Due to soaring prices for several hardware components in the industry, both Playstation 5 and Xbox systems have seen a sharp spike in pricing which has also resulted in a delay for the launch of the next-gen consoles, but none of that is going to affect developer CD Project and in a recent interview with The Game Business, the studio’s joint CEO Michał Nowakowski has explained why.
“Consoles are still necessary to broaden the audience on the casual or semi-casual level. It’s important to have [something] easy to plug in and enjoy gaming,” he said. “I’m a big believer that they’re going to weather the storm. Pricing is the objective challenge. And the rumors… we hear them about the next gen being delayed. I don’t know if they’re true.”
According to him, the value of the games themselves are far more important than the platforms:
“Content is the king. And if the content is right, people will find a way to play it,” Nowakowski explained. “When we launch, if PS5, Xbox Series X/S is what people are playing, we’re going to be there. We’re going to find a business model that’s going to work for us, that’s going to be fine for players, and that’s it.
“If you ask the dev team, they will always answer: ‘Give us as much power as you can, because we want to show off the best stuff.’ That’s the way they’re wired. But they’re realistic. If the next-gen gets delayed, it could be the case that some ideas are put on a shelf for the future. We’d have to adjust. We’re not worried on the commercial side. Consoles are here to stay.”
CD Project Red is currently working on The Witcher 4 which targets a 2028 launch window and is expected to be part of a new trilogy of open world fantasy action RPGs.
