The Witcher 3 Announcement Intimidates EA, BioWare and Dragon Age III

TheNexusNews reports that EA and BioWare are intimidated by the announcement of The Witcher 3 - knowing that it will harm the sales of their upcoming Dragon Age 3 (III) if they don't release the game in time.

[Tctczach]

30 times the size of the witcher 2 is a pretty big world. Anyone have the estimated size yet?

[Kamikaze135]

It's said to be 20% bigger than Skyrim. Being as big as Skyrim alone is such a big jump from Witcher 2.

[Qrphe]

For the Witcher series it is a big jump, however Skyrim itself is not a big game if we compare it to other TES titles.

[stragomccloud]

The entirety of Elder Scrolls 3-5 is about 70 square miles.
Xenoblade is nearly the size of California. Food for thought. If your looking for a big world that's your ticket.

[007Bond]

Well a big world still won't work with crappy animations, actions like skyrim.

[da_2pacalypse]

The open world addition will be awesome in the Witcher3. witcher 2 was an awesome game, but I always wished it had more side quests. This will surely accomplish that for me :D

Also, on topic: EA/Bioware should be intimidated! Witcher 2 was everything DA2 should have been + more! But maybe they should stop worrying about what their competition is doing, and just make a good game! Stop trying to cater to every single genre, just make a good RPG game.

YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME!

[Cueil]

@stragomccloud Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall had about 188,000 sq miles... about twice the size of Great Britten... 15000 towns 750k NPCs... it's probably still the bench mark for open world single player games

[dasbeer88]

The first and foremost desperate attempt EA will probably do is buyout CD Projekt Red and...well everyone else will know what will happen to their future.

[Snookies12]

They'll "try", but will not succeed. Unlike companies such as EA, CD Projekt Red cares about their fans. They wouldn't sell out like that from what I can tell.

[Murad]

No, I don't believe CD Projeckt will be bought out. Why? Because as far as I've known CD Red, they've never actually screwed gamers over. I mean look at what they did for Witcher 2. They didn't bother installing a protection, or how that if you buy the newest edition of Witcher 2, or the older ones, you can still download the patches. That's what I call an awesome company, and companies that we are missing these days.

[RickHiggity]

They could try. But much like Mojang, they are successful enough on their own without a big publisher telling them how to make their games. EA trys to dumb don a franchise to make it sell more, and the true RPG ends up having more hype behind it. Who knew? lol

[talisker]

You may not know but CDPR is a share company so if EA (or anybody else) want it and have enough cash, they can buy it out. cdp.pl (formerly Optimus), the owner of CDPR developer studio has share capital of roughly $30 million.

[showtimefolks]

This is a day one whenever it comes out, I still want Witcher one for consoles and Witcher 2 on ps3. Please

[Kalowest]

They're not making a PS3 TW2. CD Projeckts future games will show up on PS3.

[stragomccloud]

Go pc. The interface is better and the games are wicked cheap. More than offsets the moderately high cost of entry. Steam has sales where you can buy every game a publisher has put on steam for only about $ 50. Sometimes for only $ 25.

[Mariusmssj]

You can sign up for pre-order notification
http://www.thewitcher.com/p...

[DeadlyFire]

I wouldn't say its coming to PS3 honestly, but with their new engine its possible they make a re-release with all three games in the series in a Trilogy edition on PS4/XB3/PC.

[DeadlyFire]

EA-Bioware should be scared of CDProjekt RED. They are stealing the RPG crown and running with it to the goal. Bioware has shifted downward since EA took over. CDProjekt RED has shifted upwards and its still going.

[Bigpappy]

If this is true, then that is great news. Force them to expand their development and give gamers more substance for the $$$.

[Bimkoblerutso]

Yeah, that's what SHOULD happen. We all know what's actually going to happen, though...they're going to look for shallow ways to "expand" the audience and inevitably put in some nickel-and-dime DLC bullcrap to squeeze a few extra slimy bucks out of us.

No amount of integrity from companies like CD Projekt is ever going to get the mega-companies like EA from looking at consumers with anything other than big, blinking dollar signs in their eyes.

[PureSophistry]

THIS JUST IN-

Games are being released- other developers are worried.

NEWS LIVES ON!

[DarkFireHawk]

Copied from the comment section from the article - the author responded:

"I agree with your premise. However this has been the point of the website all along. We do have a few people here and there - we have not submitted anything that has been proven wrong. EA could see this game as a competition, or simply don't care. But they do - and we simply reported it. It took 4 days to get this information - if this was just a fling you would have seen it published on the fifth."

[Diffraction_Fos]

WOW! So they're using the "innocent until proven guilty" routine, eh?

[joab777]

Bioware isnt bioware anymore. The old bioware wouldnt be scared, they would be motivated. Remember when they were at the forefront of innovation. Mass Effect 1, Dragon Age Origins. Instead of looking at Skyrim and the Witcher to see what ppl want, go back to the well and change gaming like u used to. I dont have much faith that they will. They are still masterful story tellers. At least give us a big world with many characters that we can love.

As far as the witcher, i cant imagine a next gen witcher with a bigger world than skyrim. This game just landed right below bioshock for most anticipated. I will buy a console just to play it.

[landog]

biowares best games all came out long, long ago, baldurs gate 1 and 2, neverwinter nights, kotor, jade empire

dragon age 1 and mass effect 1 were good, but already, the quality had been compromised for mass appeal, me2, da2, me3, lol....those arent even rpgs, they are just action games with some points to move around, there are deeper games on my phone sadly

i don't even think bioware means anything anymore, its a shell of what it was, the two FOUNDERS left, what does that say

[Diffraction_Fos]

They should be intimidated. Dragon Age 2 was a POS game. If they're gonna continue down that road with 3, then Witcher 3 will murder tham.

[Blacklash93]

DA2 was severely rushed. You could tell by the constant reuse of environments and how the ending was essentially little more than a walk-out cinematic after the final boss. Not to mention just the overall poor pacing and structure of the story, which is unusual for Bioware. There were also some iffy decisions with the combat system.

But to be fair they had some good new ideas going, like branching skill trees, being able to further interaction with companions without being a kiss-ass and agreeing with them at every turn, and the three classes having more synergy to play off each other. Some weren't implemented as best as they could have been, but they were still good ideas.

Hopefully they can advance the good ideas and reconsider the ones that didn't work. I want the game to turn out well.

[luoshuigui]

that pos da2 was not made by Bioware, it was just some random studio EA founded in Texas, sticked with a Bioware name to gain some prestige. The whole thing just showed how EA doesnt give a shit about Bioware's credibility and reputation, they buy the company for the name only, and after they ruin this brand they'll seek to destroy another. That's one of the reasons the founders of Bioware left EA, no fucking respect, no soul, games are only product for sell, no real passion in them.

[greatcrusader44]

The studio in Austin, TX made TOR the MMO, same team that made DAO made DA2. The Major difference? DAO had around a 5yr dev cycle, da2 only had 13 MONTHS (AND it they had to a make a new engine also in that time and since the story wasn't a direct sequel it took longer to write than if it was)

There are still some amazing people working at Bioware, but EA isn't giving Bio enough time to make their games, last Gen they took at least 3-4 to make the games we used to love and cherish, now in this Gen where'd it would cost more money and time to make games that size EA has given them even less time (Their Two this Gen games before EA took 5 yrs to make ME1/DAO, EA gave ME2/3 only two yrs and DA2 1 yr).

It's not that their talent is gone, its that they aren't given enough time to hone their skills on their product, which will result in a loss of quality in any game.

P.S. Replaying Planescape: Torment and I'm depressed they don't make games like this anymore (Devs in general, not Bioware, who didn't make P:T)

[Despair666]

Wont be surprised if DA3 gets pushed back

[ab5olut10n]

Dragon Age what?

[Cablephish]

CD Project RED was like "RAWWRRR" and EA was all like "eeeep".

[RememberThe357]

The wolf vs. the sheep. A very fat, slow, sheep.

[My_Name_BTW_Is_Dante]

I'd still rather play Dragon Age 3. I couldn't care less about any of the witcher games.

[Simon_Brezhnev]

Yet the Witcher games is vastly superior to DA games. Hell DA1 is basically a copy of Witcher 1. Grey Warden is basically a Witcher.

[Diffraction_Fos]

@My_Name_BTW_Is_Dante - Not surprising at all. You apparently also think DmC is much better than previous titles.

[Mariusmssj]

Your avatar says it all

[AKS]

Yet you found it to be important enough to make remarks about it in a thread related to Witcher 3.

[overrated44]

They should be, if you were to even try and compare Dragon Age 2 and The Witcher 2? There's an obvious victor there, both in game design and story telling. Anyone in the RPG fantasy genre should be intimidated by the company that is CDProjekt Red, lets be honest.

[DarkFireHawk]

Totally with you. Its not like I dont like Dragon Age - its a conceptually good game. My problem is that for a game that has "Dragon" in it's title, there is a very little amount of actual dragons in it

(-_-)

But witcher delivers what it is and more - i just dont see that with dragon age. I wont be surprised if we see microransactions for Dragon Age 3.

[deep_fried_bum_cake]

In the first Dragon Age there were at least 3 proper dragon fights (that I know of), and a hell of a lot of drakes.

I can't say about Dragon Age 2 though as I hated that game after playing the demo.

But my point is that the dragon in the name is still apt.

[BanBrother]

The ball is in EA's court. They can make all the promises they want, but they have to deliver.

FACT: EA and Bioware are some of the least respected companies out there atm
FACT: CD Projekt RED is one of the most, if not the most respected company.

I will be keeping a close eye on both. Hopefully this competition helps them create even better experiences.

[easthastings]

I reckon that this here article is packing a mighty amount of dumb in itself. Hell, I can call my own butthole a super secret inside source if I really wanted and it can blow all the hot air my way too. This article is lowbrow gossip and shallow speculation with a title for hits.

Give me some real news, not more garbage that continues to breed whining communities and uneducated haters who love to jump the gun at first sight. N4G seems to be heading in that direction as of late. Because, believe it or not, your reader base can largely be determined by your content.

Anyways, in other news, when Sony will announce their next gen console, Microsoft will be like, all intimidated. And like, when Microsoft announces, you know, their next gen console, Sony will be all intimidated back. Super freaky serial guys.

[Sino]

Dragon Age 2 was so horrible..nuff said,I wont be paying for another piece of garbage again

[sriki007]

now that the witcher is coming to consoles as well as pc simultaneously, more people will take notice.

[baldulf]

I'm pretty much done with Bioware.

The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk are the RPGs to have an eye on.

[ApolloTheBoss]

Omg what if the futuristic world of CP is as big as the witcher? I will go ape shit if this is true. :)

[squarecircle]

Are people seriously still interested in Dragon Age after the second?

Jeez that was an awful game...

[DivineAssault]

Thats cuz talent knows talent.. I still like bioware & bethesda better.. I cant help but feel that EA tainted bioware in the last few games released.. I hope they dont destroy that dev team

[mobijoker]

EA and Bioware should be scared....Witcher 2 and DA2 was released on the same month and Witcher 2 just thrashed DA2 in every sector......I don't see any chance for DA3 against Witcher 3 if the current trend goes on...Bioware betted everything on SWTOR and they lost the game with GW2...,now they are just desperate to earn quick bucks to recover...

[Mithan]

Stupid article. I am sure they are all shaking in their booties.

Game journalism is shit.

[CalvinKlein]

Of course EA is scared, The witcher 2 was awesome and 3 will be great. Dragon age is garbage always.

[ATi_Elite]

The Witcher 2 is better than Dragon Age 1 & 2 COMBINED!

Yes EA is scared cause DA2 got STOMPED out by TW2. EA wants no part of the TW3!

and now that CD Projekt Red seem to have their guns set on a game more ambitious than Skyrim, I see Dragon Age as a waste of time and am saving my cash for TW3.

TW3 should be on the PS4 this time around now that Sony is going the x86 route and has ditched the Cell. So PC, X720, PS4 gamers should all be able to enjoy a AAA CD Projekt Red game.

But in the meantime Cyberpunk 2077 will get my money, skip Dragon Age 3, then spend more money on The Witcher 3.

[Heli89]

This is the most tabloid-reporting bait I have seen in a long time.

A "reliable network of insiders?" Who then? How can we trust your good word from anonymous sources? I would also call out the biasness regarding inferiority, both Witcher 2 and Dragon Age II had problems with them as games on a bare level, saying one is better than the other is subjective at best.

Such shoddy journalism all around, really.