The Witness, the latest indie title from developer Jonathan Blow, may get a boxed release after its digital launch next month. The developer discussed details of a physical launch and shared a new “long screenshot” trailer in his latest blog post (via Engadget).
Blow has not confirmed the box release, but says that it’s “seeming likely.” He detailed the reasoning behind his indecision:
*However*, it looks like if there is a retail release, it won’t happen until a little bit after the digital release. The reason is just that we need all the time we can get up until the release date in order to get all the finishing touches into the game; but because of the lead-time involved in physical manufacturing and distribution, we would have to freeze the game right about now in order to have it on store shelves for the release date. *Or* we could delay the digital release date in order to wait for the physical. But I don’t see a good reason to do either of those things. I would rather just focus our energy on making the game as good as we can make it, and a retail version can lag behind by a little bit.
The post also discusses some other tweaks to the game, including finishing voiceovers and support of other languages. Blow mentions that of all of them, Arabic has taken the most programming work.
Blow's first indie venture was Braid, which initially released for Xbox Live Arcade, and is now considered an indie classic. The Witness was originally announced in 2009, and would later be revealed as a time-limited console exclusive to the PS4. The title has been in development for so long, Blow had to go into debt to finish it. The game features a large, colorful open world with puzzle-solving mechanics.
The Witness launches for PlayStation 4 and PC on January 26, 2016.
