Interestingly, it is a title devoid of online gameplay, focused on a multi-threaded story, with lots of dialogue and finally for a single recipient. Meanwhile, over the years, the sale of the game grew, even breaking records from around the premiere. Millions of fans, thousands of cosplayers, hundreds of discussion panels, fan modifications and a whole 251 awards. This is how I can summarize the majesty of the third Witcher in part.
National Day
If you decided to buy the game on release day, you will surely remember the scale of the event. Already on the occasion of the launch of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings in 2011, the game was in a way advertised by the then US president, Barack Obama, who received a dedicated copy. In the case of Dziki Gon we were dealing with a real national holiday. On the eve of the premiere, the leading representatives of the then authorities visited the CD Projekt headquarters. Polish TV stations funded reports on the game premiere in the evening news releases. Retail chains such as Saturn in cooperation with the publisher have prepared night premieres in several major cities.
Depending on the city, there were no shortage of cosplayers, contests with prizes, members of the game team or even actors lending their voices to these events. Never before has any Polish title received such promotion in our country. It was clearly a harbinger of the power of The Witcher 3 as a Polish export force. CD Projekt RED, headed by the company’s management board, celebrated the success several hours before the official start of retail and digital sales of the game. At that time, the embargo on reviews in the industry media was falling. Practically only the maximum marks flew, so many years of dedication, especially at the end of works from autumn 2014, were not wasted.
Employees who have devoted many hours of their lives to delivering one of the highest rated productions in history. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has been on the lips of most market observers since then. It was enough to go to the points of sale that day (premiere) to feel this witcher frenzy. A new era has begun in the Polish gaming industry. And there is no exaggeration in that. Nobody even remembered that the game’s debut date was postponed from February 24th. As Adam Badowski, the head of the studio said at the time, the game needed time for corrections. The team rose to the occasion. Again.
Players first and foremost
Does anyone still doubt the quality and class of this production? The approach of the creators to the recipient is also a success of The Witcher 3. After the game’s premiere, we received as many as 16 completely free add-ons, including Geralt’s hairstyles packages or alternative outfits for Cirilla, Triss or Yennefer herself. I know companies that would either make a package of paid content out of it or would demand an appropriate amount for each of them separately. Thanks to this approach, CD Projekt has become synonymous with a player-friendly publisher over time. It must be admitted that the Polish company, when it comes to the Dziki Gon’s price threshold, has never shown any residual greed during the five-year period of the game’s existence. In addition, for almost three years, the studio has been working on appropriate updates to make the title work better on consoles. One of the last patches is a special framing feature for PlayStation 4 Pro / Xbox One X, released in October 2017. A similar upgrade was confirmed some time ago for the performance of next-gen consoles. Absolutely exemplary attitude.
In the community of witcher universe enthusiasts there is a relatively large group of people whose interest in this world was initiated by The Witcher 3. Although the second edition gained the recognition of Western players due to less Slavic folklore and a wider range of colors in the setting, the Wild Hunt went up a level with it. Thanks to the world structure, extensive side-quests and authentic characters. Many people reached for the Andrzej Sapkowski saga after completing Dziki Gon. Unfortunately, the author himself was not very optimistic about the entire procedure of publishing books abroad. The covers of the volumes were decorated with graphics from games. After all, thanks to CD Projekt’s games with an emphasis on Wild Hunt, the books gained a wider group of readers. The Witcher 3 even attracted people unfamiliar with the RPG genre. Over the years, the game has built a fantastic community and continues to do so. Even Mr. Sapkowski recently signed a settlement with CD Projekt.
Success follows success
The prestigious Game Awards gala in December 2015 turned out to be a real honor of CD Projekt RED’s achievements. Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has been named Game of the Year. An unprecedented moment in the history of Polish gamedev. Here is a game from the Vistula River that is gaining international recognition. Since then, we have become one of the most important regions on the development map of the world. A reminder of this was the release in August 2016 of the Game of the Year Edition with two additions and all updates. Sales of the game totaled 28 million copies. Including retail and digital editions and all platforms.
In the year of the game’s debut, Dziki Gon found its way into the hands of 9 million players, in the following years showing a downward trend, but still maintaining sales not exceeding 4-5 million units. An interesting situation happened last year, when it turned out that The Witcher 3 had the highest sales balance since 2015. A version for Nintendo Switch was then released, and at the end of 2019, the first season of the long-awaited series debuted on the Netflix platform. This one turned out to be a success, which additionally fueled the sale of the game.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a market machine that can be compared to a real sales giant, ie GTA V. Although here the publisher plans to make profits from the game in the coming generation. Will a similar fate await the Wild Hunt? Who knows if CD Projekt will not decide on a truly next-gen edition with a much improved cover? Guaranteed profits. Currently attractive price, frequent promotions and the continued popularity of the game in the world make it a timeless product. Wiedzmin 3: Dziki Gon – the title of this generation of consoles and at the same time a Polish export force. It is a real brand.
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