitive shooter of sorts (I still doubt it'll actually be that, we'll see). The Order looks like yet another TPS although granted, it has a more unique setting. Dying Light is a zombie survival game, like we didn't have enough of those already not to mention that the two Dead Island games weren't exactly amazing (best example I can give when I want to point out cinematic trailers don't mean anything). And people got burned hard with BF4, so Hardline is on thin ice as it is, and the whole idea behind it doesn't really scream battlefield to me.

I'm getting sidetracked, my point is that I don't people to pay for what essentially are betas of games. CDPR should release the game when they think it's ready. Heck if they came out in October or whatever and said "We're sorry but we have to delay it till fall 2015" I wouldn't be mad, it just means more time for them to give the game more content and polish. Lets not have yet another ME3 with it's crappy rushed ending.

 

[TheDespondentMind2]

I would have to agree with OP< it wouldn't hurt to slightly alter the date and dominate the sales..

 

[Daeron87]

I think they'll be fine. Personally I'm aiming at both the W3 and Arkham Knight. I am sure many others want even more of the aforementioned games, possibly I will want more too if I search a bit more. The only choice I see, is not which one to get, but which one to get first. Then you save up to get another title. It's not a big deal, they can all be successful as far as sales are concerned. The games will be there for years. One could say that the absolute safest titles are Arkham Knight and W3, since they have an already established fanbase from previous games ( I don't know if the other titles have that ) and can only draw more people in.

But I see no need to change release dates. Not only that move might seem like weak and of little faith, but it is illogical too, since no matter the date, if a game is good, it will get what it deserves ( wink wink nudge nudge ) Same thing if a game is bad. If it's bad, the negativity will have an impact, even if at the time there is absolutely nothing else new to play.

Having said that, there are instances where a really good game performed poorly ( Planescape Torment anyone?? ), but that was mostly lack of internet info back then, lack of publicity, features and gameplay way out of the beaten path, etc. And even such a poorly received game, became a cult classic and now we expect another one in December. Good times!! 2015 will be a no-life year for sure