The story of The Witcher franchise is truly remarkable- what started as a mid tier, low profile RPG all those years ago managed to garner enough name and fans for itself through subsequent releases to have the confidence to release a full fledged AAA RPG that is right now in the running for best game of the year, in a year packed with great games.
For a company like CD Projekt RED, who are, after all, a relatively small studio, it must have been a big risk, characterized by a big financial investment. As it turns out, it was- speaking during CD Projekt Red’s latest financial briefing, the English translation of which was published today, CEO Adam Kicinski revealed the game’s total budget – including development and marketing costs – as 306 million złoty or about $81 million USD.
Overall, though, it appears the game was a successful investment- it has sold 6 million copies worldwide already, and it also managed to catapult CD Projekt RED into the big league, meaning their next project will get a lot of awareness and momentum from the get go.
And all it took to achieve all of that was to create an exceptional game. Imagine that.