Beamer wrote on Jun 16, 2025, 13:25:

bhcompy wrote on Jun 16, 2025, 13:14:

Prez wrote on Jun 16, 2025, 10:26:
I am pulling for the new Witcher being amazing, but truly if you are willing to preorder this game after Cyberpunk 2077 I give up...

If you're willing to preorder any game, you need help

This is probably among the safest preorders you can make. The odds of this not being at least a very good game are slim. But it may take 6 or 18 months to hit that point, so why rush?

It will likely become great like their previous games. But why reward bad behavior? Buy it when it's worth buying is my advice. Preordering just continues to send the message that they are allowed to charge full price for half-finished junk.

bhcompy wrote on Jun 16, 2025, 13:14:

Prez wrote on Jun 16, 2025, 10:26:
I am pulling for the new Witcher being amazing, but truly if you are willing to preorder this game after Cyberpunk 2077 I give up...

If you're willing to preorder any game, you need help

This is probably among the safest preorders you can make. The odds of this not being at least a very good game are slim. But it may take 6 or 18 months to hit that point, so why rush?

Fion wrote on Jun 16, 2025, 11:19:
The simple fact is PC games sell equally too or outsell all console games combined every year and they have for nearly a decade now.

Might be partially (more on that below) true for CD Projekt who used to be PC-focused until now but not for most other AAA publishers. Take2 is making ~8% - 15% max of their revenue from PC depending on quarter. UbiSoft's PC revenue is at 31% last year vs. 45% consoles and 16% mobile. And EA is hovering around 20% PC revenue (last FY they made $1.547bn on PC vs. $4.776bn on consoles).

Regarding CD Projekt, it is also only really true for Cyberpunk and PL. I'd attribute this to at least three factors: 1) CD Projekt were forced to actually PULL the game from console stores because it was so shitty that it was unsellable 2) apparently people were scared away from the console versions by bad press at release and 3) Cyberpunk 2077 was released at the very transition between the console gens. It met an extremely low initial install base because of the CoVid shenanigans. Who was able to buy a new PS5 or Xbox at release? Right. No one. And this lasted for a loooong ass time...

The Witcher 3 was a different story. The PC showed a fairly decent loooong tail performance but the initial numbers for TW3 were all in favor of the consoles (by revenue):

- 2015: 33% PC vs. 67% consoles
- 2016: 42% PC vs. 58% consoles
- 2017: 43% PC vs. 57% consoles
- 2018: 48% PC vs. 53% consoles (probably a rounding error on CD Projekt's part because it ends up at 101% )

The numbers after 2018 are a little skewed by the Nintendo Switch release which is why PC vs. consoles doesn't add up to 100% anymore.

- 2019: 36% PC vs. 45% consoles (19% Switch)
- 2020: 37% PC vs. 35% consoles (28% Switch) - This marks the FIRST YEAR since release where PC surpassed consoles revenue... 5 years after release
- 2021: 41% PC vs. 36% consoles (23% Switch)
- 2022: 42% PC vs. 32% consoles (25% Switch)
- 2023: 38% PC vs. 46% consoles (16% Switch) - The trend reverses in favor of consoles again, probably because of the current gen port
- 2024: 43% PC vs. 46% consoles (11% Switch)

So, no, the PC is not outselling anything anywhere in core gaming. People who believe that probably read some clickbait headline that said so. And yes. Global PC gaming revenue including all internet cafes and browser games that are played by billions in China, India and Korea, i.e. games that we haven't even heard of here in the West, do cumulatively surpass global console gaming revenue but big publisher AAA(A) core gaming stuff remains firmly in the realm of console domination.

Why else would we have to deal with consolitis, missing FoV sliders, missing basic PC functions like remapping keys, delayed PC versions because of console exclusivity (GTA bullshit) yada, yada, yada... because the PC is where the money is at? Nope. Because of the exact opposite. The PC always has been an afterthought for the big publishers.

Prez wrote on Jun 16, 2025, 10:26:
I am pulling for the new Witcher being amazing, but truly if you are willing to preorder this game after Cyberpunk 2077 I give up...

If you're willing to preorder any game, you need help

Umm... Cyberpunk on PC was not the complete shitshow that it was on consoles, but it was still an unholy disaster. There were multiple huge patches that released over the course of the following 18 months that contained literally 1000's of fixes. You spend your money how you want, but I can't abide revisionist history in service of a corporate monstrosity no matter how good their games eventually end up.

The whole point is that if you target a console then that gives you a baseline for what you can do on a PC. Some PCs are going to be better, others are going to be worse. Turn off RT or features you don't have or bump up graphics. If you start with a top of the line PC as your baseline and work to get a console to match then you are going to struggle.
And yeah, I'll preorder this from GOG, because I believe in supporting developers that make games I enjoy. Maybe CP wasn't all that people hyped it up to be, but the witcher series is in a different class. Although I remember people bitching that they were misled because puddles did not have the lighting shown in trailers. Personally I tend to turn settings down to get a better gameplay experience. Not interested in the eye candy which no longer matters after the first few minutes.

Eh they're just saying that because of what a shit show Cyberpunk was for PS4/Xbox1. The simple fact is PC games sell equally too or outsell all console games combined every year and they have for nearly a decade now. There's zero reason for a company to not focus on making sure the PC experience is the best experience.

Console-first = hard pass.

I am pulling for the new Witcher being amazing, but truly if you are willing to preorder this game after Cyberpunk 2077 I give up...

I played PC at launch and it was fine. Obviously they targeted PC which created the launch problems they had. What you saw was that the console launch took an additional YEAR and even then it was not ideal. Promising support for older gen was a huge mistake. You can call all this "Greed" but that is a simplistic view.

Xero wrote on Jun 15, 2025, 15:36:
I thought this would be the case based on the technology demo using standard PS5 hardware. It sounds like as long as they can play it safe and ensure that it runs well on the console first, then upscaling for PC should be no problem. This would help them avoid their Cyberpunk fiasco all over again.

What would have would helped them avoid that is lack of greed and being honest. Also, not releasing when it was obviously not ready for prime time, but going for it anyway because that is how the big boys (EA, Ubisoft, Bethesda) roll!

You really have to do some insane mental gymnastics to make yourself believe that it was all circumstances fault and not your own. And then you need to be a frickin' world champion contortionist to try to make other people believe that as well.

Then we worked with Unreal and we saw the challenge to realize the ambition that to make what we want, 60 fps on PS5, there would be work.

No shit, Sherlock!

Phew. I'm glad we got Mr. Charles Tremblay as VP of Technology at CD Projekt RED at the helm here. Who else could have figured out that it would take actual WORK to get shit done? Someone give this guy a raise, a cigar and nominate him for some kind of award that does this monumental achievement justice!

I thought this would be the case based on the technology demo using standard PS5 hardware. It sounds like as long as they can play it safe and ensure that it runs well on the console first, then upscaling for PC should be no problem. This would help them avoid their Cyberpunk fiasco all over again.

Console focused but not optimized to work well on consoles, okay.... Sounds to me like they know it's going to be a buggy mess and don't want angry Steam reviews tanking their product. Also, piss poor UI incoming though that should be moddable.Sounds to me like they want to be Bethesda really badly, including all the bad parts.

it is probably the better way to go as long as they are also doing work on the PC side off things and keeping those features, vs making console and then "porting"

I doubt that the "tragic release" of Cyberpunk on last-gen consoles was because CDPR went with the PC First option.
It was simply too much to handle (with too little time to fix it) on older hardware and I'm sure it was clear enough during Alpha stages of development.
Now they just have an engine that scales/adapts better on multiple platforms.

This comment was edited on Jun 15, 2025, 19:33.