CD Projekt confirms console Witcher halt News

Polish developer CD Projekt RED has confirmed that work on The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf has been temporarily suspended.

Speaking on the official website, CD Projekt RED boss Adam Kicinski said the console adaptation was simply not on track to meet the desired level of quality within the desired timeframe.

"The decision to suspend work on ROTWW was one of the most difficult in the history of our company," writes Kicinski, translated by Google. "We put this project in the hearts of many, a huge amount of energy and money."

"In this way the work was already quite advanced. However, the subsequent acceptance milestone was increasingly problematic. Threat was not only the date of its release, but [also] what is absolutely unacceptable for us - the quality of production. We assume that every game [bearing the] CD Projekt RED logo will be significantly better than the previous production. In the latter case, ROTWW work does not go in the direction assumed by us."

"[We're] currently looking for other possible scenarios for the development of this project," he adds. "We will do everything in order not to disappoint our fans and to not waste inserted work, but we must remember that the quality of our game is our absolute priority."

Rise of the White Wolf developer Widescreen Games said late last month that lack of payment meant the project had ground to a halt. Publisher Atari has yet to comment.

The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf was to appear on PS3 and Xbox 360 this autumn with a raft of improvements, including "a completely new combat system".

The Witcher on PC recently had a similar overhaul courtesy of an Enhanced Edition, which we tackled in a separate review.

Kicinski adds that CD Projekt RED has been working on a major new project since the release of The Witcher in October 2007. Information is under lock and key for now, but we're promised more in the next two months.