The power of The Witcher

Polish producers of computer games have only 0,56% share in the global market. Let’s be honest, I’m not a gamer, I can barely name any of the popular names (I hope that The Sims counts). But in Poland, even such a layman as me knows exactly what The Wicher is.

CD Project RED is a polish company set up by Marcin Iwiński and Michał Kiciński in 1994. The two school friends started with selling games on floppy discs at the Warsaw local market. At the beginning, the company was specialized in distribution only. But one day they decided to try their chances at the development and they threw themselves in at the deep water choosing to adopt a Sapkowski’s novel, George Martin of polish fantasy world. The Witcher tells a story about Geralt of Rivia, a monster hunter with some supernatural skills who battle the deadly monster.  The book is known not only for its charismatic characters but also quite a lewd language. I’m really ashamed to admit that I’ve never read the book but I’ll certainly catch up very soon.

The production process on the game started in 2003 and it was eventually released in 2007. Four years of very hard work as well as learning, because at the beginning the team lacked experience and expertise. The team consisted of talented people with strong personalities caused a lot of troubles and misunderstandings. Another major problem was the game budged - considerably miscalculated. Originally it amounted to 7 mln zł, then it was increased to 15 mln, but the company spent about 25 mln zł in total. Despite all the problems, inexperience and adversity, they succeeded.

Creators openly admitted that at the beginning of the project they had absolutely no idea about how to actually produce a video game. But even though, within the first year of sales, more than million copies were sold. Even though it was the following parts that were to bring true profits to the company.

In May 2011, the long-awaited continuation of the game – The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings was released. The game, a lot more advanced and sophisticated, met with very positive reviews and won several awards, among others for the best game of the year.

Exactly 4 years later, in May 2015 the third part of The Witcher came out. Thanks to that CD Projects joined the group of the most respected video game producers in the world. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was a spectacular success. The company sold 6 million copies within the first six weeks of its sales. By the end of the year, the game received 800 awards – including 250 awards for the best game of the year. In 2016 company stated that they sold 20 mln games from The Witcher series.

The Witcher will also be a basis for the first polish Netflix tv series which is supposed to be released in 2018. Can’t wait!