Polish gaming website Legal/Law Journal site (thanks Kodaemon and Perscitus for the heads up), Gazeta Prawna, has revealed some interesting information about the development cost of The Witcher 2, as well as the development for both The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077. During CDPR’s conference, CD Projekt CEO Adam Kicinski said that The Witcher 2 cost $10,36 million to CD Projekt RED.

In addition, Kicinski revealed the The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 will cost CD Projekt RED $2,82 million for the first half of 2013.

Adam Kicinski added:

“We already have an agreement with Warner Bros and we’re conducting further negotiations. We’ve divided the globe into areas, allowing optimal financial conditions in different territories. In total, we want to have upwards from ten distribution agreements. In addition, we want advance payments from distributors for each geographical area as a contribution and expression of faith in our product.”

What’s also great here is that CDPR has achieved financial independence. According to Kicinski, the company has $8,32 million which allows financial independence.

Kicinski concluded:

“Currently, we are working on two large productions (The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077) and two smaller titles (the first one will launch after the new Witcher). We need a financial base to fund our publishing plans. This gives us financial independence, which is a key factor to success. It’s good to have a financial background in this industry. It allows you to work on even cooler projects and maintain a high margin, since you don’t need to depend on advance payments from distributors”

The Witcher 3 is currently planned for a 2014 release on next-gen consoles and PC, while Cyberpunk 2077 is planned for a 2015 release on next-gen consoles and PC.

Enjoy and stay tuned for more!

http://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-witcher-2-cost-1036-million-the-witcher-3-and-cyberpunk-2077-will-cost-282-million-in-h1-2013/

CD Projekt holds a special place in my heart.

I'm eagerly awaiting the release of both The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077. I recently started replaying through The Witcher 1 and plan on finishing both it an its sequel before I jump on The Witcher 3. =)

Some misunderstanding in place here. $2.82 mill even if just in 6 months is too small of a number.

I thought the cost was lower than this. They were happy when the Xbox version sold 500k.
Anyway, I hope the will continue their successful run. We need to keep getting Witcher games.

I think it's amazing that they're making such great, graphically as well as gameplay wise high quality games and yet they don't spend 50 million or so on each game like a lot of other companies do nowadays!

Other than salaries and marketing, what do companies spend money on when they develop the games?

Yes, but mostly it's explained by lower Polish wages. I would guess game developers at CD Project get paid half of what they get in the West and administrative personel even less.

Very true, main reason why outsourcing was invented lol. But they must be doing something else right, i mean that alone can not make THAT much of a difference. Maybe 40 to 50% lower and not a 1000% !!!

Not much.

Some outsourcing of art assets, voice acting and musical scores. Then CGI trailers sometimes (outsourced).

Then office rental and hardware of course, but you probably assumed that already.

Yeah, I know. That's why I'm a lil suspicious Witcher 2 only cost $10 million. Comparable titles like Dragon Age, Fallout and Elder Scrolls probably cost $40 million and up.

So even for a Polish dev $10 million sounds very cheap. What a bargain!