Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red announced last week that its new-gen update for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, originally set to release in Q2 of 2022, was delayed “until further notice.”
As for why, the studio said it was moving the upgrade’s development in-house and evaluating the scope of the update. However, many took “until further notice” as a not-so-great sign that the update was in trouble, especially in light of CDPR revealing that it’s no longer using an outside studio to handle the update and instead doing it in-house. Some reports referred to the delay as an “indefinite delay,” which often comes with the implication of “development hell.”
In a new investors call, though, CDPR senior vice president of business development Michał Nowakowski explained that the delay is not in development hell.
“I’ve been looking at the headlines that popped up here and there over the internet, and I’ve seen one that really drew my attention, which is, ‘Wicher 3 next-gen delayed indefinitely,’ which sounds like the game is in some sort of development hell,” Nowalski said, as reported by PC Gamer. “I want to state this is not the fact. There’s been a lot of insinuations that we’re going to launch, like, June next year or something like that. That’s completely not the case.
“Everything we’re saying is, we have taken the development of the game in-house. That game is going to be finished in-house. We’re evaluating our time, that requies a bit of investigation. That’s all we’re saying. Nobody’s saying the game is delayed [with] some monumental time gap ahead of us. That’s as much as I can say about Witcher next-gen, but I really want to emphasize that fact.”
PC Gamer reports that later in the investors call, Kowakowski told investors that “not many” developers are working on the new-gen update, estimating around 15 with additional external support staff, seemingly indicating that the update is closer to being done that not.
“Taking over this project will not affect the development of our next game,” he said.
For more, read about the Witcher 3 new-gen update delay and then check out this story about how The Witcher 3 has sold more than 40 million copies. Read about CDPR’s announcement of a new Witcher game that’s going to be made in Unreal Engine 5 after that.
[Source: PC Gamer]
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Wesley LeBlanc is an Associate Editor for Game Informer. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes. Feel free to DM him there or email him at wesleyleblanc@gameinformer.com for news tips, potential stories, and more.
