During infoShare 2016, Artur Kurasinski interviewed CD Projekt RED’s CEO, Marcin Iwinski, who revealed that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has sold nearly 10 million copies worldwide.
As Marcin said when asked about the sales of their games:
“We were totally overwhelmed because, honestly, we were not expecting such a degree of success. But sales-wise, The Witcher series has sold over 20 million worldwide, out of which almost half of it is from The Witcher 3. So we practically doubled the sales of the series.”
Later on, Marcin re-confirmed that number:
“Generally I think with The Witcher 3, and it was the case with The Witcher 2 as well, we released our game without any copy protection. So on day-one you could download the game from GOG and give it to a friend – enemy as well – but give it to a friend, on a memory stick, it works. And still we sold near to 10 million copies across all three platforms.”
For what is worth, back in March Marcin claimed that most of the game’s sales were coming from the PC platform. As Marcin said back then:
“Consoles began for real with PS2 from Sony, and then with X360. PS wasn’t available for everyone. It was an expensive toy with expensive games. I was already distributing games at that time and I remember what was the expenditure for video games. PS was available for more affluent people and PS2 was available for the masses and started to develop this market. However, the PC still holds strong. Most of The Witcher sales are for the PC, though consoles started selling very well. “
Unfortunately we don’t have any numbers for the GOG version, however we do know that the game has sold near 2 million copies on Steam.
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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“Generally I think with The Witcher 3, and it was the case with The Witcher 2 as well, we released our game without any copy protection. So on day-one you could download the game from GOG and give it to a friend – enemy as well – but give it to a friend, on a memory stick, it works. And still we sold near to 10 million copies across all three platforms.”
HMMMM so what you are saying is that you wont use denuvo in your next game because piracy does not cost millions of lost sales?
Anyway the content to value on witcher 3 is higher than gta v which has some of the highest. By that i mean the quality of the content you are getting for the price is worth it, unlike some other devs that copy paste everything, i dont need to name em!!
I always keep homefront revolution in my mind as the prime example of how denuvo prevents loss of sales
or far cry primal or adr1ft or the last sherlock holmes game.
That’s a factor, but for me, the fact I get an offline installer, from GOG, is much more important than DRM, much as I approve of the lack on GOG.
The fact I get an installer, with GOG, and can ignore crappy store clients, Steam and Galaxy, and all the others, in fact I now require an offline installer, and consider client exclusives, as abhorrent as console exclusives.
Having switched from Console to PC in 2005, and grown to detest the store based clients even more, I refuse to buy any game that is client locked, even more than I hate DRM.
If Valve, EA or Ubisoft, gave me an installer, I’d get their games direct, DRM or not.
DRM free GOG installers are best, and I will never pirate a GOG game, or provide one to another, and I’m an ex pirate, and have no such qualms with client locked DRM’d games.
I just can’t be bothered playing with those crappy products, not even the cracked versions.
All I’m seeing is lip service because they went out to say “without consoles the game wouldn’t be around at all”.
I want to see actual full on sales numbers of both physical and digital from consoles and then I can fully decide whether or not he’s talking bs lip service.
inb4 the Gibb reply.
Let me put a suit so I can be properly discuss this.
Good now hopefully the next game from CDPR is not downgraded on PC. lol like that won’t happen. Sorry it’s true. All the legendary PC dev’s went full on Console. PCMR is getting f’ked one game at a time
Stop with this myth that Consoles lower the quality of the PC version.
What keeps all PC games down, is the 85% of PC gamers who play on the mainstream of PC’s ability, many of which are not as powerful as the consoles.
Few PC gamers own the latest hardware, and no publisher is making games for the few.
As one of the few, one of the main reasons I backed Star Citizen, was it was the only way to get a game that pushed that hardware beyond it’s limits.
As a backer, Star Citizen’s crowdfunding succeeds, when I get the finished game, whether the 85% can play it or not. I will get the hardware I need, and most backers will.
Even SC will need to sell to the mainstream, to move beyond being a crowdfunding success, and become a gaming success, so I expect the RX 480 will be the minimum Spec, even for this purely PC only game.
Where Consoles do have an unfounded influence on PC games, is the focus on sofa gaming UI and controllers, neither of which should be platform specific.
All games should have switchable UI’s and multiple control devices, regardless of the computers design.
Console gamers should be able to connect any screen and control mechanism they wish, when I was a PS2 only gamer, I played up close to the TV and wanted to use a PC style of UI, with K&M, and there is no technical reason why I could not.
More so today, with wireles and/or USB for input, HDMI and/or Display Port for output.
Remove those artificial restrictions, and consoles are at best equal to the mainstream, at worst minimum requirements, assuming a well optimised game.
you type to much. And it’s not a myth I am typing about. It’s FACT what dev’s do. Even UBIsoft said themselves they don’t go all out on the PC version because they don’t want to outshine the console versions
You just lost all credibility when you qouted Ubi$oft. Ha-ha, Ubi$oft you’ve gotta be kidding me. Ubi$oft the Snake-Oil Salesman of gaming. I have an advice for you, don’t mention Ubi$ofts opinions when have a discussion about PC gaming, you will get laughed at no one will respect your opinion.
You talk nonsense. Far cry classic has smaller maps than the pc version in 2004, doom 3 on consoles is split in multiple levels.
Consoles are weak. Consoles are holding pc gaming back.
You were a pc gamer? Do tell me what was the best looking game on ps2 at 2004? was it far cry? oh wait you couldnt run that, hl2? nope you couldnt run that, doom 3? no you couldnt run that.
So let me get this right;
I debunk your argument, & instead of replying to me, you just re-post the same argument a few days later?
As I said; Gamers used to upgrade. Gamers were upgrading for Crysis. Then, once the “Crysis Push” faded away, they realised the 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, & even some of 2014’s lineups didn’t actually require more than a mid-end GPU, because…. oh! Console Ports, so they didn’t bother to push their system anymore.
People don’t have 8GBs of RAM because they’re cheap, they have 8GBs of RAM because they don’t think they need more. If Consoles had more, then PC users would be thinking about getting more, & 8GBs wouldn’t be the most common choice.
Games like Star Citizen will get people to upgrade, I agree, but only a portion, I also agree. What you fail to understand however is the connection between weakened PC hardware & Consoles’ ever-weaker hardware. The mid-end PC’s that plague the PC Community right now are a result of consoles holding us back for so long, & creating certain mindsets in the process while doing so.
Developers no longer push the PC because it would cost extra to do so. It would cost money they’re unwilling to spend, & will continue to be unwilling to spend as long as they focus on the console versions.
Why do you think they’re marketing things like 60 FPS & “unlocked FPS caps” as features these days? Because they’re extras. Things they have to go out of their way to properly implement, since consoles do not need them.
In summary; If Consoles weren’t holding back developers, then developers wouldn’t be holding back PC’s by focusing on mid-end hardware instead of pushing limits.
Yes. Final game wasn’t as good from graphical point of view as versions which were presented before release. But it still looks great and it is still one of the best PC games I have ever played. Developers of Witcher 3 deserves these sales and I am glad that game with this quality is so successful even without DRM. I bought the game via GOG and I planned to buy it via Steam again to support developers (but not in full price which I paid in GOG before).
Can’t beat Skyrim.
dude…..
on GOG Witcher 3 sold more copies than on steam.
Wow. Must have been all those people holding out for a discounted copy. Like me because i’m tight!
I’m still waiting.
Why? TW3 + both expansions have quantity and quality, enough to last a few months of playing depending on your play style. It’s worth every penny.
Is there a source for that ?
Nope, its a number from dayONE.
As for today Steam surpassed GOG already!
I feel bad for the people who didn’t get it on Steam.
So many problems with the update process with GOG. It’s not the platform’s fault, they don’t have the resources and streamlining Steam does, but from everything I’ve read going back to last summer, it’s a nightmare just to update the game. I feel bad for not supporting CDPR’s in-house platform, but I’m SO glad I got it on Steam.
Personally I prefer GOG to steam because I actually own the game. Updating is more, different, but it’s simply a case of clicking on the update in the extra downloads setting and off it goes I believe auto update is also a thing.
That’s interesting, because I haven’t encountered any problems with GOG client. I personally prefer Steam for the simple fact that most of my games are there, but other than that, no problems with Galaxy at all. All updates were automatic, just like on Steam.
That’s ridiculous, I have no problems updating on GOG, on Steam you are forced to use the stores bloatware, when it’s nothing to do with the game, and updates are forced on you, which can only be delayed for 24 hours. Though updates are generally desirable, sometimes they break things, especially when mods are used. Mods often require updates, to match the dev patches changes, with an heavily modded game, Steam will just break it until the mods are updated.
Your lack of choice on Steam, blinkers your view of GOG to using Galaxy, it’s Steam like client. It allows you to control when and if updates are installed on a game by game basis. You are in control of each and every update.
Having said that, I consider every Store client to be a piece of sh**ty bloatware, and want nothing to do with any of them, Steam gives you no choice, GOG does.
GOG Downloader is another option, a basic download manager that notifies and downloads game and/or updates at the press of the button, you get full game installers, the downside is all game folders are in one main GOG folder.
My preference is to use the last, fully manual option, the GOG site notifies me of any updates, and I download the Game Installer and keep it to install the game when and how I choose, including having multiple installs for modding/vanilla if I want.
This gives me full control of both the Folder structure and location of all games and franchises, keeping series in one folder named to my choice, for example.
The Witcher Series/3 The Witcher 3 – The Wild Hunt/The Witcher 3 – The Wild Hunt (Complete – Modded).
So I find it ridiculous, that you on Steam, with no choices feel sorry for GOG users, especially as that opinion is probably based on the launch issues of the optional GOG client, all clients have had many launch issues, including Steam, above and beyond the clients own launch, to many game launches.
The offline installers always work once downloaded, I have no problems updating, except waiting for my mods to update, but unlike Steam, with GOG I can play without updating, while I wait. XCOM 2 breaks for days with every update, on Steam.
So don’t feel sorry for GOG users, we have multiple ways to update, you have none
Not true. GOG Galaxy allows manual and auto-updating, giving the opportunity to rollback to a previous game version is a great feature. With Steam, AFAIK, you are stuck with auto-updates and not being able to rollback to prev. versions. I have read multiple complaints on the official CDPR forums from Steam users because of exactly this. Also, like to add I’ve never experienced any issues using GOG Galaxy, other than the rare occasion where I needed to use the Verify/Repair function which fixed 99% of the problems.
You can rollback to previous version on Steam. Now, I’m not sure if this is universal, or depends on a game, since I’ve only done this once for one game, but there is such feature.
Can you? Thanks for the info. OK, I didn’t know that. TBH I have never tried or needed to on Steam. I’ve seen so many complaints about not being able to rollback after a new patch for a game on Steam broke something in a few games that I assumed it didn’t have a rollback feature. One difference with GOG Galaxy at least with Witcher 3 is that it allows you to rollback further than the last patch. I’ve never needed to use it so I’m not sure if there are any issues involved or not.
No problem with update on gog. Is actualy much easier and i playit ofline without galaxy. I instaled what i wanted when i wanted.
Brawo! Pc Master Race 🙂
Good! A testimony to the fact that you don’t need copy protection to sell your game….
Coughh coughhh
Denuvo lovers.
It’s one of the few truly beautiful games.
I don’t usually pre-order games (just with a few which I can name: Gran Turismo 5 Signature Edition on PS3, Metro Last Light on PC and delivered, Elite Dangerous and Horizon on PC, Battlefield 3 Limited Edition on PS3 and PC both yes, and The Witcher 3 on PC) but sure one of the few developers that you can bet or “invest” your money is CD Projekt Red.
Can (‘t) wait for Cyberpunk 2077.
PS: Aside from them, I can’t wait to see in what the hell 4A Games developers is working now…after Metro Last Light I’m quite intrigued in what they can do now. Still play the game time to time and can say that is one of the few actual good shooters that we have (because of the story, gameplay, atmosphere and visuals).
Single-player is still important to me…currently playing Mass Effect Trilogy (yup, never played it before) and there is nothing like a good story with great dialogues, characters and cool gameplay (well in this case, good enough gameplay).
“Cool story bro” to myself. 😉
9x more than Rise of the Tomb Raider with it’s Denuvo.
Interesting that
look at just cause 3 sales…. for a game heavily marketed, it is pathetic.
Word of Mouth damaged those sales extremely though, & really, that’s exactly what they deserve for that disgraceful launch.
Heh. Do you remember the original Witchers launch? It wasn’t much better. Worse, if anything.
Yeah, but CDPR was a small studio, only recently founded (2002), launching a brand new IP on a licensed engine, at the time.
By comparison, Avalanche are highly experienced, quite large, use their own Engine & shouldn’t still be having such extreme issues 7 months post-launch, in the third entry of their IP.
Hopefully they, and many other “big” studios learn some valuable lessons from CDPR.
They won’t.
It would be nice, I agree, but they won’t.
Because the other one is a masterpiece and the other one is an mediocre interactive indiana jones movie.
2M from steam.. I’ll just make it the same for GOG. that makes just 4M and the 6M coming from consoles. so those yelling PCMR hold your horses. PC sales will have no fight with consoles. that’s the whole reason why they released on consoles and not just PC. on it’s original platform it sells worst than consoles. they probably mentioned PC because they do not want them to be hurt
You talk about both consoles like they are one platform. That’s not how it generally works.
6M from PS4 and XBONE combined, both of which are different consoles, which require a separate version entirely. If PC version really is 4M+, then it is the best platform in terms of sales for this game ! That’s incredible, I was not really expecting it.
That said, out of the 6M, the PS4 probably has 3-4M, so about the same as PC.
All of this is if we assume GOG sold the same or more than steam.
2 consoles heavily marketed with e3 demo vs one system, and that is bad? But i forget you console fanboys blamed piracy before, now that is not the case, you cant blame piracy.
I know they are saying we won’t see it, but I want to see a Witcher 4 even if it isn’t Gerald. The game was fantastic, I bought the game and it’s expansions. Make it harder to dl on GOG and sell 20 million Witcher 4 copies! I will have the game preordered if they decide to put one out.
Yes, i’m still mind boggled by the idiots that choose DRM instead of DRM Free when then have a choice. The sooner i can get away from steam the better, because you DON’T OWN ANYTHING. I own over 200+ game son steam and It’s unsettling to me that i don’t really “Own” what a PAID FOR. That’s why i’ve Dialed down my steam or any other DRm purchases or literally stopped buying DRM games all together. I’m tired of being treating like a criminal when i BOUGHT THE DAMN THING. And anyone defends steam or any other DRM is a bloody idiot. because I BUY MY GAMES. I’m no pirate so don’t treat me like bloody one.
DRM doesn’t stop piracy. because the people that pirate games werent gonna buy it in the first place. So that wasn’t a “Lost of SALE”. I was more sympathetic to th efact that these people needs to protect their investment. But then it came clear to me thats not what it was all about. It’s about making me the honest ccustomers life A LIVING HELL. All this always Online RUBBISH. Funny how the honest paying customers can’t play the games that they paid for properly, but the pirates seems to have no ISSUES AT ALL. If you ask me, it seems they are pushing you to pirate. I buy all my games and haven’t owned a pirated game since 2003 back when i wa sin school and broke.
P.S… I hope to god the pirates pirate the CRAP out of these companies. I’m rooting for the pirates now. Just please don’t pirate CD Projekt Reds Games. I urge you all to buy their games and pirate the rest. Denuvo has been cracked 10x over already, the pirates just aren’t vocal anymore and upfront lik ethey use to be. ITS CALLED BEING SMART. Nothing is Unbreakable folks… Whats Unbreakable is a Great well thought out product and customer service. You can never go wrong there. WHY THE BLOODY HELL DO I NEED TO BE CONSTANTLY ONLINE IN A SINGLEPLAYER GAME!… Talking about you SQUare ENIX (HITMAN)…
“It’s unsettling to me that i don’t really “Own” what a PAID FOR”
At least in the past you have the cracked version, you can burn it and put it in your shelf or stock it for future offline use…
Square Enix is doing the same thing they’ve been doing for years now; dumb moves.
Except this time the “dumb moves” they’re trying equate to Always-Online DRM’s masked as “features” & Episodic Games, because Telltale. Eventually they’ll pull their heads out of their *sses & move on to something else, hopefully after providing an Offline mode for Hitman.
You own them on Steam. As much as you do on GOG. Steam has patches for all their games incase for whatever reason, Steam is shut down. They also have download servers, ready to serve the games unto infinity, setup legally, just incase of this.
ehm no.. actions speak louder than words, and I like what cdpr does!
If I can get a game on GOG, then I do every time over steam. It’s true I wouldn’t condone anyone pirating a cd Projekt red game because I know they work hard to make a good game. Not like EA with star wars battlefront or the Sims 4. If the games good, I’ll buy it.