TW3's development budget was absolutely enormous...

[Y Ddraig Ddu]

In a recent financial report, CDP-R revealed that TW3's development budget was £53 million (~$82 million). And that's just the development budget. If this game had sold poorly, it could have severely weakened--if not threatened to collapse entirely--Poland's financial infrastructure.

Source (and link to the PDF of the financial report): https://www.vg247.com/2015/08/26/the-witcher-3-6-million-copies/

This makes The Witcher 3 one of the most expensive games ever made. Heh. I guess we can all stop pretending CDP-R is an "indie" studio now...

[FubarHouse]

Huge, oh yeah, but are you forgetting about Destiny's budget?

[Y Ddraig Ddu]

GTA 5 as well; the developement cost alone was $265, but that was only for the PS3 and X360 versions; I assume porting it to three other systems nearly doubled that.

What's most stunning, to me at least, is that TW2's budget was a paltry $10.5 mil...

[Gabriel Angelos]

um people think these guys are an indie studio? If it hadnt been for the economic crisis back in 2009 we would have had alot more games by now. Their parent company got hit pretty hard though back then. Still regret that we never got those expansions for The Witcher

[Siren]

CD Projekt Red made Poland rich thanks to this guy =

[Duncan]

Originally posted by Mumm-Ra:

um people think these guys are an indie studio? If it hadnt been for the economic crisis back in 2009 we would have had alot more games by now. Their parent company got hit pretty hard though back then. Still regret that we never got those expansions for The Witcher

If you check the forums you'll often see posts like "but CDPR is a very small studio cut them some slack", and I've seen a few people who actually believe that because CDP (publisher) and CDPR (developer) is basically one company it means CDPR is indie, lol.

[ApexNull]

Poland's GDP is almost $1 trillion so no, this game's failure would not have made a dent in the financial infrastructure of the country.

[Gohenko]

Originally posted by ydraig:

GTA 5 as well; the developement cost alone was $265, but that was only for the PS3 and X360 versions; I assume porting it to three other systems nearly doubled that.

What's most stunning, to me at least, is that TW2's budget was a paltry $10.5 mil...

Actually, according to most sources the $265 million budget is counting both development and marketing costs.

[Exarch_Alpha]

I recall reading somewhere they got subsidies from the government.

[Gabriel Angelos]

Originally posted by Duncan:

Originally posted by Mumm-Ra:

um people think these guys are an indie studio? If it hadnt been for the economic crisis back in 2009 we would have had alot more games by now. Their parent company got hit pretty hard though back then. Still regret that we never got those expansions for The Witcher

If you check the forums you'll often see posts like "but CDPR is a very small studio cut them some slack", and I've seen a few people who actually believe that because CDP (publisher) and CDPR (developer) is basically one company it means CDPR is indie, lol.

I wonder how this myth came to be. I mean they arent Betheseda or BioWare with massive backing but calling them indie is quite insulting to small devs who are trying to get off the ground . Im sure in the next few years they will grow even more and probably get bought out by EA.

[jclosed]

Originally posted by Mumm-Ra:

Originally posted by Duncan:

If you check the forums you'll often see posts like "but CDPR is a very small studio cut them some slack", and I've seen a few people who actually believe that because CDP (publisher) and CDPR (developer) is basically one company it means CDPR is indie, lol.

I wonder how this myth came to be. I mean they arent Betheseda or BioWare with massive backing but calling them indie is quite insulting to small devs who are trying to get off the ground . Im sure in the next few years they will grow even more and probably get bought out by EA.

I do not think there are that many people that say they are an small indie dev. They are, however, smaller than the "big guy's" that can use very big budgets to produce an game. Compared to them, they did very well.

And CDPR have stated over and over again that they will never let themselves bought out by EA. And to be honest - that would be an nightmare I would never want to see turn into reality. The last thing we need is an political correct Americanised "disney" verson of Cyberpunk 2077 (or an lobotomised next Witcher-like game).

[Gabriel Angelos]

Originally posted by jclosed:

Originally posted by Mumm-Ra:

I wonder how this myth came to be. I mean they arent Betheseda or BioWare with massive backing but calling them indie is quite insulting to small devs who are trying to get off the ground . Im sure in the next few years they will grow even more and probably get bought out by EA.

And CDPR have stated over and over again that they will never let themselves bought out by EA. And to be honest - that would be an nightmare I would never want to see turn into reality. The last thing we need is an political correct Americanised "disney" verson of Cyberpunk 2077 (or an lobotomised next Witcher-like game).

Thats what i fear the most, that they turn all political correct on us as this seriously devalues the setting. Im sick of all these modern sensitivities being introduced into medieval settings with the excuse that its a fantasy world, anything can happen there.

[Saya]

CDPR is indie in the sense that they are run independently, not owned by a bigger corporation like EA or Ubi. Most people would only call "indie" small devs and publishers, but to the strict definition of the word, CDPR is still independant, even if they are a huge company now (and GOG is sure making them a ton of dough as well).

[Deadbubble]

Originally posted by Exarch_Alpha:

I recall reading somewhere they got subsidies from the government.

Are you talking about how Poland was giving grants to any artists that made works featuring European culture heavily?

[Gohenko]

Originally posted by BuzzardBee:

The first two titles did not sell well at all.

Witcher 2 sold 1.7 million copies in one year, so I wouldn't exactly say it sold poorly.

Also, the combined sales for both Witcher 1 and Witcher 2 reached 8 million copies last year.
http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/24001/article/the-witcher-franchise-hits-8-million-sales/

[Exarch_Alpha]

Originally posted by Deadbubble:

Originally posted by Exarch_Alpha:

I recall reading somewhere they got subsidies from the government.

Are you talking about how Poland was giving grants to any artists that made works featuring European culture heavily?

Maybe, I think I read something on Kotaku about the game.

Feel free to elaborate