This week in FFFUUUUUUU.. Witcher console port cancelled

GameBanshee has learned from an inside industry contact that The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf has indeed been cancelled.

Details are sketchy, but the following facts have been confirmed: after the release of The Witcher, CD Projekt Red took the financial obligation of starting 3 projects simultaneously, a console port of The Witcher, and two more titles based on The Witcher intellectual property, one of which was The Witcher 2.

As the financial crisis hit, the studio was affected as well, finding itself incapable of managing all three projects and forced to lay off a significant portion of its staff. The third Witcher IP project was cancelled, and its entire crew was let go or left of their own volition. A second round of layoffs followed as The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf was cancelled, including around two dozen people losing their jobs yesterday.

All funds and manpower have been redirected to a single project, The Witcher 2, which will be a multi-platform title for PC and consoles.

Cal wrote:Aaarrrggghhh! It's the curse of 'Games I Like The Look Of' getting nobbled by the publisher/developer prior to release. How many times has this happened now? It is good that we will still be getting Witcher 2 on 360 (hopefully - but on this evidence don't go holding your breath, folks). Really, it f*cks me off - all this sh*tty 'casual' bollocks gets to market, filling the shelves with shovelware and tat for the masses, but a promising, ambitious RPG like this - of course - gets strangled at birth.

The 'games industry': don'tcha love it??!!

TheTurnipKing wrote:

Cal wrote:Aaarrrggghhh! It's the curse of 'Games I Like The Look Of' getting nobbled by the publisher/developer prior to release. How many times has this happened now? It is good that we will still be getting Witcher 2 on 360 (hopefully - but on this evidence don't go holding your breath, folks). Really, it f*cks me off - all this sh*tty 'casual' bollocks gets to market, filling the shelves with shovelware and tat for the masses, but a promising, ambitious RPG like this - of course - gets strangled at birth.

The 'games industry': don'tcha love it??!!

You'd have a point if it wasn't for the fact that the first game already made it to market. Just not to your preferred format. Which is a bitch, of course, but that's always the way these things go.

Shadow wrote:

TheTurnipKing wrote:

Cal wrote:Aaarrrggghhh! It's the curse of 'Games I Like The Look Of' getting nobbled by the publisher/developer prior to release. How many times has this happened now? It is good that we will still be getting Witcher 2 on 360 (hopefully - but on this evidence don't go holding your breath, folks). Really, it f*cks me off - all this sh*tty 'casual' bollocks gets to market, filling the shelves with shovelware and tat for the masses, but a promising, ambitious RPG like this - of course - gets strangled at birth.

The 'games industry': don'tcha love it??!!

You'd have a point if it wasn't for the fact that the first game already made it to market. Just not to your preferred format. Which is a bitch, of course, but that's always the way these things go.

Surprising though that they cancelled the port, dontcha think? You'd have thought in tough financial times a console port of a game you already have would have made more financial sense than a full sequel, plus the fact that without the first game appearing on consoles there will be considerable consumer apathy toward the sequel (on consoles).

Extralife wrote:I'm guessing they decided there wasn't much point bringing out the console version of the first since it would simply damage sales of the second game if released so close.

Though CD Projekt has still yet to offer its promised statement on the fate of The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf, co-developer Widescreen Games today announced that the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 RPG has been suspended due to "financial issues."

Announced last December, The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf was said to be "completely rebuilt pixel by pixel" over CD Projekt's 2007 PC release, complete with enhanced graphics and a new combat system. It was due this fall, published by Atari.

"The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf has been suspended pending the resolution of financial issues between the different project partners," Widescreen director Olivier Masclef said in a French press release noticed by GameBanshee.

The suspension came after CD Projekt missed "a big payment that we were supposed to receive," Masclef explained to VG247. "After having committed to the project but not being covered financially on it for three months, I [had] no choice."

"I will try to find any solution for the fans. The Witcher on console is an extremely promising title that's awaited by a lot of people," he added. "We have it running here, and I can tell you that if it hits the shelves one day it's going to be great."