The Witcher (video game series)

The Witcher is a series of fantasy action role-playing games developed by CD Projekt Red and published by CD Projekt. It is based on the book series of the same name by Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski, acting as sequels to the story of the books.

The Witcher
The Witcher's video game series logo (2015–present)
Genre(s)Dark fantasy
Heroic fantasy
High fantasy
Role-playing
Action role-playing
Multiplayer online battle arena
Developer(s)CD Projekt Red
Fuero Games
Publisher(s)Atari
CD Projekt
Platform(s)
First releaseThe Witcher
26 October 2007
Latest releaseThronebreaker: The Witcher Tales
23 October 2018

The main series began in 2007 with the release of The Witcher, and concluded with 2015's The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. As of 2020, the series has three main standalone games, two expansion packs and three spin-off games. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is the most successful game in the series selling over 28 million copies. The series has been critically acclaimed and commercially successful selling over 50 million copies.

Gameplay

In the series, the player controls Geralt of Rivia, one of the few remaining witchers on the Continent. He is a traveling monster slayer for hire, mutated and trained from an early age to slay deadly beasts.

Releases
Year Title Platform(s)
Console Computer Handheld
Main Series
2007 The Witcher
2011 The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
2015 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Expansion packs
2015 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Hearts of Stone
2016 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Blood and Wine
Spin-offs
2018 Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales

Main series
Release timeline
2007The Witcher
2008The Witcher: Enhanced Edition
2009The Witcher: Director's Cut
2010
2011The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
2012The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition
2013
2014
2015The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Hearts of Stone
2016The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Blood and Wine
2017
2018Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales

The Witcher
Main article: The Witcher (video game)

In 1996 and 1997, a Witcher video game was being developed by Metropolis Software in Poland, but it was canceled. The game's director was Adrian Chmielarz, former People Can Fly co-owner and creative director, who coined the translation "The Witcher" during its development. According to Chmielarz, the game would have been a 3D action-adventure game with role-playing elements such as moral choices and experience points.[1]

In 2003, Polish video-game developer CD Projekt Red negotiated with Sapkowski for rights to The Witcher, given the languishing work at Metropolis,[2] and released The Witcher, a role-playing game based on the saga in October 2007 for personal computers. It was well-publicized and, although it was the developer's first game, it received critical praise in Europe and North America. The Witcher was published in Poland by CD Projekt and worldwide by Atari. A console version, The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf with the same story and a different engine and combat system, was scheduled for release in fall 2009 but was canceled that spring.

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
Main article: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is the sequel to The Witcher, developed by CD Projekt Red. On 16 September 2009, before Assassins of Kings was introduced, a video of the game was leaked;[3] two days later, CD Projekt Red confirmed that it was in development.[4] Assassins of Kings was published in Poland by CD Projekt, by Namco Bandai Games in Europe and by Atari in North America. The game was also distributed digitally through Steam and DRM-free on Good Old Games.

The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt
Main article: The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was released on 19 May 2015, and has become considered one of the greatest games of all time, shipping over ten million copies by March 2016.[5] Subsequently two expansion packs were released, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Hearts of Stone in 2015 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Blood and Wine in 2016.

Other games

The Witcher: Crimson Trail (Polish: Wiedźmin: Krwawy Szlak), also known as The Witcher Mobile is a mobile-phone action game created by Breakpoint on license from CD Projekt in November 2007.[6] It features a young Geralt as a promising student who has completed his training to become a monster-slayer – a witcher.

CD Projekt Red announced Battle Arena, a free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena game for mobile devices, on 1 July 2014. It shut down at the end of 2015.[7]

In October 2018, CD Projekt Red released Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales, a turn-based roleplaying game with similar gameplay to the free-to-play card game Gwent: The Witcher Card Game. In Thronebreaker's thirty-hour-long campaign, the player takes the control of Queen Meve, the ruler of Lyria and Rivia, during the events that precede the first Witcher game. The game world consists of five regions never explored in The Witcher franchise before: Rivia, Lyria, Angren, Mahakam and Lower Aedirn.[8] The title received generally favorable reviews.[9]

Reception
Aggregate review scores
Game Metacritic
The Witcher 81/100[10]
The Witcher 2 (PC/360) 88/100[11][12]
The Witcher 3 (PC) 93/100[13]
(PS4) 92/100[14]
(XONE)91/100[15]
(NS) 85/100[16]
Promotional models dressed as Geralt and Triss at IgroMir 2010

In October 2018, Sapkowski sent notice to CD Projekt demanding he be remunerated for sales of The Witcher video games, asking for more than 60 million Polish złoty (more than US$15 million ) representing between about 5% and 15% of the game's revenues over the years. Sapkowski had originally provided the license to CD Projekt based on a lump sum payment, but now believes he is due more since the series has become much more successful than expected. CD Projekt stated that while they had met all obligations on the initial acquisition of the license, they will work amicably with Sapkowski's legal representatives to come to a fair outcome for all parties.[17] By February 2019, CD Projekt worked out a settlement agreement that would provide Sapkowski additional royalties for their video game series, though not as great as those Sapkowski had asked for, as to maintain a working relationship with the author for future Witcher projects.[18] The settlement was finalized by December 2019.[19]

Sales

The series had sold over 33 millon copies by March 2018,[20] increasing to over 50 million copies by May 2020.[21]

References
  1. Purchese, Robert (16 June 2014). "The Witcher game that never was". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Archived from the original on 23 June 2017. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
  2. Purchese, Robert (17 May 2015). "Seeing Red: The story of CD Projekt". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 22 April 2019. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  3. Brad Nicholson (17 September 2009). "The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings video leaked, possibly". Destructoid. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 15 September 2019.
  4. "CD Projekt RED has published their official statement about the leak of The Witcher 2 presentation movie". Facebook. 18 September 2009. Archived from the original on 13 December 2019. Retrieved 15 September 2019.
  5. Makuch, Eddie (11 March 2016). "Witcher 3 Ships Almost 10 Million Copies - Report". Gamespot.com. Archived from the original on 13 March 2016. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
  6. "The Witcher: Crimson Trail". GameBanshee. Archived from the original on 13 May 2012. Retrieved 3 July 2012.
  7. Yin-Poole, Wesley (1 July 2014). "The Witcher: Battle Arena is a F2P MOBA for mobile". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Archived from the original on 6 July 2014. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
  8. Aitken, Lauren (4 December 2018). "Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales review". VG247. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
  9. "Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  10. "The Witcher". Metacritic.
  11. "The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings". Metacritic.
  12. "The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings". Metacritic.
  13. "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt". Metacritic.
  14. "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt". Metacritic.
  15. "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt". Metacritic.
  16. "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Complete Edition". Metacritic.
  17. Martin, Matt (2 October 2018). "CD Projekt refuses to pay The Witcher author's new demands of $16 million for rights to work". VG247. Archived from the original on 2 October 2018. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  18. Kerr, Chris (5 February 2019). "CD Projekt agreed to pay The Witcher author additional royalties". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 5 February 2019. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
  19. McAloon, Alissa (20 December 2019). "CD Projekt and The Witcher author Andrzej Sapkowski settle royalties disagreement". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 20 December 2019. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  20. Harradence, Mike. "The Witcher series has sold over 33 million copies worldwide". Videogamer.com. Archived from the original on 23 March 2018. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  21. "The Witcher on Twitter". Retrieved 28 May 2020.
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