The Witcher 3 was pushed back from February 2015 to May 2015. Fans are upset, but this is ultimately a good thing — developer CD Projekt doesn't want the game to be released in an unoptimized state.
Speaking with Eurogamer, Adam Kiciński of the Board of CD Projekt stated:
Gamers took our decision very well. [The] market is afraid of badly polished games on next-gen platforms.
Without naming names, he's referring to the string of poorly performing games over the past year. Highly anticipated titles like Assassin's Creed and DriveClub have arrived in broken, unfinished states, which has made consumers wary of spending full retail price on similar titles in the future. This is no way to run a business.
Kiciński continued:
There's a lot of small errors though, because the game is huge. It's the only reason behind the delay. We didn't assume it will be this big. Only after putting all the pieces together it turned out it's bigger than the two first put together. Let me remind you: it's open and not linear. We are just learning how to play it and we have to catch the little pieces. We know what to do, we just have to do it. We don't want to release the game with bugs that undermine the gameplay.
Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto once famously said, "A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad." His words ring true to this day, and it would behoove more developers to heed those words. I say good on CD Projekt for not rushing for the sake of getting product out to market sooner.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt hits Windows, PS4, and Xbox One on May 19, 2015.
