CD Projekt Red has announced exactly how much money it cost to make their open-world role-playing game, The Witcher: 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. Comparatively Rockstar Games supposedly spent $265 million to develop and market Grand Theft Auto V. That figure though is unconfirmed, whereas The Witcher 3’s budget numbers came directly from the developer.
Also during his presentation (below), Kicinski disclosed that CD Projekt Red conducted 40 different marketing campaigns in parallel for The Witcher 3. He described this as a “daunting task,” and noted that the region-specific marketing campaigns were accompanied by a global campaign..
Further highlighting the studios accomplishment, Kicinski 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 worldwide were involved in the game’s production.
Additionally, 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 it’s various versions.
Overall, Kicinski described The Witcher 3, which sold over 6 million copies, as a “good investment.” For CD Projekt Red’s latest financial period, the company made a net profit of 236 million złoty ($62.5 million) from the success of The Witcher 3.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s first paid expansion Hearts of Stone launches on October 13th.