Update: Lamenting that "we cannot talk with [co-developer Widescreen Games] in normal business way," CD Projekt has issued a response that places the blame of the delayed payment and subsequent project freeze on Widescreen Games.

Though CD Projekt has still yet to offer its promised statement on the fate of The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf, co-developer Widescreen Games today announced that the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 RPG has been suspended due to "financial issues."

Announced last December, The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf was said to be "completely rebuilt pixel by pixel" over CD Projekt's 2007 PC release, complete with enhanced graphics and a new combat system. It was due this fall, published by Atari.

"The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf has been suspended pending the resolution of financial issues between the different project partners," Widescreen director Olivier Masclef said in a French press release noticed by GameBanshee.

The suspension came after CD Projekt supposedly missed "a big payment that we were supposed to receive," Masclef explained to VG247. "After having committed to the project but not being covered financially on it for three months, I [had] no choice."

"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," he added. "We have it running here, and I can tell you that if it hits the shelves one day it's going to be great."

Meanwhile, CD Projekt claims that "all payments were done on time according to milestone plan," with Widescreen-caused delays leading to later payments.

The company's response popped up as a comment on the VG247 article, with a CD Projekt representative confirming its legitimacy to Shacknews.

CD Projekt's take on the events are as follows:

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!

Michal Kicinski

Joint CEO

CD Projekt Group