CD Projekt Red joint CEO Michał Nowakowski opened up about the developer’s reaction to the rising price of consoles and the possibility of next-generation hardware getting delayed due to RAMaggedon.
Speaking with The Game Business in a September 1 interview, Nowakowski said he’s “not worried” about console costs potentially affecting sales of CDPR’s titles.
“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 told the outlet. “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.”
He’s not very fussed about this possibility, either. For him, how CDPR reaches gamers is “a little irrelevant” — it’s the content that matters most, regardless of how it gets in players’ hands.
“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.”
This last bit is what’s raising eyebrows among fans. With PlayStation making the sweeping decision to end production of physical game discs starting January 2028, many are worried that consoles will eventually go the way of the Dodo if other big brands like Xbox or, God forbid, Nintendo, follow suit.
But CDPR, at least, is confident that consoles will stick around as long as gamers want to use them — and that seems to be the case, at least judging by players’ overwhelming reactions to PlayStation’s vision for an all-digital future.
CDPR has been on gamers’ good side lately, notably stepping in to help an indie game dev whose equipment was stolen at gamescom by offering to send “a few things” his way.
The developer is also making sure to provide physical goodies for gamers who want to buy The Witcher 4, even if it releases after PlayStation’s game disc cutoff date.
Virginia (she/her) is IGN’s News Editor. With ten years of experience reporting on games and entertainment, she’s got a storied background in the fighting game community, influencer news, and viral online trends. Find her on Twitter at @TheeMissGlaze.