Yesterday, CD Projekt Red announced that it had delayed the next-gen upgrade for The Witcher 3 once again. Fans were naturally concerned by the delay being “until further notice” which many took to mean the upgrade had been delayed indefinitely. In a call with investors today, CD Projekt Red aimed to distance itself from the “indefinitely” tag that had been attached to the delay. Stressing that the upgrade isn’t 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, ‘Witcher 3 next-gen delayed indefinitely,’ which sounds like the game is in some sort of development hell.
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. The game is going to be finished in-house. We’re evaluating our time, that requires 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.
Michal Nowakowski, CD Projekt RED
We reported yesterday that the move to in-house development on the upgrade could have something to do with the war in Ukraine. A Russian branch of Saber Interactive had been in charge of the upgrade until this point. Bringing development on the upgrade in-house could be due to difficulties that have cropped up with working with Russian companies. Even if it is just a branch of an American company.
CD Projekt didn’t clarify what “until further notice” means in terms of when people can expect the game. It could be that the move to in-house development means that the studio itself needs to figure out when it can deliver the upgrade. Regardless, the strong assertion that progress on the upgrade is being made is at least reassuring to fans who have been waiting for this upgrade since 2020.
