UPDATED: Rise of the White Wolf "Suspended" Over Pay Dispute

Andy Chalk

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Nov 12, 2002
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UPDATED: Rise of the White Wolf "Suspended" Over Pay Dispute


French studio The Witcher [http://www.wsg.fr/] after months of not being paid, leading to serious doubts about the game's future, but CD Projekt denies the claim.

Word slipped out yesterday that CD Projekt [http://become.thewitcher.com/] declined to address the matter, saying only, "We will comment on this in [an] official release soon." But co-developer Widescreen Games apparently didn't want to wait that long, issuing a statement of its own claiming that work on the project "has been suspended pending the resolution of financial issues between the different project partners."

"Basically, after a few months of not being paid, we stopped," Widescreen Games CEO Olivier Masclef told GamesIndustry [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/financial-dispute-puts-the-witcher-games-on-hold]. "We've not been paid for a few months and we had a very nasty broken payment. We had no choice but to put the product on hold. We've not been able to find a solution."

He added that the studio had been left out of discussions between CD Projekt and publisher Atari [http://www.atari.com] and had not been informed of such things as new milestone dates and added features Atari was expecting. Work on the project ground to a halt three weeks ago and while the announcement of the suspension expressed hope that the dispute could be resolved, Masclef sounded less optimistic in follow-up comments.

"It's unfortunate because we have very nice technology, we're replicated all the features of The Witcher," he said. "Atari has validated the product and seen that our tech is working. And we've heard that the distributors have been committing a very high volume for the title, and it was extremely promising. It's a very silly situation. I can't disclose the budget, but it would be a profitable title if it hit the shelves. But at this stage it will not."

UPDATE: While he said it was "sad" that CD Projekt and Widescreen Games had to communicate through the media rather than through "normal business" channels, CD Projekt CEO Michal Kicinski has issued his own statement in response to Widescreen's allegations, claiming that all payments were made to Widescreen based on the "milestone plan." Payments were late because of quality concerns and production delays at Widescreen, he said, which eventually soured the relationship between the two companies.

"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," Kicinski said. "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."

Sources: GameFocus [http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/46607/The-Witcher-Rise-Of-The-White-Wolf-Developer-Confirms-Cancellation]


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cainx10a

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May 17, 2008
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Well, that's too bad. I mean, this game would have been successful on the consoles as well, can't believe CD Projekt ran out of loonies.
 

ckeymel

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Jun 24, 2008
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Optimus Prime said:
Damn devs should work to please us, not so they can get money to eat. Stupid devs...

Anyway, why would you wait so long before stopping?
Unfortunately it's sometimes common that services rendered will not be paid for in a timely fashion, even before the economic crisis. Most of the time it doesn't make sense to stop working when a check doesn't appear on time because it will - eventually.

At my old job as a graphic designer at a firm we had clients who would just sit on their bills until we would raise a fuss. It's annoying and sometimes I would have to go without regular paychecks, but it is what it is.
 

Andy Chalk

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Nov 12, 2002
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There's also the fact that a lot of people just love what they do and don't want to give it up. It's unfortunate that being in that position leaves them more prone to being taken advantage of but that's the nature of the game. Sooner or later the foot has to go down - people have to eat and pay rent, after all - but you'll put up with a lot when you really enjoy what you do.

I hope this turns out to be an actual suspension and not an outright cancellation. Not that I care about consoles but The Witcher has the potential to be a fantastic RPG franchise and I really want to see it flourish.
 

ZippyDSMlee

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Sep 1, 2007
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Well it looks to be a mess while I hate some of the implementations of the gameplay its one that needs all the success it can get! I wish them luck! Mabye when the sequel rolls out they can get funds to them and finish it!!