Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 dev admits it screwed up, explains why
Will ditch open world for its next game.
It's fair to say Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 launched in a bit of a state. It came with five minute load times but without its planned multiplayer portion. Oh, and there were more than a few technical hitches.
The fact the game had been delayed multiple times signalled a troubled development - and now developer CI Games has held its hands up. In a note to press, the Polish company admitted it had made a "big mistake" with the game, and explained what went wrong.
In short, CI Games bit off more than it could chew as it struggled to take the Sniper Ghost Warrior series triple-A and open world.
"We've learned a lot as a team over the course of development for Sniper Ghost Warrior 3, much of which I believe has shaped the talented individuals within CI Games and the entire studio for the better," said company boss Marek Tymiñski.
"When we began development of SGW3, we decided on such a relatively large scale of the game with its open world that now we realise it was just too ambitious versus what we could have been able to deliver in any reasonable amount of time.
"We simply made the wrong math considering the size of our team and the originally given timeframe. By positioning the game in a AAA category, it took us away from what we could have done great. Instead we spent too much effort trying to catch up with other AAA titles in terms of their production values and features. That was a big mistake."
Tymiñski added that CI Games has learned its lesson, and plans to make a new tactical shooter without an open world.
"We're planning to make a great tactical shooter where we can focus on exciting gameplay, some key mechanics, and missions that have depth without all of the trappings of a large open-world setting," Tymiñski said.
"We want to make this game even more tactical than SGW3, and I believe the last three years have created a wonderful foundation that we can build upon for our next game."
CI stressed that it will continue to support Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 with future updates through 2017, and it's also working on a sequel for Lords of the Fallen.