The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf has been 'frozen'.

[Ghostbear]

Citing payment problems Olivier Masclef of Widescreen Games has announced they have frozen development on the console port of the PC role playing game, The Witcher.

Originally Posted by Olivier Masclef

After having a payment being broken by CD Projekt - a big payment that we were supposed to receive - and after having committed to the project but not being covered financially on it for three months, I hold no choice but to put the team on hold,

Sounds like CD Projekt isn't paying their bills or is this a case of mistaken blame? Hopefully, we will find out soon.

Update: CDP Joint CEO responds on VG247.

Originally Posted by Michal Kicinski, Joint CEO of CDP

1. All payments were done on time according to milestone plan.
2. Truth is that payments were later than originally planned but this was solely due to delays in production. The delays were growing in the project due to WSG continued to miss the deadlines.

Source: Shacknews, Game Banshee, VG247

[Telefrog]

I just posted this very ariticle on the main thread in the console section! The explanation from CDP is going to be a hell of a read.

[Purple Santa]

Unfreeze it dammit! I wanted to play this on my console.

[Telefrog]

Oh snap!

It is sad that we cannot talk with WSG in normal business way, but communicate through media. It is absolutely not our style of making business, and we answer here as we feel forced to do this to clarify the unclear information:

1. All payments were done on time according to milestone plan.

2. Truth is that payments were later than originally planned but this was solely due to delays in production. The delays were growing in the project due to WSG continued to miss the deadlines.

3. Delays and risks of further development by WSG were unacceptable by CD Projekt (this happened even though CDProjekt RED was constantly increasing main team involvement to help in the production). The most important fact is that development process didn’t make planned release date possible and moreover propositions of the new release date were changing few times. Besides the schedule, technical incapability created a risk of missing planned quality which is absolutely unacceptable. And this brought an end in our cooperation with WSG.

4. Currently the works are on hold. We are evaluating all possible options to continue the production.

Making this decision was extremely difficult and sad as we know that many people are waiting for this project. We do our best to find a way out of this situation. But final decision must guarantee high quality of the product, otherwise we won’t continue the production no matter what consequences it will bring. We are committed to the highest quality of all our games, and this is unnegotiable for us.

So no matter what the final decision or solution we will find, please be sure that it will be the best for the game quality, and satisfaction of gamers, which is the most important for us!

Michal Kicinski
Joint CEO
CD Projekt Group

It's getting hot in here!

[Ghostbear]

Originally Posted by Telefrog

Oh snap!



It's getting hot in here!

Yes, what this sounds like is that Widescreen Games had a different time table than CD Projekt did. I used your info to update the story, thanks!

[Karak]

Originally Posted by Ghostbear

Yes, what this sounds like is that Widescreen Games had a different time table than CD Projekt did.

Yep one thought it was going to get done and the other didn't

[National Kato]

Great, so I guess I will have to fix my PC to finish playing this game.

[Zanzibar]

This is, unfortunately, exceptionally common. If the developer is turning in the milestones late and/or the milestone builds are rejected by the publisher as not meeting the milestone's objectives, then money gets really tight for the developer. Pretty sure that WSG tried to use the media to pressure the publisher to give them money to continue in lieu of actually meeting their milestone. The ploy apparently backfired.

It's particularly interesting that the publisher makes note that they were even shifting more employee resources to get the project back on track and WSG STILL couldn't catch up.

[torrefaction]

Hah. Weak, but I'm with Zanzibar. If you can't meet your quality and feature milestones, you're not going to get anymore money.

That's just how that shit works.

[Disgustipated]

Maybe WSG is stretching themselves thin by having so many projects. They should either A. finish the 360/PS3 version of Witcher or B. work on The Witcher 2 and put the 360/PS3 version on the backburner.

I'm thinking A will be more profitable, and take less time.

[torrefaction]

Originally Posted by Disgustipated

Maybe WSG is stretching themselves thin by having so many projects. They should either A. finish the 360/PS3 version of Witcher or B. work on The Witcher 2 and put the 360/PS3 version on the backburner.

I'm thinking A will be more profitable, and take less time.

I'm pretty sure you misunderstood.

Of the 3 projects, WSG is only working on the console version.

[JayK47]

Well this is at least better than canceled. Because there seems to be a chance this could get picked up again and released. And I do appreciate that they care about quality. Good to hear every once and a while.

[mister slim]

I'm really surprised CD Projekt went with Widescreen anyway. They did a few PS2 games, nothing on quality, and haven't shipped a PS3 or 360 game yet.

[Xerxes]

I think signals just got mixed. Hell, both of those guys think the put it on hold. Stop sending the money isn't putting the project on hold. You have to tell them things are on hold. WSG sounds like they just went on hold only to find out CDP actually already considered things on hold.

All bullshit. If something is on hold, people should have been talking to avoid it. If milestones aren't being met when you wanted them to, did you let WSG? Sounds like WSG is being left out of plans they very well should be included in.

I like the idea of shit on hold. Fills me with hope it'll still be coming out.

[muddi900]

Originally Posted by JayK47

Well this is at least better than canceled. Because there seems to be a chance this could get picked up again and released. And I do appreciate that they care about quality. Good to hear every once and a while.

It is just a fancy way of saying 'Canceled'. I am playing it on the PC and it's mighty fun. So sucks to be you peasant gamers on your lamebox 520

[MagGnome]

It's too bad this is on hold, but hopefully the sequel is still humming along.

[Xerxes]

Originally Posted by MagGnome

It's too bad this is on hold, but hopefully the sequel is still humming along.

Since they are doing that at home base, I doubt they stopped giving themselves checks.

[MagGnome]

Originally Posted by Xerxes

Since they are doing that at home base, I doubt they stopped giving themselves checks.

Really...you think?

[Xerxes]

I wonder if Witcher 2 was ever coming to consoles. When Witcher 3 went into production?

[Slack3r78]

Originally Posted by Zanzibar

This is, unfortunately, exceptionally common. If the developer is turning in the milestones late and/or the milestone builds are rejected by the publisher as not meeting the milestone's objectives, then money gets really tight for the developer. Pretty sure that WSG tried to use the media to pressure the publisher to give them money to continue in lieu of actually meeting their milestone. The ploy apparently backfired.

It's particularly interesting that the publisher makes note that they were even shifting more employee resources to get the project back on track and WSG STILL couldn't catch up.

That's pretty much the gist I got, as well. Knowing somebody in the industry got the same read of it as I did makes me feel a little better.