With just one week to go before his latest game's release, Jonathan Blow has announced that The Witness will cost $39.99/£29.99. Pre-orders went live today on Steam, Humble Store and the game's website – the latter of which went down for a number of hours due to high demand.
You've only one more week to wait for The Witness, but probably a wee bit longer for these PC games.
"Website has been crushed by massive demand," said The Witness' official Twitter earlier today following high volumes of traffic shortly after pre-orders were announced today. A tweet moments later from Blow suggested folk pre-order his non-combat, exploratory puzzle game instead via Steam or the Humble Store.
The long-awaited follow-up to Blow's debut venture Braid has been some eight years in the making. In that time a number of voice actors who'll help relay the game's narrative has cropped up.
Blow himself has spoken out about how The Witness' puzzles will "help exercise your natural intelligence" compared to other genre-similar games, yet this announcement is the first time he's ever mentioned price. The amount makes sense given that Blow has allegedly spent the fortune accrued by Braid, but the $39.99/£29.99 is still slightly higher than I expected. That said, I loved Braid and reckon Blow will deliver when The Witness arrives January 26.
Let us know what you think of the price and if you'll be pre-ordering The Witness in the comments below.