I just got back from PAX in Seattle where we showed the game to the US audience and I got to meet the people at CDV for the first time. I can tell you that this is a very different team than the one in 2002, and I was quite impressed by their professionalism. As the US deal was only signed recently, they need some time to prepare their market but I think they'll do really well.
As far as the market and competition are concerned, I think it's cool that there are several RPG's coming to market as there's really been a drought, but I also think
has sufficient strengths to create its own market. That was evident from seeing the warm reception the game got at PAX and by observing the people play.
I think 2009 in going to be hectic -- w/ the action RPG (Torchlight), RPS (Borderlands), RPG's (Risen, Dragon Age: Origins, Divinity 2), rebirth of an MMO (DDO Unlimited). I don't know, gonna be tough to keep up w/ all this!
We also haven't stopped working on the game ever since it's been released in Germany, paying very close attention to these forums, and while the reviews so far have been good, I think that with everything we've added, they'll get even better. Most negatives hinted at by reviewers are gone now, using the simple secret formula of : listen to suggestions, fix things that bother people and implement features that are in popular demand. That means that the versions which we are mastering now are quite battle-tested, and incorporate a whole bunch of things we didn't manage to do during the original production. While delays suck (also for us who ultimately do this because we enjoy seeing people have fun with our creations), they sometimes do have advantages, and I think the work done on the original release definitely falls in that category.
I think that's something I really liked about what CD Projekt did with The Witcher -- especially w/ the Enhanced Edition: with adding all the extra animations; newer voice-acting for some characters to replace some of the old; remodeling some of the character models so there's less repetitive looking character models; extra inventory sorting options; restoring some of the script to the game; removing pesky DRM in a recent patch; etc etc -- they really listened to the fans.
To see you guys basically follow suit w/ your plans on your newest patch, from what I read -- which sounds a lot like what CDPR did w/ The Witcher: Enhanced w/ adding new animations and UI features -- I can hope that companies like yourself and CDPR keep making this the standard every developer SHOULD follow.
