The studio stated that it was transferring the upgrade’s development in-house and analysing the scope of the update as reasons for the delay. Many saw “until further notice” as an indication that the update was in jeopardy, especially after CDPR said that it would no longer utilise an outside studio to handle the upgrade and would instead execute it in-house. In other stories, the delay was referred to as a “indefinite delay,” which carries the connotation 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.