The Witcher 3's $81 Million Budget & Sales Figures Breakdown

The Witcher 3 has been, alongside GTA V, one of the biggest releases of the year. The game has seen one million PC activations via the company's GOG Galaxy service, netting a profit of $62.5 million USD in 1H15. First-half net profit of the Witcher 3 grew 768% over 2011 + 2012 figures.

All of this data was revealed in a recent CD Projekt Red financial brief led by CEO Adam Kicinski. The Witcher 2 cost the company just $10.3 million – small change for a large video game – but we've now learned that The Witcher 3 had a total cost of $81 million. For perspective, GTA V cost $265 million, Star Citizen is in the range of $90 million, and Destiny cost upwards of $500 million (including marketing).

Kicinski called the RPG genre “probably the most difficult type [of game]” to make, furthering that “there are benefits coming from it, namely [that] we are very competitive because there are few companies that [make them]. We've been gathering expertise and know-how for years; we are not jumping from one job to another.”

Total Witcher 3 volume sees around 6 million in sales, an impressive figure for what has rapidly become one of the industry's leading RPG developers. In 1H15, the company generated $27.2 million from box edition sales of the Witcher, with $73 million from digital sales and distribution channels. Net profit was illustrated as 236 million Zlotys, or $62.5 million USD; this is in stark contrast to 1H14, when the company reported a net profit of just $1233 USD. It is fair to note that CD Projekt Red's previous major release, the Witcher 2, was in 2011, so the company had three years of stagnation by that point.

You can watch the full video below, though it is presented in Polish (with mediocre closed captions provided by YouTube).

- Steve "Lelldorianx" Burke.