An expensive console port almost closed the studio
Eurogamerhas an interesting story on the entire history of CD Projekt Red and the development ofThe Witchergames. One of the more noteworthy things to come out of it is how the studio almost closed beforeThe Witcher 2happened.
After the firstWitchergame came out, Atari pushed the company to port the game to consoles, which CD Projekt Red was hesitant to do since it was using an engine created for PCs. Five months into the porting process, the team realized it didn’t have the experience, time, or money to make it work. They pulled the plug, and the studio almost went out of business before serious work started onThe Witcher 2because of the time and money wasted on the attempted console port.
CD Projekt began its rise to success when it decided to localizeBaldur’s Gateand release it in Poland, a move which proved to be successful despite the rampant piracy of computer games in the country. They guessed that since the game came on five CDs it would be too expensive to make a profit off from pirating it and selling it, and they were right. They shipped 18,000 copies on launch day, and that helped propel the studio to where it is today.
After a failed plan to portBaldur’s Gate: Dark Allianceto the PC, the studio decided to make its own game, which of course wasThe Witcher. CD Projekt Red was born, and after trying to sell a failed demo of the game it got help from BioWare, which let it use theNeverwinter NightsAurora engine.
If you are a fan ofThe Witchergames, or you just like to read stories about developers, you should check out the full article on Eurogamer.
