Image credit: CD PROJEKT RED
A big moment for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and its developer, CD Projekt Red (CDPR), came with a demo at E3 in 2014, according to the team behind the beloved game. This turning point helped put them on the map in a major way.
Today, The Witcher 3 is one of the most loved and well-known RPGs, with over 60 million copies sold and counting. But back in the day, CDPR was a smaller studio with a dedicated fanbase from The Witcher 1 and 2. It was The Witcher 3 that really made them a household name.
Philipp Weber, the narrative director for The Witcher 4, shared in an interview with GamesRadar+ how things started to shift with that E3 demo. “We could sense it was going to be something big,” he recalled. “Skyrim was the go-to open-world game, and all of a sudden, we noticed a lot of Skyrim fans were checking out The Witcher 3. It felt like a huge wave was reaching us. There was this buzz, and you could tell the public was starting to pay attention. It was pretty amazing to watch.”
The rest, as they say, is history. The Witcher 3 launched to glowing reviews, won tons of awards, and even got a special patch a decade later to bring mods to consoles for the first time. No surprise there—it’s also shaping how CDPR is approaching The Witcher 4.
What do you think about this big moment for The Witcher 3? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
