Latest news with #TheWitcher3
Geek Culture
3 days ago
- Business
- Geek Culture
'The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt' Celebrates 10-Year Anniversary, Surpasses 60 Million Sales
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has hit an incredible milestone 10 years after its launch, with CD Projekt announcing that the beloved role-playing game (RPG) has surpassed 60 million copies sold worldwide. 'Without a doubt, the third part of Geralt's adventures marks a pivotal point in our history. The game earned hundreds of awards and solidified our studio's standing, but more importantly, it brought untold hours of adventures and emotions to millions of gamers the world over.' said joint CEO of CD Projekt Adam Badowski in a statement, 'I am proud to announce that since its release The Witcher 3 has sold over 60 million copies, securing a place among the bestselling video games in all history, and motivating us to carry on with intensive work on the next trilogy set in this universe.' It is to be noted that the latest 60 million figure only includes sales of the base game and its GOTY or complete editions, and does not factor in individual sales for its two expansion packs, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine . With this new milestone, The Witcher 3 is one step closer to overtaking Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim , which reached the same 60 million sales mark in June 2023. Last year, the developer announced a Witcher 3 concert tour spanning multiple countries to celebrate the anniversary, with tickets now available on its official website for performances across North America and Europe, leading up to November this year, with more locations and dates to be announced closer to 2026. As The Witcher 3 celebrates its incredible success, CD Projekt is already looking towards the future, with its upcoming sequel, The Witcher 4 , currently in full production with an estimated release window of 2027, leading to the possibility that it might be released for next-generation consoles. Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise 'duds' like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3 . He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying. CD Projekt The Witcher The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Cyberpunk 2 Moves Into Pre-Production As CD Projekt Red Confirms Almost 100 Developers Are Already Working On It
We might finally be closer to Cyberpunk 2 coming out than the original game was when it was first announced back in 2012. CD Projekt Red recently confirmed that the sci-fi open-world RPG sequel has moved into pre-production with roughly 100 developers currently devoted to the Polish studio's second major franchise. CDPR outlined its current development allocation in its latest report to investors. Formerly known as Project Orion, Cyberpunk 2 is expected to take players back to the first game's bustling LA-inspired Night City as well as to a new hub location that's been described as akin to Chicago. The Witcher 4, meanwhile, currently has 422 developers working on it but isn't expected to ship before 2027. The company also noted that Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty expansion has currently sold 10 million copies, and The Witcher 3 has sold 60 million copies, 10 million of which are from the last five years. Assuming the Ciri-led follow-up doesn't end up hitting until 2028 and Cyberpunk 2 takes five years of additional development after that, we wouldn't see it until 2033, about eight years from now. That might feel like forever, but remember: it was seven years between the first big cinematic teaser for Cyberpunk and its buggy release in 2020. Will things be smoother and faster this time around? Considering CDPR now has lots of experience with both its third-person fantasy and first-person shooter formulas under its belt, maybe! Both franchises are also moving to Unreal Engine 5 and CDPR is involved in other projects as well, however, including a Witcher spin-off codenamed Sirius and a new IP called Hadar. Plus blockbuster game development just keeps getting more complex, expensive, and time-consuming. What took five years to make on PS5 might take even longer on PS6. No wonder, then, that in the meantime CDPR is trying to get the existing Cyberpunk 2077 in front of more people with the Switch 2 port. Unfortunately, despite a next-gen version of The Witcher 3 that came out a few years ago, a Switch 2 edition of that game isn't currently in the works. . For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Newsweek
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Newsweek
The Witcher 3 Dev Reveals the Game Originally Had a Bank Heist
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Entertainment gossip and news from Newsweek's network of contributors The Witcher 3 is celebrating its tenth anniversary, and with it comes a host of interviews across a number of outlets with the game's development team at CD Projekt Red. Earlier in the week we learned some juicy details about how the game's most memorable sidequest was almost very different, and it turns out that wasn't the only one. According to CD Projekt Red quest designer Danisz Markiewicz, one fan favorite quest from the Hearts of Stone DLC, Open Sesame, originally started off as a bank heist, before the team decided it wanted to go even bigger. The result was the quest that we got in the final game, which had Geralt pulling together a team of roguish misfits to run a heist on an auction house. "We wanted to have something more interactive," Markiewicz told DBLTAP in an interview. "The whole section of Geralt taking part in an auction, getting to meet people from high society, actually buying stuff – that felt very compelling. A bank heist could have certain opportunities, but this was on a completely different level." A screenshot from the Open Sesame quest in The Witcher 3, showing Geralt and others planning a heist. A screenshot from the Open Sesame quest in The Witcher 3, showing Geralt and others planning a heist. CD Projekt CD Projekt put great care into making sure its characters were a good fit for the bombastic nature of the quest, which takes inspiration from films such as Point Break and Ocean's Eleven. But, because CD Projekt never makes anything easy for itself, designers decided to have multiple options for each role in the heist, which required a lot of careful planning and clever execution to make the whole thing work. "We didn't want to redo the entire scene," Markiewicz said. "So we developed some new tech to implement a scene so that those characters are technically there, but if they're not present, another character takes their place. You see that in several scenes – for example, when they're talking over the whole plan. If someone were to play this scene just as it is, you would get two characters talking over each other. Almost like Schrödinger's cat." The quest also originally had plans for a magical security system, with a magic portal whisking Geralt away and into a cave with a Golem. Instead, Markiewicz said, the team decided to keep the quest a little more grounded, eschewing magic altogether and having Geralt dropped through a trapdoor into a pit of spiders. All of this comes with the context that CD Projekt Red is currently hard at work developing The Witcher 4, which will be the first in a trilogy of games focused on Geralt's apprentice Ciri. The game is currently in development using Unreal Engine, a departure from the studio's usual in-house engine, but one that should allow developers to spend less time tinkering with its engine and more time crafting memorable quests.
Newsweek
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Newsweek
The Witcher 3's Most Memorable Sidequest Was Almost Very Different
Entertainment gossip and news from Newsweek's network of contributors Today marks 10 years since the release of The Witcher 3 — the game that really put CD Projekt and the Witcher series on the map. The success of the game brought massive attention to the franchise, which has gone on to be developed into a TV series for Netflix and is beloved by millions of gamers and viewers alike. An interview with one of the game's developers has revealed that one of the game's most memorable and pivotal sidequests almost had a very different premise. The quest in question is The Last Wish, which has protagonist Geralt and potential love interest Yennefer tracking down a genie to break a magical binding that ties the two together, in the hopes that Yennefer can discover whether or not her love for Geralt is real or just a result of the magic. According to associate game director Paweł Sasko, though, that quest was almost very different. Geralt and Yeneffer atop a snowcapped mountain with a ruined ship in the distance as part of The Last Wish sidequest in The Witcher 3. Geralt and Yeneffer atop a snowcapped mountain with a ruined ship in the distance as part of The Last Wish sidequest in The Witcher 3. CD Projekt In an interview with DBLTAP celebrating The Witcher 3's tenth anniversary, Sasko revealed that Yennefer's motives for The Last Wish were initially going to be about restoring her fertility. In The Witcher lore, sorceresses like Yennefer are made infertile during a ritual to increase their power, and the quest would have originally revolved around that. Instead, Sasko and the writing team at CD Projekt Red decided to angle the story around Yennefer and Geralt's love for one another. "My first idea was probably the most edgy, and that's one that we decided not to go with," Sasko told DBLTAP. "We went with more of an emotional thing that also binds them together. The previous idea I mentioned would make her feel a bit more egotistic, because it's more about her rather than about you together. It was important for us that she doesn't seem cold as a person, because Geralt is incredibly important in her life." The result of that shift is one of the most memorable sidequests not only in the game, but in gaming as a whole. It's filled with intimate, romantic moments between Geralt and Yennefer, something that Sasko says came to him while designing the quest. "I wanted to introduce the player into the romantic vibe of being on a boat together with Yennefer," Sasko says. "They're sailing together, casting a spell and seeing things through Geralt's eyes, and he hears her voice in his head. It's very intimate. So I slowly started changing the genre towards romance." CD Projekt Red is now hard at work on The Witcher 4, which was officially revealed last year at The Game Awards in a trailer that revealed Geralt's apprentice, Ciri, as the main protagonist, who will be the protagonist of a whole new Witcher trilogy, according to the developer. No release date has been set for the game, but it's expected to be released on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PS5.
Forbes
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Players Just Ensured Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's Record Score Can't Be Touched
Metacritic Metacritic I wrote an article over the weekend that confirmed that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the RPG from first-time developer Sandfall, was in fact that highest user-scored game in Metacritic history. Now, players have caught wind of that. Some pushed back on this, saying it was early and this was just based on a few hundred reviews playing super early. Well, people have been playing over the course of the weekend, and there are now 600% more reviews in, up to 3,300, and the score has actually increased to a 9.7/10 from a 9.6 previously. I've said that it's possible scores fall in time, but what's just happened here has cemented Expedition 33's title of the highest scored game on this platform. Nothing else is close, or will get close, anytime soon. These thousands of reviews mean that of the top 100+ best-scored games on the Metacritic list, it's already passed many of those in total scores. And again, this is not a close competition. I've only been able to find one 9.3 at all, The Witcher 3's Blood and Wine DLC. Every other historic game you've ever heard of is somewhere between an 8.9-9.2. Yes, that one. Yes, that one too. Check any one you like. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Sandfall So, is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 actually 0.5 out of 10 better than every game in history? I haven't played it yet (I start today), but I have heard the praise and I mean…still no. I don't buy that. I am not saying the game doesn't deserve high scores, but we are seeing some level of a 'love bomb' here, the opposite of a review bomb. Early impressions are so good that people are racing out to give it 10s. Then articles are written about the scores (more than just mine) and people fly back to give it even more 10s, hence the 600% increase and 24 hours moving the score up. I have seen this happen with other games, Stellar Blade comes to mind most recently, but even that ultimately ended up with a 9.2. Still, I've never seen anything like this. I mean, whatever. Give it that honor. It sounds like a game that is universally beloved and if we want to hand this achievement to this tiny studio for an amazing game, I'm all for it. But what's just happened is that this is going to be emblazoned as the top scoring game for the foreseeable future, which is certainly something you do not see every day. Or every year. Or every generation. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, and Bluesky Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
