Frogwares has been having a rough go of it recently, which makes sense considering the main studio is in Ukraine, which is currently mired in the Russia-Ukraine war. Even still, Frogwares has kept itself busy, releasing the Chapter 1 DLC for Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One, which is pretty damn admirable, honestly. It's like the old adage where your dad/grandparents say that they walked uphill in the snow for 10 miles to make it to school, except it's actually true. What sucks about this is that the Xbox One version of Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One has been delayed, although it is still coming out on the PS4 this month.
Why did this happen? Well, Frogwares has had trouble optimizing the last-gen version of the game, and so the decision has been made due to that and the war in Ukraine to focus on finishing the PS4 version while putting the Xbox One version on hiatus indefinitely. It's not canceled per se, but it pretty much is. Anyone who has had the Xbox One version on pre-order, they'll be able to get a full refund.
Basically, optimizing next-gen games for last-gen hardware is hard, and from September 2021 to February 2022 Frogwares was doing just that, discovering in the process that the "scope of the work was bigger than accessed." That's why the next-gen versions were released first, and with optimizing continuing on the old versions, war broke out, which meant diminished resources and manpower and the Xbox One version being indefinitely delayed. In case you're curious, the PS4 version will be mostly the same game, with certain alleyways and shortcuts being cut from the game to get it running smoothly.
For more information on Frogwares, Sherlock Holmes, and everything in between, stay tuned to TechRaptor. If you'd like to know what it's like to work on video games in a war zone, check out this interesting article from Joseph Allen.
