Say farewell to your social life – CD Projekt’s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is finally out today.
If you’re able to briefly drag yourself away from the colossal 100+ hour adventure, here are ten facts for your perusal:
CD Projekt was formed in 1994 and started out as an import retailer, bringing early American PC CD-ROM games into Poland
CD Projekt signed Baldur’s Gate from Interplay and added Polish voice actors. 18,000 units of the five disc RPG were shipped on day one
Baldur’s Gate cost double the usual price of a CD Projekt release but came with a map, D&D rulebook and an audio CD. Despite the inflated cost, pre-orders well exceeded expectations. A good job too – the whole company was riding on its success
Interplay asked CD Projekt to convert Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance from consoles to PC. Intended exclusively for the Polish market, the deal fell through not long after development started
The Dark Alliance fallout prompted CD Projekt to create their own RPG. That game was The Witcher, which ended up taking over five years to develop by a team of 100 people. Over 2 million copies have been sold to date
Codemasters and Koch were both potential publishers for The Witcher, pipped to the post by Atari
BioWare provided The Witcher’s Aurora engine and also gave the game space at their E3 booth that year
Atari requested a conversion of The Witcher for PS3 and Xbox 360. Subtitled Rise of the White Wolf, development was underway at French studio Widescreen Games. After several delays and setbacks, it was CD Projekt themselves who requested the game’s cancellation
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s pre-orders stood at 1 million prior to release
CD Projekt RED has a bright red toilet