I think it’s important to keep in mind that this is Mike Pondsmith’s baby. He’s not going to let something happen that would screw it up. He also used to work for Microsoft. One of the things he did there was evaluate companies for potential acquisition. So, he knows how they think, what they value, etc. his involvement would certainly make things interesting.
Again, Sony have already partnered up on PR for the game with both Microsoft and Sony.
Any discussion of exclusivity is ended by that alone.
You’re off by at least a factor of 5, maybe a factor of 7. They’ve made a total of 1.5 billion PLN on Witcher 3 so far on all platforms, which is about 400M USD. PC accounted for about a third of that. That’s revenue. Profit is of course smaller than that, about 260M USD in the last three years across all platforms.
I did not use the word “profit”, and that was deliberate FWIW.
I have not seen those numbers. That’s still 9 figures on PC, which is impressive.
1.5 billion PLN revenue
Witcher 3, interview with CDP CEO:
What will be the cost of the game?
From the beginning we assumed that it was significantly bigger than “The Witcher 3”, whose budget amounted to just over PLN 300 million. Approximately half of them were marketing expenditures, most of which were not seen as costs but reduced revenues from distributors. Direct costs of production exceeded PLN 90 million. “Cyberpunk 2077” will be more expensive, but also more ambitious and, as we believe, will have significantly greater sales potential.
90 million PLN production budget of TW3.
Even if Cyberpunk costs three times that (and it won’t), they have so much cash on hand that any talk of moneyhatting them is just pure nonsense.
lol I just changed it too.
I have stopped reading news about this game. I don’t want to be hyped about a game long before is released, and more important… to a unrealistic level. Everything I read is “too good to be true” and seems true.
The only exclusives either of those companies have anymore is in-house stuff that they directly fund.
Not exactly. It was announced in 2012 as a way to attract developers for the project, but at that point real development hadn’t started. They planned to develop Cyberpunk and The Witcher 3 at the same time later, but that plan was scrapped, and the people who in theory should been working on CP were moved to TW3, to help finish the game. And later they also helped in the expansions, whose scope increased. So real development started in 2016, although at that point we can imagine at least extensive pre-production work had been done.
I’ve been following this game since 2013 when it was debuted and the press conference was based on Next Gen consoles i was bummed out the hear it wouldn’t launch on the ps3 but it was early so i accepted it. After the conference they was word that by “Next Gen” the mean’t PS5 because they already had a dev kit in house and wasn’t sure the hardware could achieve their vision. I doubted this then but now … i beginning to believe it
Here Dave. It’s not going to end up an exclusive for anyone.
The real question is if it will be on the Switch, so that we can play it in the bathroom.
You really want to die on that hill, huh?
A PR agreement in 2018 for a game releasing in 2020 isn’t worth much.
You’ve never done a PR contract or seen the language in one, obviously.
It absolutely is worth much, because Sony’s lawyers and CDPR’s lawyers ensure that they’re both protected here going forward, with either side required to pay a steep indemnity if the contract is in any way breached up to and including release of the property being promoted.
I’ve been around gaming a very long time, and specifically console gaming, where buying out of something like this is rather common.
As I’ve said before, there may be exclusivity of some kind purchased. It doesn’t have to be the whole game, but I’m sure both console makers are angling for exclusives of some kind with this game. DLC, timing of release, etc. I’m sure they’re both negotiating with them now because of the positive reception. Two years is a long time away.
Nice to see you finally backing down to only DLC, timing of release, etc. Dave. That’s more believable. Maybe a Soul Calibur 2 type deal where the Xbox version gets a Spawn collectible, PS gets a Virtua Fighter collectible, and the Switch version gets a Link collectible within the game. Oh, and the PC version gets a Gordon Freeman skin for the main character.
This is the dumbest internet argument ever, because both sides are right.
On the one hand, it is highly unlikely that CDPR will do any sort of exclusivity deal.
On the other hand, it is certainly possible that they would do so.
EA doesn’t need the money, but still took a bucket of cash to give some DLC stuff early for Battlefront players on PS4.
DaveLong is being a bit weird about it, but he’s not wrong that the first parties are probably talking to CDPR and seeing if a deal can be made.
I would not put money on it, though.
I actually said that in the original post and everyone went off the deep end immediately letting me know that it will never happen because CDProjekt are rich beyond their wildest dreams and the most altruistic men in all of the world of videogames.
The CDProjekt guys seem mostly immune to that kind of thing given that PC is their preferred platform, but I suspect both Sony and Microsoft will be throwing truckloads of money at them hoping they can secure some sort of exclusive… whether that’s timed DLC on one platform, launching first on one platform over the other, or simply having them be a launch window title on new hardware to show it off. Positioning on a potentially hot title like this will be huge for the start of the next round of consoles.
This was your post that set more people off, not your original post. Anyway, yeah, I agree that there could be some kind of timed DLC release window, maybe. But that’s not a big deal to most gamers. Most console owners are PS4 owners, so they’ll sell the most on that platform, then Xbox. And of course they’ll sell a lot of copies on PC. And if they do have early DLC on PS4 or Xbox, it will likely come out at the same time on PC. So again, it won’t be a big deal to people.
It’s not about altruism, it is about good business sense. They have been successful by treating their customers well and making great games. Doing exclusivity for money now, at a point when they need it least, makes zero logical sense.