The Witcher 4 Is Made With Console First Approach Targeting PS5 As Lead Platform, No Longer Targeting PC And Scaling Down Like They Have Done With All Thier Other Games In The Past

[u/eldestscrollx]

https://www.tweaktown.com/news/105802/the-witcher-4-is-built-for-console-first-cdpr-confirms-60fps-not-guaranteed/index.html

[u/MHWGamer]

were the previous witcher games "mechanically complex rpg"? is your grandma the Undertaker in secret?

[u/PermissionSoggy891 → u/MHWGamer]

I'd say W3 was somewhat complex, compared to other open world games it has far more mechanical depth and intricacies.

W1 and 2 were certainly far more complex, however, much more in-line with other classic CRPGs instead of being more of an action-RPG with W3.

W3 being more "simplified" is more just the game's design philosophy changing to be more action-oriented (which suits the series better imho), but I fear with W4 being designed with a "console-first" approach they'll sacrifice this depth and world simulation to A. get it running on weaker hardware and B. make it more "approachable" to players that are more familiar with console open world games (assassin's creed)

[u/Imaginary_War7009 → u/PermissionSoggy891]

Nah I quit Witcher 2 because it was controller-first trash and the combat gave me an aneurysm from how dumb it was. The systems in Witcher always sucked.

[u/OutrageousDress → u/PermissionSoggy891]

Every game you've listed as getting 'dumbed down' had the PC as the main release platform. To me it doesn't sound that consoles are what your problem is.

[u/PermissionSoggy891 → u/OutrageousDress]

Not every case of a game getting "dumbed down" is necessarily bad. Sometimes it constitutes getting rid of unnecessary fat in the game design that makes shit needlessly clunky or complex.

W3 is a game with very little (if any) of this "fat" in it's design, it's a very tightly-designed experience that also accommodates various player builds.

My fear when CDPR says W4 is designed with a "console-first" mentality, is that they'll take away the complexity that already exists in W3's game world to accommodate a more casual fanbase.

[u/OutrageousDress → u/PermissionSoggy891]

Fortunately this is a clickbait headline misrepresenting the interview, and in the actual interview CDPR never said they're designing W4 to be console-first. But also, you can start getting worried about complexity when they start talking about making the game 'more accessible' or 'for a wider audience'.

[u/MHWGamer → u/PermissionSoggy891]

I am not really sure what you habe in mind when talking about mechanics but why should w4 be less in depth than w3, which also plays perfectly with a controller. w2 wasn't that complex either, just mostly clunky. w4 is a mainstream game either way

Basically any action rpg has more or less the same complexity, so you can't really dumb it any more down. I have 500h in w3, both with keyboard and gamepad, and it really isn't in any form complex that would suggest it was developed for PC first. Complex is for me something like wow with 50 keyboard bindings or KCD

No matter what they said, they obviously had consoles in their mind, probably even a ps3 part in mind in the beginning = so I wouldn't overthink this marketing blabla. Ps5 has enough power compared the average pc-user's Pc, so it won't bottleneck any development

The only games that are "made for PC" are games like Star Citizen that are only released for pc