The Witness preorders go live with a $40 price tag

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The Witness, Jonathan Blow's sprawling puzzle game follow-up to Braid, is now available for preorder on Steam and the Humble Store. The bonus for preordering the game, which will sell for $40, is “the warm fuzzy feeling” that comes from paying for things up front, Blow said, adding, “It's exactly the same as buying the game at launch, except earlier.”

The response to the $40 price tag has not been entirely positive; comments on various popular gaming forums have expressed surprise and disappointment that it's much higher than some expected. But Blow has previously said that The Witness is going to be a very big game, with up to 100 hours of play for “a completionist who wants to wring every last drop out of the game.” For the sake of comparison, $40 is also the price for The Talos Principle, another outstanding and very atmospheric puzzle game, although we can't say yet if The Witness will live up to that standard.

The Witness is set for release on January 26. Find out more at The-Witness.net, or have a look at our preview from April.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.