Following yesterday's rumour the console version of The Witcher (Rise of the White Wolf), would no longer be released, we learn now there was at least some truth to the matter.

According to a press release sent out today, development on the game is now "frozen," in an attempt to "resolve financial problems among the various project partners" (publisher Atari, creator CD Projekt RED, and Widescreeen Games, or WSG, who made the engine the adaptation was to use). The suspension occurred after a meeting between the three parties, called by WSG's manager Olivier Masclef.

"We regret this measure, particularly on behalf of the fans who were impatiently awaiting the release of the game," commented Masclef. "I hope that we can find an amicable solution with our present and former partners involved in this ambitious project."

Mikee from the Good Old Games (GOG) team, who are directly affiliated with CDP, stated yesterday in the site's forums the speculation surrounding the rumours were blown out of proportion:

"Rumors from Poland about our bad financial situation are highly exaggerated:) (spread mostly by our beloved;) local competitors). Indeed we try to keep our costs on reasonable level and some layoffs were needed to do that - but this is to keep company in a good financial shape. And CD Projekt RED indeed decreased stuff from 80+ people to around 65 but all key people are of course in this team."

Meanwhile, a VG247 article gave us a less formal take on the matter from Masclef:

“After having a payment being broken by CD Projekt - a big payment that we were supposed to receive - and after having committed to the project but not being covered financially on it for three months, I hold no choice but to put the team on hold,” he said, adding CDP's deal with Atari was "out of kilter" with theirs.

“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. We have it running here, and I can tell you that if it hits the shelves one day it’s going to be great… I feel sorry for the fans and I feel sorry for [the game's distributor] Namco Bandai. I don’t know [if the game will ever be completed]. I can’t find a financial solution by myself. I don’t own the IP - CD Projekt owns the IP and Atari owns the distribution rights.”

Finally, the plot thickens yet again with a comment from CDP Group's Joint CEO Michael Kicinski on the article, verified to shacknews by the company:

It is sad that we cannot talk with WSG in normal business way, but communicate through media. It is absolutely not our style of making business, and we answer here as we feel forced to do this to clarify the unclear information:

1. All payments were done on time according to milestone plan.

2. Truth is that payments were later than originally planned but this was solely due to delays in production. The delays were growing in the project due to WSG continued to miss the deadlines.

3. Delays and risks of further development by WSG were unacceptable by CD Projekt (this happened even though CDProjekt RED was constantly increasing main team involvement to help in the production). The most important fact is that development process didn't make planned release date possible and moreover propositions of the new release date were changing few times. Besides the schedule, technical incapability created a risk of missing planned quality which is absolutely unacceptable. And this brought an end in our cooperation with WSG.

4. Currently the works are on hold. We are evaluating all possible options to continue the production.

Making this decision was extremely difficult and sad as we know that many people are waiting for this project. We do our best to find a way out of this situation. But final decision must guarantee high quality of the product, otherwise we won't continue the production no matter what consequences it will bring. We are committed to the highest quality of all our games, and this is unnegotiable for us.

So no matter what the final decision or solution we will find, please be sure that it will be the best for the game quality, and satisfaction of gamers, which is the most important for us!

 Who would've thought it'd be so hard to release an adaptation?