This year has seen the launch of not one, but two epic open world western role playing games. There is Bethesda’s Fallout 4, which takes Bethesda’s sandbox approach to roleplaying to the extreme, and delivers one of the most immersive experiences in recent memory. And then there was CD Projekt RED’s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which launched earlier this year, and delivered what might be one of the best open world games of all time, and definitely one of the best RPGs ever.
As is the wont with the gaming community, everyone decided to pit these two games together- it makes sense, too, what with both games being open world western RPGs, and Witcher definitely picking up some cues from the Bethesda book of development.
You would imagine that this kind of perceived competition between the two games would be reflected in how the developers approach one another too… and yet, as is often the case, the developers seem to have nothing but respect for one another, even as their fans keep fighting each other.
To wit: CD Projekt RED staff took days off en masse when Fallout 4 launched, to play the game.
“There were a lot of ‘colds’ in the studio during the launch week for Fallout 4… I wonder why!” said CD Projekt RED’s José Teixeira to GameReactor. “Bethesda makes absolutely great games, no doubt about that, and everything they do serves as inspiration for us, although we hope that the opposite is also true.
“Here in the studio we are all major gamers, and although each one has their preferences, almost everyone loves RPGs. I think this rivalry between the two studios ultimately benefits both the players, and the studios themselves, forcing us to always do better.”
I definitely agree- without the existence of Bethesda and their games, CD Projekt RED would never have delivered The Witcher 3 in the form that they did. And The Witcher 3 being as thoroughly better than Bethesda’s products as it is should definitely, hopefully, push Bethesda into stepping their game up too. And in the end, we’re just going to get better and better products.
