CD Projekt clarifies Witcher 2 console talk
"It's not going to look like crap, definitely."
Work won't begin on a console version of The Witcher 2 until the flagship PC release has happened, CD Projekt has explained to Eurogamer.
When that day comes, plans will be laid out for the new project, which may gain additional content beyond that of The Witcher 2 on PC.
Importantly, however, The Witcher 2 will be the same game on console as it is on PC. It won't be The Witcher 3.
"Production wise - coordination and scheduling and budgeting - this is a new project for us. But it's not going to be a completely different game: it's going to be the same storyline and everything," Thomasz Gop, senior producer at CD Projekt Red, told Eurogamer.
"We crave for potentially adding something new like some brand new content into the game. But still, we are talking about The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings."
"I can already promise you that if we're going to do this on consoles it's not going to look like crap, definitely," he added.
Gop went on to reveal that "no", the console version wasn't in production - "at least not officially".
"We're definitely not a team that can do multiple projects at the same time," he elaborated. "We're warily not doing it this way because it might compromise the quality of the first PC release."
"So no, no no no, we are not in full-scale development on the console version of the Witcher 2 right now. There were tests like a proof of concept, so we at least know that it's doable, possible. But we are not fully producing the game right now. Nuh-uh."
CD Projekt still hasn't officially announced the console version of The Witcher 2, regardless of how much of a 'sure thing' the project appears to be. That trepidation stems from The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf, a console project suspended due to Atari funding problems.
"We failed due to reasons we could not have foreseen," recalled Gop, "so it seems [a game's development is] always dependent on something. But the truth is we're not holding back [with Witcher 2 on console]; we definitely know that after finishing the PC version we want to sit down and we want to start working on this," promised Gop.
"We won't wait to see how well The Witcher 2 does on PC first," he added. "After we release The Witcher 2 on PC we just sit down with Excel or Project and make schedules, make plans. Then we will be totally glad to announce what is coming out; we know what team we have, what capacity we have, but we still have to plan out the amount of work. Then we will tell the world what we plan to do and 'it will be that day of release', potentially."
The Witcher 2 is weeks away on PC. Alec Meer, whose preview of The Witcher 2 was published today on Eurogamer, was very impressed with what he saw: "From humble roots," he wrote, "we have our king-slayer."