The Witcher series sales hit 4 million

July 11, 2012 9:58AM PDT

CD Projekt Red's role-playing game franchise goes quadruple platinum across Xbox 360, PC, and Mac, which devs say is still fewer than number pirated.

Combined sales of the original Witcher role-playing game and its sequel Assassins of Kings across the Xbox 360, PC, and Mac have reached 4 million units, Warsaw, Poland-based developer CD Projekt Red announced today.

Geralt is putting a new sales milestone in his sights.

The original Witcher launched in 2007 and is currently available for the PC and Mac. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings was released for the PC in May 2011 and was made available for the Xbox 360 in April 2012. It is headed to the Mac in the future. The Witcher games are focused on Geralt of Rivia, a demon hunter from Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski's fantasy novels.

With sales of 4 million copies, the Witcher series has now edged closer to drawing level with the numbers of pirated copies of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. That game has been illegally downloaded 4.5 million times, according to CD Projekt Red, and the company has stopped pursuing pirates.

Moving forward, CD Projekt Red is expanding outside of the Witcher franchise. In May, the company announced a collaboration with Cyberpunk creator Mike Pondsmith for a new series set in his pen-and-paper RPG's futuristic universe. CD Projekt Red is also hiring for a role-playing game set in a universe the studio has already worked in, which may be a third Witcher title.

By Eddie Makuch, News Editor

Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.

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361 comments

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moisan4

1 Like

I will never pre-order any game, ever. The exception was The Witcher 2 and Skyrim. Why, because I?ve been a gamer for almost 30 years, and I?ve been there and done that. As an adult with a career and a life your free time becomes very valuable, as does your money. I only play what I consider to be great games. Gone are the days of demo?s; and reading and watching reviews, and watching game play videos only goes so far. I?ll admit I download 20-30 games a year that I am really excited to play, and only end up installing about half that amount because I?ve gained new information that makes even installing the game a waste of my time. Out of those 10-15 I actually install, 70-80%% of them I only play for 30 minutes to 3 hours before I delete. For those I want to play for more than that brief trial period I?ll buy. Guess what, I only end up playing about 2-5 games a year.

Right now I am following over 50 games on Gamespot that will be released in the next two years. Out of those, 25 will be worth downloading. A dozen will be worth installing, and at most 5 will be worth playing. I would never buy a vehicle I haven?t test drove, and I would never buy a game I haven?t demoed. I won?t waste my money on bad to good games, and I also won?t waste my time on them. But when I do find a great game worth my free time, I am more than happy to pay for it. Since my free time is just as valuable as my money.

UndertheArchway

2 Like

In my humble opinion piracy can never be justified, if you can?t afford something you do not have some divine right to have it, sadly it is nothing more than another example of the culture that has been created by the credit revolution. Cannot afford something? Do not worry you can simply borrow money to have it, live beyond your means and blame everyone else when the crows come home to roost.

We?d be daft to try and pretend any measures are going to stop piracy though as people will endlessly justify it to themselves.

poovannaorcbane

2 Like

everyone who reads books and played the witcher games should read the witcher saga novels- they are brilliant!! and nice to hear CDPR sold this many copies though many more should buy and do justice to the the time and money spent by CDPR on this epic rpg!!

fullxtent

2 Like

good game, i bought it myself.

The 4.5 million is speculative though and doesn't shine light onto actual money lost since the number of pirated copies overlaps with the number of legit retail copies

monson21502

1 Like

well 4million times 50 is better then nothing....

Scarab83

2 Like

I just fucking bought this game! A few days ago! And now the motherfuckers put it on sale? FFFFFFUUUUUUUUU!!!

krisk7

@Scarab83 I bought the Witcher twice just to support the devs. CD Projekt releases all updated for free. I would personally feel bad buying games from them during promo periods :) By the way, use GOG as this is their sister company so all the proceeds go to the devs.

Vojtass

@Scarab83 Don't be angry - you supported a great developer and that's a very good thing. CD Projekt RED will have a bit more money to make TW3 and Cyberpunk game. :) I know people who bought few copies for friends just to support the devs. IMO this is a great gesture. Cheers

monson21502

@Scarab83

dont feel bad. ibought a 3ds a little bit ago now a better version is coming out

PumpkinBoogie

@Scarab83 The first one or the second? If you say the first, don't feel bad b/c I feel ya.....I bought it about a month ago. Only find out NOW that Steam has it for WAAAY less. Sucks ass, lol.

But I don't feel so bad as I only spent about 10 bucks on it when I did get . They got got Witcher 2 on sale for 23.99 on Steam, too. Damn, I can't wait for my paycheck to post to my account.....can't pass up getting that!

Scarab83

@PumpkinBoogie The second one. I paid $39.99 for it.

PumpkinBoogie

1 Like

@Scarab83 Aw dammit, I feel bad for ya then on that, too....

I'm thankful I just started w/ the series (I had a less than capable PC when it originally came out), so I wasn't necessarily rushing to get the second one yet. So catching a sale like this is just bonus. I can buy now and just have it for when I finish the first.

Kryptonbornson

It's already been mentioned, but it's on sale today for the lowest price I"VE seen it on steam. It's going to be sitting on my account for at least another few weeks, but I had to get it.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/20920/

PumpkinBoogie

1 Like

@Kryptonbornson YES, I'm so gonna do the same! I just started playing the first not too long ago. But that's the lowest price I've seen it anywhere. I can't pass up getting that even if I don't play it for a while; I don't see a deal like that happening any time soon.

eternal_blade3

1 Like

Getting a new video card at the end of July, all the better to play this awesome franchise with..

famekiller

All this talk about piracy. Do any of you own a small business? Would you mind if me and my mates came around and helped ourselves to some of your stock? NO? I though so! It's different when the shoes on the other foot hey! Justify thieving as much as you want. At the end of the day, you are a thief.

Kryptonbornson

@famekiller No, these are virtual goods which are just a reproduced collection of electrical impulses. However, if one plays a game and they didn't pay for it, even though that isn't stealing something that exists or would not have existed, it isn't fair. If they use the service they should pay. That is the implicit contract when a service is provided that is for pay, you use it, you pay for it, even if in this case the game was only created once, reproduced and the cost of the production and intended profits are split among those that are targeted to use the service. Otherwise we'd have to pay millions a piece for each hand crafted game world. Gamers should take note of how all this works and not abuse the system, however again, there are so many things out there to capture mindshare, I doubt very many people actually played the Witcher 2, just because they downloaded it. I would bet money it was only in the thousands that finished it and didn't pay for it. Maybe less, but we have no way to verify it except by survey.

famekiller

@Kryptonbornson If thats your attitude, why not break everything down to atoms then. Regardless of whether they are "virtual goods" or not, people have worked hard for many hours on end writing code, designing, writing music etc. If you pirate you are stealing. End of story.

Kryptonbornson

@famekiller Because CDProjekt didn't create electricity nor do they make the electricity flow that creates the "pirated" copies. My point is, free things have no value. I know people that listen to pirated music, but for the most part things that come free aren't respect and are considered disposable. I'd be alot of people demoed it, that's a big thing with PC hardware nuts who buy hardware stronger than they need, so they keep looking for a game to challenge their $500 card. Then there are the people who want to see if their computer could run it. It's pretty hardcore, so you have to narrow the field to pirates who have reasonably powerful graphics cards. My 6870 struggles with it on Ubersampling, but take it off and it takes it like a champ in 1080p. Then there are people who just aren't skilled enough to beat the game. Perhaps they should offer rentals for those folk that will get frustrated after about 3 days. Then there are people that are on the fence about a $60 game...then the people who will ONLY buy it if it's good and not caring about the money...then the people who just want to see what the fuss is about and if it's as good as they say...then there are the people who have 100 pirated games and the Witcher 2 is low on their list...

You get my point? Nothing says these people played the game just because they got a copy of it. I'd bet I could mention Witcher 2 and no common person would know what I'm talking about, but they know what Diablo 3 is.

This comment has been deleted

96augment

@SeaMan2ndClass nah

PumpkinBoogie

1 Like

@SeaMan2ndClass Wow.....how original. Is that the best you could come up w/ for an all-CAPS trolling sentence. Weak. <_<

ExplicitMike

1 Like

@SeaMan2ndClass WTF is wrong with you?!

Poodlejumper

1 Like

@ExplicitMike Hit and run trollage.

Renato1984

5 Like

@SeaMan2ndClass Is this the cheapest trolling try ever?

SciFiRPGfan

4 Like

Awesome! I mean everything!... Yeah, everything about this article is pretty awesome:

the CD Projekt, the Witchers, the fact that they are getting better and better financially,... even this comment section is pretty awesome. So many people giving credit to an amazing series and studio and even more people agreeing with them and liking their comments...

This article has really put a smile on my face, which is not such a commonplace. Good job everyone - the Reds, the people who have bought their games, Gamespot / Eddie Makuch, who is promoting Witcher / CDPR and last but not least, the Witcher fans...

kuda001

1 Like

I'd like to think good games sell well and The Witcher 2 is a good game.

saoe

Steam sale 60% off today

AuronAXE

Developers need to stop worrying about piracy. They're not going to beat it. It's impossible. Stop talking about piracy and maybe less people will resort to it too. The more DRM you cram into there the worse the final product ends up. The fact is, if people truly love a game they WILL buy it. If they don't buy it, that means they think you don't deserve the money or they don't have any to offer in the first place.

Games aren't treated seriously by gamers, to the company it's a major economic risk but to us it's just five minutes of fun, don't expect everyone paying $60+ even though games should probably be MUCH more expensive in retail. We just don't share the same mindset.

AuronAXE

To add on to this, the fact is simple: If someone pirated your game, they weren't going to buy it in the first place. They're getting a free full demo of it and maybe it can convince them to do otherwise.

MrBonus

I would buy it, but my PC is a junk and no PS3 version on the horizon so if the want even bigger revenue just spread the game to other consoles.

tisabeling

3 Like

stealing an EA gane or COD game is one thing.stealig that piece off pure art is another thing.how many companies respect their costumers as much as CD project red? respect is two way road.this ppls really deserve the last penny you give them for their game.heck they deserve more in my opinion.please dont pirate such a game.buying games like witcher 2 is protecting the kind of game developers we love

croserII

2 Like

this is no justifying,but I live in country where i can't afford high price game,and my country has limited retail game store,and I want to play , what could i do , I play pirate game all my life and i can't find one decent nearby retail store(300 mile way and double the prices,pls you don't get what you seek),steam is prohibited because of restriction,no credit card available and most game digital store doesn't support my country

live in syria,thank you my god there is way to play game but I want to pay and have legal copy

Poodlejumper

2 Like

@croserII Brother, if you're living in Syria right about now, you got bigger worries than piracy.

A Salaam, man.

croserII

@Poodlejumper yeah sure,but at least I can have some fun before been dead,lol just kidding,peace come to syria and down regime

PumpkinBoogie

@croserII While I'd say I don't condone what you're doing and I'd usually rag on some that give that as an excuse, I do admire your honesty in that you say if you had the opportunity and your country didn't have such restrictions you'd gladly buy it. It certainly sucks when such red tape BS like that keeps people from finding a legal way of obtaining legit copies of games and such.

Toysoldier34

2 Like

Their obsession with pirating is getting annoying.

Where are the numbers for how many times the game has been sold used? They don't see any money when people buy the game used either. Except when someone buys it used they just proved they will spend money on it. Not everyone pirating the game would have spend money on it or cared about the game that much if there was no way to pirate it.

This comment has been deleted

Toysoldier34

@Renato1984 Do you even know what that means? What part of what I said makes it seem like I work for CDPR and am promoting them here?

Toysoldier34

@Renato1984 Still unsure of how you find any of what I said supporting of any publisher.

Do you post on Gamespot to troll or do you have anything of meaning to say? There are plenty of websites to house pointless comments and accusations to tide you over, until summer is over.

Renato1984

@Toysoldier34 I have faith that CD Projekt doesn't spend a single cent on hiring shills.

Renato1984

@Toysoldier34 I meant that you seem to be promoting other publishers' way of force feed us DRM, like used games and piracy excuses. Your reply does sound like a shill replying to accusations actually :p

YearoftheSnake5

1 Like

4.5 Million downloads is speculative. There's no telling whether it was more or less - or if the downloader actually kept the game at all. They probably just wanted to see if they could run it or not. That, or they wanted to try the product before dropping money on it. Assuming that people downloaded and kept the game 4.5 million times is a bit cynical.

Kryptonbornson

@YearoftheSnake5 Exactly. Great games should do demoes. Only mediocre/bad games need to skip demos. So many bad and hollow games lost sales because I lost interest after the demo.

Renato1984

7 Like

Fact 1: This series has been hugely profitable for CD Projekt.

Fact 2: EA claims Dead Space 3 has to appeal to a broader audience so it can sell the 5 million units it needs to survive.

Fact 3: Witcher 2 screams production value, great tech and beautiful sounds and graphics over any Dead Space, Crysis, Mass Effect or CoD game.

Fact 4: EA and Activision are nasty viruses that infected this industry.

Kryptonbornson

@Renato1984 Dead Space was great, but perhaps it was too scary to be mainstream. Despite how much I was enjoying the first one, it was too nerve racking to continue as of yet, so I haven't even touched the second one on my Origin account. I doubt I'll buy part 3 at full price. Maybe when I was a teenager would I actually want to put myself through that kind of stress intentionally after what life gives you with work and family. lol

Poodlejumper

3 Like

@Renato1984 You sir, totally "get it." I want to see a cut apart of budgets comparing the Witcher 2 to Mass Effect 3 or any other AAA release. I'm talking Conceptual Inituation to Deployment and including support. I want to see legal costs and marketing (oh yeah...big publishers waste hand over fist in marketing subpar products). I want to see why Witcher 2 can be highly profitable yet Dead Space 3 supposedly needs to sell 5 million (severaly dumbed-down) units. I want to see the math. That math will show just where the problem is.

Toysoldier34

2 Like

@Poodlejumper @Renato1984 Dead Space 3 would still make money and profit for much under 5 million. But EA needs games to reach huge sales in order for it to be worth it in their eyes, not just turn a profit and make back money.

Games that are middle ground that sell close to a million copies that make back all their costs are seen as failures in EA's eyes, which is why the industry doesn't see many new IPs and we just get the same marketed games over and over.

We get to see Call of Duty, Need for Speed, Assassin's Creed shoved down our throats because no one tells them to stop.

When people do speak out with their wallets EA doesn't take a hint they just scrap the game and milk something else instead. Who needs originality when you have explosions and advertising?

Poodlejumper

@Renato1984 Remember that game "Rage"?

It was just released a few months ago.

Marketing hype said it was gonna be awesome and huge and the next big thing. Even had that Blake whatshisname NBA rookie of the year to front it for the mouth breathers!

The adverts were EVERYWHERE I looked.

So why aren't people still talking about it?

Apparently it was 12 hours worth of over-hyped ultragraphixed pap.

:In Gomer Pyle's Voice: Suuuprise Suuuprise Suuuprise!

Renato1984

@Toysoldier34 Those series don't stop because people buy them in the millions, because they are affected by these huge marketing campaigns, which keep on receiving millions of dollars drained from the game's budget. In this cycle we find the way to the toliet for this industry.

Rocker6

2 Like

For a smaller studio with games that lacks any serious advertising,these are great sale figures,they should be proud of themselves :)

I don't like that "4.5 million pirated copies" statement,though,that is based purely on speculation,with no way of providing factual evidence.Beasue of that,I'm dismissing it.Sure,the game was pirated,like any game,but we cannot know the exact numbers,and shooting wild numbers isn't exactly smart...

Poodlejumper

2 Like

Last Spring Dragon Age 2 came out and I was nearly in tears for how bad it was and that we'd never really have a heir to the Baldur's Gate legacy now that its creator was making garbage. I was thinking of stopping gaming altogether. This game came out shortly after that. It renewed my faith in great development and a great game. I replayed it the second time around recently and it plays like a new game with all the FREE additions that CDProject put in and the choices you make actually play differently. Piracy discussions aside. It's just a phenomenal piece of work. I just wish the squad based/non-"action RPG" would make a comeback.

Renato1984

2 Like

@Poodlejumper Have you pledged for Wasteland 2? It is exactly that, with ZERO corporate/shareholders/investors compromises. It ended up with a very nice budget (I pledged).

Toysoldier34

1 Like

@Renato1984 I love Kickstarter, it is a way for gamers to say what they want, not just pay for whatever good game is put on the market for us.

Poodlejumper

@Toysoldier34 Just keep in mind man. One of these things is going to fail.

It's gonna take all the money and bellyflop and all these corporate suits will be pointing their fingers and acting like they NEVER muck up...(and that's a hilarious thought in and of itself.)

It's why I love to fund them but caveat emptor all the way.

Then again there's a whole bunch of AAA games that aren't worth 1/2 the money they're priced at.

Poodlejumper

2 Like

@Renato1984 You kidding? I pledged that sucker so fast you could practically smell the lemons on my wooden furniture! Wish we could KS more like that!

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