Rumor: Problems at The Witcher development studio?

It wasn’t long ago that developer CD Projekt was promoting the fact that their fantasy RPG The Witcher had sold over 1.2 million copies. This week, however, rumors have been flying that the studio is in the midst of a financial crisis and has canceled or put on hold two Witcher follow-up projects.

Other sites have reported on the now public feud between CD Projekt and Widescreen Games over a console version of The Witcher which is now on hold after being announced last December. However GameBanshee is also reporting through unnamed sources that due to the current worldwide financial crisis another game at the studio was cancelled with CD Projekt “forced to lay off a significant portion of its staff”. The current “on hold” status of the console Witcher game has also caused more layoffs this week at CD Projekt, according to the article, claiming that the remaining staff are all focused on working on The Witcher 2, a still unannounced game that the story claims is being developed for both PC and consoles.

When contacted, CD Projekt’’s PR rep told Big Download he could not comment on the state of projects that have not been announced yet. He did tell us, “I can say that we have had some layoffs, as has been the case with a lot of other companies in the industry. I don’t think that’s anything out of the ordinary.” In addition to CD Projekt’s main development office in Poland, the company also owns the GoG.com retro PC download site. It also owns Metropolis Software which has been working for some time on a first person shooter, They. CD Projekt’s PR rep did say on the record, “it’s generally business as usual throughout the CD Projekt Group – Metropolis Software, CD Projekt RED and GOG.com are all still working on projects.”