
CD Projekt, the Polish company behind last year's surprisingly good RPG The Witcher, announced that the game sold more than 600,000 copies in less than 3 months.
Adam Kiciński, CD Projekt RED Joint CEO, commented on the sales results: "We are very happy with The Witcher’s performance to date. Our goal was — and still is — to reach one million copies sold during the first year. 600,000 games sold in just three months brings us much closer to this ambitious goal. It’s a great success for us, made all the more impressive by the fact that The Witcher was created by a completely new team and it is our debut both as a game developer and in bringing our products to a global audience. The task was not easy, as The Witcher brand was completely unknown in many markets, and it was released in a busy season alongside franchises that have been on the market for many years. Yet, I can confidently say that we’ve passed this trial victoriously. Actually, only now- as we’ve conquered many of the initial barriers- can we spread our wings, which, of course, we intend to do. Such success wouldn’t be possible without our publishers’ support- Atari, Noviy Disk and the publishing branch of CD Projekt. They all put a lot of work into the game’s promotion in individual markets."
CD Projeckt's first and most important PC title received numerous awards (no less than 48!), including IGN's "PC RPG of the Year" and GameSpot's "Readers’ Choice Winner – Best RPG" (full list here). The Witcher is also among the highest-rated games launched last year and one of the highest-rated new IPs launched lately, with the score on Metacritic reaching 9.4 out of 10.
Adam Kiciński, from the Warsaw, Poland-based developer, also hinted that the franchise has a future, and not just any future: "Our plans include continuous game support, the release of the powerful D’jinni module editor, the continued release of game updates and patches, and in late spring gamers can expect a pretty big surprise, which will be revealed at a press conference really soon – February 18th! We are still working on making the game better and we will actively support our fan community, which is getting bigger and bigger. Unfortunately I can’t reveal anything further at this time, but I assure you that we won’t <!-- D(["mb","u003c/spanu003eu003c/fontu003eu003cfont sizeu003d"2" faceu003d"Arial"u003eu003cspan styleu003d"font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"u003erest on our laurels and we have very promising plans for the future. u003c/spanu003eu003c/fontu003eu003cfont sizeu003d"2" faceu003d"Arial"u003eu003cspan langu003d"EN-GB" styleu003d"font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"u003eWe set our standards very high with The Witcher and we surely don’t want to lower them in the future.”u003c/spanu003eu003c/fontu003eu003c/pu003e u003cpu003eu003cfont sizeu003d"2" faceu003d"Arial"u003eu003cspan langu003d"EN-GB" styleu003d"font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"u003e u003c/spanu003eu003c/fontu003eu003c/pu003e u003cpu003eu003cbu003eu003cfont sizeu003d"2" faceu003d"Arial"u003eu003cspan langu003d"EN-GB" styleu003d"font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold"u003eThe Witcheru003c/spanu003eu003c/fontu003eu003c/bu003eu003cfont sizeu003d"2" faceu003d"Arial"u003eu003cspan langu003d"EN-GB" styleu003d"font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"u003e:u003c/spanu003eu003c/fontu003eu003c/pu003e u003cpu003eu003cfont sizeu003d"2" faceu003d"Arial"u003eu003cspan langu003d"EN-GB" styleu003d"font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"u003e“The Witcher” is a role-playing game developed by Warsaw, Poland-based CD Projekt RED. The game uses a new version of the BioWare Aurora Engine, titled Aurora 2007. The game is set in the world created in the books of Andrzej Sapkowski, which have been published in many countries. In recent months, the first volume of stories about The Witcher has become available in English (u003ca hrefu003d"http://www.amazon.com/Last-Wish-UK-Paperback-Sapkowski/dp/B00121UIP8/refu003dpd_bbs_7?ieu003dUTF8u0026amp;su003dbooksu0026amp;qidu003d1201788033u0026amp;sru003d8-7" titleu003d"http://www.amazon.com/Last-Wish-UK-Paperback-Sapkowski/dp/B00121UIP8/refu003dpd_bbs_7?ieu003dUTF8u0026amp;su003dbooksu0026amp;qidu003d1201788033u0026amp;sru003d8-7" targetu003d"_blank" onclicku003d"return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)"u003ehttp://www.amazon.com/Lastu003cWBRu003e-Wish-UK-Paperback-Sapkowskiu003cWBRu003e/dp/B00121UIP8/refu003dpd_bbs_7?ieu003cWBRu003eu003dUTF8u0026amp;su003dbooksu0026amp;qidu003d1201788033u003cWBRu003eu0026amp;sru003d8-7u003c/au003e). The game tells the story of Geralt, a professional monster slayer drawn into political intrigues. The Witcher is an RPG designed for mature audiences.u003c/spanu003eu003c/fontu003eu003c/pu003e u003cpu003eu003cfont sizeu003d"2" faceu003d"Arial"u003eu003cspan langu003d"EN-GB" styleu003d"font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"u003e u003c/spanu003eu003c/fontu003eu003c/pu003e u003cpu003eu003cbu003eu003cfont sizeu003d"2" faceu003d"Arial"u003e",1] ); //-->rest on our laurels and we have very promising plans for the future. We set our standards very high with The Witcher and we surely don’t want to lower them in the future."
This can only mean two things: either the studio has an expansion pack planned for their first title (with another option being downloadable content), or a full-fledged sequel is on it's way. I'd personally go with an expansion-pack at best (since it's too early to announce a sequel for a game of that size), but who knows? Selling 600,000 copies in less than 3 months is definitely a performance for a game that is totally new and has no multiplayer. We'll keep you posted.




