Open world games: what to expect for the next generation

The Witcher 3 is the first in the series to feature an open world map. Image credit: CD Projekt RED

With open-world games yet to exploit the power of new-gen consoles, we have reason to be excited

This article originally appeared on ScreenRobot.com: http://bit.ly/N0Efxb

Cast your mind back to a particularly momentous event in summer 2013. No, not Facebook introducing hashtags, that was rubbish. I’m talking about that haven of gaming nerdiness, E3, and the thing that particularly stood out about the event- the unveiling of a wave of open-world games for next-gen consoles.

Everything from Assassin’s Creed IV, to Dying Light and Metal Gear Solid V is, was, and will be open world. There were even open-world driving games, like The Crew and Need for Speed Rivals. There were more open world titles than you could shake a beautifully rendered, non-linear, free-roaming stick at. This raises the question of what the next-gen platforms mean for the genre.

One person who can shed some light is Tadeusz Zieliński, of Polish developer CD Projekt RED. Since 2002, the Warsaw-based studio has been working on The Witcher games, but it is only with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt that the series will incorporate a free-roaming element. According to Zieliński, the advent of a new generation of gaming consoles played an important role in this decision. ”In the case of The Witcher, setting the game in an open world seemed natural from the very start but, to be frank, it’s also a very resource heavy and experience-reliant endeavour,” says Zieliński. ”Hence we had to wait until now to do it and maintain the quality we’re known for.”