[Update] Some users had noted how the Xbox One S was conspicuously absent from the list of platforms supporting HDR technology. Today, CI Games reached out with the following quote:
At the time of the interview we were looking into how to deliver the best possible HDR experience to the XB1S players. Today we’re glad to announce that we will deliver the expected HDR feature to the Xbox One S!
[Original Story] Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 has been a long time coming. The second installment in the franchise came out in March 2013 to mixed critical reception. However, Sniper: Ghost Warrior as a whole proved to be rather popular with gamers given that the first two entries had already sold over 5.5 million copies in December 2014, when Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 was originally announced.
Since that very announcement, Polish developer/publisher CI Games maintained that it would be the franchise's first AAA production effort. This evidently required a longer development period: while only about two years and a half passed between the first game and its sequel, Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 is now set to launch on April 4th, 2017, over four years after the second game.
Set in modern-day Georgia, Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 will have players taking the role of retired US Black Ops soldier Jon North as he attempts to defuse a Civil War in Georgia and a potential new Cold War. On top of the campaign, the developers recently confirmed to Gamespot that there will be multiplayer content as well.
We were able to talk briefly with Dan Olthen, Executive Producer at CI Games, to bring you more information on the game.
There have been multiple release date delays for Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3. Was that merely caused by your intention to craft a more polished game?
We are treating SGW3 like a rebirth in full force of the Sniper Ghost Warrior universe.
The delays in the release are a sign of us not just polishing the game, but raising the overall quality bar and delivering upon it.
All our decisions, even the hard ones are and always will be in favor of our players.
Can you give us a brief overview of the factions we'll encounter in Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 and their relationship with the main character?
This information will be made available soon.
You said that the game has an open world. Does that mean there won't be any loading screens moving from one side of the map to the other? Also, how big is the world approximately?
Fully open world means that there won’t be loading screens while moving on one map. However, there are loadings when transitioning from one map to another.
In total we are looking at around 27 km² world, full of interesting encounters, challenges and bad guys to defeat.
What kind of intel can be extracted by enemies via interrogation? Can you tell us a few examples of this feature?
The intel is mission and location relevant and will help the player complete the missions.
Information varies from the location of items and targets to identities and other secret details about the surroundings.
Do you intend to offer multiple difficulty settings?
We will have multiple difficulty settings that give the right amount of challenge to the players.
How long will it take to fully complete Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3, on average?
Our goal is it to deliver an immersive experience of being Jon North, highly skilled and well trained Black Ops soldier, that is also a human being which has feelings, doubts and aspirations. In order to deliver this, we created a world that tells a story which puts the player into various military and personal challenges and are looking at an average playtime of 15 hours for the main storyline, and an additional 20 hours for the side missions and quests.
You have announced a prequel DLC campaign for those who pre-order the game. Will this DLC be available for purchase separately on Day One? Are you planning to have further DLCs and/or a Season Pass?
We highly appreciate the players who pre-ordered SGW3 and will honor this with exclusive content that no one else will have when the game hits the streets.
There are quite a few plans for potential DLCs and we are on it to explore which ones will expand the experience in a strong way.
Are you using CryEngine V to develop this game? Do you plan to use the engine's voxel-based Global Illumination solution?
We are using a customized version of the CryEngine and do not plan to use the voxel-based GI solution.
What resolution and frame rate are your targeting for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of the game?
PS4: 1080p@30fps
XB1: 900p@30fps
What do you think of PlayStation 4 Pro and which enhancements are you planning for this version? Is the Pro console powerful enough to deliver 4K gaming?
We are very excited about the possibilities of the PS4 Pro and definitely plan to explore some of the features to deliver a unique experience to the Pro owners, without being unfair towards the PS4 players.
The PS4 Pro is built to sport 4K gaming and our insights so far prove the power of this technology.
We are already looking forward to take all the technological advantages offered by the PS4 Pro into our development of our future games.
Some renowned game developers like id Software's Tiago Sousa have publicly stated that 4K is not worth the resource cost. Do you agree with this assessment?
It might seem like it for the moment, but once a specific standard is established by the players, the developers will have to rise to these standards if they want to keep their relevance.
We at Ci Games are closely looking into upcoming tech and movements on the consumer electronics market to be able to assess and react in a timely fashion to the trends and desires of the player community.
With more and more games getting HDR support, do you intend to add this new technology to Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3? If so, on which platforms?
We are planning to offer HDR support for the PlayStation 4 and PC.
Are you going to support multiGPU configurations at launch on PC? What about DirectX 12?
Yes, we will support multiGPU configs at launch. But due to technical reasons, we will not support DX12.
Thank you for your time.
