The Witcher Multiplayer Spin 352m6b Off Studio Hit With Layoffs Due to Game Reboot: Report

Developer The Molasses Flood has reportedly laid off 29 employees. 6i2o6s

Written by Rahul Chettiyar, Edited by Manas Mitul | Updated: 16 May 2023 15:15 IST

The Witcher Multiplayer Spin-Off Studio Hit With Layoffs Due to Game Reboot: Report

Photo Credit: CD Projekt Red 1k5k1c

A new The Witcher trilogy is also in development

Highlights

The game was announced in 2022 under the codename ‘Sirius’
The Witcher multiplayer game underwent a developmental restart in April
A solo campaign was confirmed before, but now its status is unclear

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CD Projekt Red. At the time, a single-player campaign mode was mentioned as well, though now, it's unclear if it's still on the table.

The Molasses Flood was founded in 2014 by a group of veteran developers who worked on The Witcher maker in 2021. “Because the project changed, so has the composition of the team that's working on it–mainly on The Molasses Flood's side,” a CD Projekt Red spokesperson said in a statement to Kotaku. Back in March, the publisher filed an impairment charge on Sirius, which is naturally done as a means to write off assets because they serve negligible value to the company. But during a financial earnings call in April, the company confirmed that the project had not been cancelled and that it was simply being reevaluated.

“So this is a project which is, I would say, insourced. It's also new to us in of design and format. For those reasons, it's very different from the big productions we are known for,” Adam Kiciński, CEO, CD Projekt Red, said in the Q&A session. “To stay competitive, we have to keep looking for new ways to extend our franchises.”

The multiplayer-focused ‘Sirius' was update on The Witcher 4 in March 2022, which marks the first entry in the new trilogy.

CD Projekt Red is also working on the announced a sequel, codenamed ‘Orion,' which is touted to take the “Cyberpunk franchise further and continue harnessing the potential of this dark future universe.” Kiciński noted at the time that development on the sequel was still in the early stages and required further growth of the team.

From Elden Ring to BGMI's ban, 2022 gave us a lot in the gaming space. We discuss it all on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

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