Huge Witcher 3 leak reveals ending details, monsters, plot
"We strongly advise against accessing them," CD Projekt Red says.
Dozens of internal design documents for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt have been posted online, revealing key details about the game's story, missions, enemies and ending.
The files were reportedly stolen from a CD Projekt Red employee whose Google Drive was hacked into, then posted to 4chan and Reddit.
CD Projekt Red has confirmed the leak to Eurogamer and advised fans against accessing the files due to their spoiler-ridden content.
"It has come to our attention that some of the production files for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt have emerged on the internet," the company's marketing boss Michal Platkow-Gilewski told us.
"A portion of the files contains information about the story of the game so we strongly advise against accessing them, as this may heavily impact and spoil your future gaming experience.
"We also like to reassure everyone that the disclosure of said documents does not affect the development cycle in any way."
Browsing the documents ourselves we have seen a file with details for the game's ending, including a list of final outcomes depending on choices made throughout the game.
But much can be gleaned from the other documents, too. There's a full bestiary of monsters (including several cut from the game's final version), detailed descriptions of missions, PDFs full of production art and lists of animations.
One internal document describes the game's E3 2014 demo, with a description of how the opening sequence should play out for those attending.
"We start with a cut-scene with the camera descending down on the Baron's castle, showing off the lovely open world surrounding it. The camera tracks in on the window of the cottage where we talk to Keira Metz. Cue dialogue.
So far so good.
"We talk to Keira Metz and she gives us a task: remove the curse from the tower in the swamps. (Boob physics eye candy, appropriately prepared dialogue)."
Of course, this text was never meant to see the light of day. On the other hand, it's illustrative of the author's attitude, which is unfortunate to say the least.
Intriguingly, another document titled "M03 - Alpha (Feature Complete) - 16.02.2014" suggests that the main game was in a completable state on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One back in February of this year.
CD Projekt Red's progress at the time had reached a "fully functioning, full-featured core version of the game with main path story and plot quests for all characters completed and implemented.
"Content is still being developed, but design and feature set are locked," the document reads. "No known blockers are present, but random crashes, functional and cosmetic bugs may still occur. The entire game can be played without progression blocking issues on PC, XBONE and PS4 although performance is expected to be worse on consoles."
That said, a long list of remaining tasks follows, with work still to be completed including final music, dialogue recording and debugging.
The document also states that "SmartGlass will not be supported yet" and "Kinect will not be supported yet" - suggesting that exclusive features for the Xbox One version may be included in the final game.
The Witcher 3 was originally due to be released this year, but was delayed in March - after the alpha build was completed - until February 2015.