This is How Much The Witcher 3 Cost to Make

CD Projekt Red has announced exactly how much money it spent to make the celebrated open-world role-playing game, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Speaking during CD Projekt Red's latest financial briefing, the English translation of which was published today, CEO Adam Kicinski revealed the game's total budget--including development and marketing costs--as 306 million złoty or about $81 million USD.

By comparison, Star Wars: The Old Republic--a MMO--reportedly cost $200 million to develop. Meanwhile, Rockstar Games supposedly spent $265 million to develop and market Grand Theft Auto V. These figures, however, are unconfirmed, while The Witcher 3's budget number comes directly from the source.

Also during his presentation, Kicinski says CD Projekt Red conducted 40 different marketing campaigns in parallel for The Witcher 3. He described this as a "daunting task," noting that the region-specific marketing campaigns were accompanied by a global campaign, too.

Kicinski also revealed that The Witcher 3 was developed over the course of 3.5 years by a team of professionals that "know how to develop games efficiently." A total of 240 in-house staff worked on The Witcher 3 (most were Polish, but a "considerable" number were foreigners), while 1,500 people in all around the world were involved in the game's production.

In addition, Kicinski points out that The Witcher 3 was localized in 15 different language versions, seven of which had full voice acting. A total of 500 voice actors worked on the game across its various versions.

Overall, Kicinski described The Witcher 3 as a "good investment," pointing out that the game sold 6 million copies in six weeks. For CD Projekt Red's latest financial period, the company made a net profit of 236 million złoty ($62.5 million), most of which came from The Witcher 3.

You can watch CD Projekt Red's full financial presentation below.

Next up for The Witcher 3 is the Hearts of Stone expansion, which launches on October 13. Looking beyond that, you shouldn't expect The Witcher 4 anytime soon, as CD Projekt Red is instead going to focus on Cyberpunk 2077.