Game News Atari signs The Witcher, coming Fall 2007

[Vault Dweller]

Tags: CD Projekt; Witcher, The

Tom Ohle was kind enough to let me know that Atari will distribute <a href=http://www.thewitcher.com/>The Witcher</a> in North America starting Fall 2007.
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<blockquote>NEW YORK, February 5, 2007 – Atari, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATAR), one of the world’s most recognized brands and a third-party video game publisher, and game developer CD Projekt Sp. z.o.o. today announced that the companies have entered into a publishing agreement for The Witcher, whereby Atari will market and distribute CD Projekt’s upcoming fantasy role-playing game (RPG) throughout North America. The Witcher is scheduled for release on Games for Windows, the new brand optimized for Windows XP and Windows Vista, in North America in Fall 2007.
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The Witcher transcends traditional fantasy role-playing by throwing players into a unique world rife with political intrigue, in which the lines between good and evil are blurred. Based on the world created by best-selling Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski’s novels, The Witcher casts players as Geralt, a legendary monster slayer and master swordfighter with supernatural abilities and reflexes. The Witcher presents a fresh approach to traditional role-playing, blending an expansive, twisting plotline – in which the impact of individual decisions can drastically alter the outcome of the game – and fast-paced combat against a wide variety of foes. Using advanced graphics and physics systems, The Witcher delivers brutal action, multi-faceted RPG options and an intriguing story to engulf all players who dare.
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“The Witcher is a tremendous game that has been on everyone’s radar since CD Projekt began development,” said Jeremiah Cohn, Product Manager, Atari, Inc. “With this publishing deal, Atari continues its quest to bring highly impressive titles to North America and we have our sights set on making The Witcher one of the most anticipated RPGs of the year.”
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“We are delighted to begin a mutually beneficial relationship with Atari, a publishing partner that shares our commitment to delivering a top-quality role-playing game,” said Michal Kicinski, Joint CEO of CD Projekt. “We are very much looking forward to working with Atari to bring this distinctive fantasy world that we love to a broad audience.”</blockquote>2007 is looking better already.
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Thanks, Tom

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

Atari

Anyways, fall? Thats a fuckin long time. I hope the polish version comes out significantly earlier. Its very good they take their time, but I'd like to play the game already goddamnit.

 

[JrK]

We don't want Gothic 3.2.

 

[Bluebottle]

Anyways, fall? Thats a fuckin long time. I hope the polish version comes out significantly earlier. Its very good they take their time, but I'd like to play the game already goddamnit.

Don't worry, I'm sure Atari are working on a new plan the will see it on shelves sometime in the middle of next week.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Awesome. But at the same time, I worry if the Witcher will be allowed to put out patches and fixes in a timely manner and all that crap. Will they have to rely on Atari's Q+A? Also, is there a chance that they really need Atari's funding? If so, is there a chance that Atari, in their own pissy financial situation, could pull funding?
Don't take this as a blessing. Take it with a grain of salt.

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

Awesome. But at the same time, I worry if the Witcher will be allowed to put out patches and fixes in a timely manner and all that crap. Will they have to rely on Atari's Q+A? Also, is there a chance that they really need Atari's funding? If so, is there a chance that Atari, in their own pissy financial situation, could pull funding?
Don't take this as a blessing. Take it with a grain of salt.

Well, as far as I see it, CD Project is pretty independant. Theyre a local Publisher in Poland and publish many of the big games, so I dont think they rely on Atari for funding the development proces. What they need is a partner for international distribution, if I understood correct.

So IMHO the development of the game is not endangered as its self-financed by CD project, however the international release could be screwed up by Atari. But then again, theres always a chance some other publisher would be interested in the project.

 

[suibhne]

Ja wohl!

Yeah, it looks to me like this is similar to Atari's publishing relationship with Bioware: Atari is putting the boxes on the shelves, but CD Projekt is funding its development from non-Atari sources. That means, I hope, that patches and support will also be funded from non-Atari sources ('cause Atari sources aren't likely to fund them anywhere close to adequately).

 

[hiciacit]

Does Atari handle the publishing for Europa as well?

 

[Dagon]

Does Atari handle the publishing for Europa as well?

Yep,

Here in Europe it will be released in spring not fall.
I'm looking forward to this title, I hope it will meet my expectations.

 

[The Brucolac]

Here in Europe it will be released in spring not fall.

An English version as well? Or just the Polish one?

The game looks shiny. Dark, moody and even promising in the RP department. Here's hoping...

 

[Durwyn]

Yeah, english version for sure. Just can't wait...

 

[Jasede]

Will the English version have Polish voice-acting? I am kinda fond of Polish, even if I don't understand a word, but if it does, I would really enjoy that. And subtitles make one learn quite a lot of words really quickly.

 

[Durwyn]

Propably no. I saw movies from The witcher, where voice-overs were english. To make things worse, Geralts voice was max faggish!

 

[Dagon]

An English version as well? Or just the Polish one?

In english aswell

The game looks shiny. Dark, moody and even promising in the RP department. Here's hoping...

Agree on this,
but I'm also charmed by the beautiful art direction, it's not some pixel & vertex shaded shit like oblivion or the most of new games, but the whole design of graphics, all the houses, the city it looks just great.

I hope they will stick to the atmosphere from the books. We don't have many Dark Fantasy computer games do we?
In books Geralt is very deep character, quite different than most of witchers I hope that they will somehow catch this too and ofcourse they must include some dwarves, the dwarves in sapkowski's work are wulgar, rustic and funny.
The Ancient Dwarvish Battle Spell : "Na pochybel Skurwysynom"
=>Crash those Sons of the Whores (it's hard to translate "na pochybel", it's not Crash 'cos and it's coming from the old Polish, it has some roots taken from killing by gibbet, but sometimes the meaning is different it refers to being killed, destroyed completely in wulgar way like in this case )

BTW. it would be nice to see one day Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay cRPG

 

[Elwro]

It would be nice to see one day Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay cRPG

QFT.

Anyway, one thing I'd be afraid of concerning foreign patches wouldn't be funding, but rather copy protection. It's possible that every patch will have to go through Atari's QA and get protected, which at their speed might take weeks.

 

[don_tomaso]

I thought they said they wouldn´t have voice acting, but text only!? Anyway, I hope the translation is made by someone native english, so the risk for "This it swords is the powerful, yes?" is minimized..

Who is Tom Ohle anyway? A dev? Pr-guy?

 

[Dementia Praecox]

Who is Tom Ohle anyway? A dev? Pr-guy?

The truth is out there... just google it!

You've got to be fucking kidding me.

 

[Claw]

Hahaha. Owned.

 

[RGE]

... the dwarves in sapkowski's work are wulgar, rustic and funny.

I thought all dwarves were like that.

The Ancient Dwarvish Battle Spell : "Na pochybel Skurwysynom"
=>Crash those Sons of the Whores (it's hard to translate "na pochybel", it's not Crash 'cos and it's coming from the old Polish, it has some roots taken from killing by gibbet, but sometimes the meaning is different it refers to being killed, destroyed completely in wulgar way like in this case )

Smash? Annihilate? Eradicate? Obliterate? I remember seeing such attack descriptions in certain MUDs. (How many times can someone be 'annihilated' and still stand up anyway?)

"Sons of Whores" reminds me of the dwarf in Chronicles of Garas though. And he gets all the girls too. :D (Ok, so he only got one of those. So far.)

 

[denizsi]

There wouldn't be a possibility to play it with Polish voices and English subtitles, right?

 

[doctor_kaz]

This fucking sucks. Why did it have to be Atari? Atari is the worst publisher in gaming. They are as worthless as a used condom buried in a pile of shit. Every game that they publish is poorly marketed and pushed out the door too early. They have all but destroyed D&D as a gaming license and every game that they publish is riddled with bugs.

 

[Kraszu]

This fucking sucks. Why did it have to be Atari? Atari is the worst publisher in gaming. They are as worthless as a used condom buried in a pile of shit. Every game that they publish is poorly marketed and pushed out the door too early. They have all but destroyed D&D as a gaming license and every game that they publish is riddled with bugs.

Reading is teh hard? Cdproject finances Thewitcher not Atari.

 

[Elwro]

A new "NPC response" screen:

http://www.thewitcher.com/inc/show.asp?n=884&t=1

And the standard "no, really, it's not Drizzt but we should get the Drizzt loving folk to buy the game" screen:

http://www.thewitcher.com/inc/show.asp?n=885&t=1

edit: spotted at RPGWatch

 

[Morgoth]

Looks fucking amazing. After the disappointing NWN2 and Gothic3, it's now TWs turn to show that the genre isn't quite dead yet. If that fails, there's still Dragon Age, if that one fails, I'm gonna buy a console and become an Akshun-player for eternity!

 

[Elwro]

Actually, I don't think we'll be able to enjoy The Witcher without evoking the akshun-player from the darkest recesses of our soul; at least judging from the fighting videos.
Not that it'll be bad, I have high hopes for the game.