The Witcher 3 sold over 6 million units in less than two months
Polish studio CD Projekt RED has been enjoying bigger and bigger success with each new Witcher game, and now the Warsaw-based game developer has revealed that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt sold over 6 million units within the first six weeks of its release alone.
“One could think we have six million reasons to be happy and that’s it,” CD Projekt CEO Adam Badowski wrote in an open letter to fans. “We do, but that number is also a big responsibility and I want everyone to know that we, as a studio, realize that. For us, all your high praise, all the positive reviews, are also an obligation — we’ve made a really good game but there’s still a long road ahead of us.”
“RED is full of artists, wild dreamers and people crazy about what they do (and sometimes just plain crazy),” he continued. “We lose sleep over that particular colour the sun has when it sets over Velen, and argue over arranging the furniture in a house the majority of gamers will probably never see. We’re not the kind of people who are easily satisfied and we always strive for more. I’d like you to know that.”
CD Projekt’s success is a sign of the changing landscape of game development, where great new games are starting to pop up in expected places. In fact, several of today’s most successful game companies cannot be found in the U.S. or Japan anymore, but rather in Europe. For example, Sweden is home to both Minecraft developer Mojang AB, which was purchased by Microsoft for $2.5 billion, and Clash of Clans creator Supercell, which brought in over $1.7 billion in revenue last year, is located in Finland.
While CD Projekt may not be quite at that level yet, the studio has been growing rapidly thanks to the success of the Witcher franchise, as well as the growing popularity of its DRM-free PC game store, GOG.com. CD Projekt also recently launched GOG Galaxy, a Steam-like game management client with features like update rollbacks for games.
Fortunately, the success doesn’t seem to be going to their heads—not yet anyway.
“Yes, six million copies is a great achievement for a company making RPGs, but this business is not only about that,” Badowski said. “If our games are a gallery of sound, picture and text – you are the visitors of this gallery. To an artist, there’s no sweeter sight than people enjoying their work. That’s why, in the name of all the devs in the studio, I’d like to say thanks to each and every one of you.”
Image courtesy of CD Projekt RED
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