Given that Jonathan Blow’s idyllic platformer The Witness first reared its head during Sony’s unveiling of the PlayStation 4 all the way back in February 2013, there’s no question that the auteur’s latest work is a tale that grew immensely in the telling. As a matter of fact, when the developer and his studio Thekla Inc. slated the new IP for a January release, it was claimed that the final build was more than ten times the size of what was originally planned.
But now, Blow is contemplating the possibility of releasing a physical version of The Witness shortly after its digital debut next month. Word comes by way of the developer’s blog post, revealing that Thekla has “been in talks with a couple of parties for a while about that possibility.”
Don’t expect this physical release to arrive day and date with the game’s debut, though; as Blow rightfully points out, manufacturing and distribution issues would likely mean that The Witness won’t crop up on disc until late February or early March – if it hits store shelves at all, that is.
Alongside today’s teaser was a new gameplay trailer trumpeting the game’s innate cinematic design. Panning across the lush world of The Witness in one sweeping single take, it’s a delightful snippet of what to expect in only a month’s time, and given that the game reportedly boasts close to 80 hours worth of content, it seems we’ll be spending an awful long time wandering the autumnal landscape that Blow and his team have crafted.
At long last, The Witness will launch across PS4 and PC as a digital release on January 26, with a physical launch tentatively penciled in for shortly thereafter.