Witcher 3 downgrade illustrates game hype at its worst

When The Witcher 3 was first being hyped a few months ago, the gameplay clips and the trailer looked amazing. But when the game was released, many people noticed that it looked… slightly less amazing.

It's not unusual for a game's graphics quality to be downgraded (or in the developers words, "optimized") before release. The same thing happened to Watchdogs recently. It's a combination of overenthusiastic developers and overzealous marketing teams, wanting to make their game look its best in the early stages to drum up excitement.

However, a lot of players feel that it amounts to a bait and switch. Particularly when a studio is pushing pre-orders, based mainly on the hype from the early version.

Image courtesy CD Projekt Red