CD Projekt’s CEO was afraid that players wouldn’t understand The Witcher 3. Then came unexpected help

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The team behind The Witcher 3 was initially unsure how players would receive its dark fantasy setting, but the popularity of the related TV series likely broadened its appeal.

Honestly, dark fantasy is everywhere these days. It feels like a huge part of what’s popular in fantasy games right now. It’s not just a ton of games trying to be the next Dark Souls or based on Warhammer; there are loads of completely original worlds going for that darker vibe too. And don’t even get me started on all the game adaptations of books and other stuff – some are great, but a lot… well, they don’t quite hit the mark.

Years ago, choosing a more unconventional or edgy style was considered somewhat daring, and this worried a particular developer from Poland.

Fantasy in games before and after Game of Thrones

In an interview with PC Gamer, Adam Badowski, co-CEO of CD Projekt Group, explained the difficult choices the company faced when making The Witcher 3. While they’d successfully created two Witcher games already, they were striving for something much more ambitious with the third. This meant significantly increased development expenses and numerous hurdles, representing a considerable risk for the studio, which could only focus on one game at a time.

Badowski’s worries were influenced by the success of other fantasy games. At the beginning of the 2010s, titles like the incredibly popular World of Warcraft and the recently released Skyrim were gaining a lot of attention. These games were the standard for building immersive fantasy worlds. While they did explore some darker themes, World of Warcraft’s Azeroth and Skyrim’s Tamriel were fundamentally high fantasy settings.

The developers saw The Witcher 3 as something entirely different for players at the time. This worried Badowski, who feared players wouldn’t grasp the dark fantasy setting—until the Game of Thrones show gained popularity.

There’s always plenty of competition in the gaming world, and it’s important to learn from what other games are doing. However, just like with music videos, you need to be original and bring something new to the table – don’t simply copy others.

We realized that The Witcher 3 was a very different kind of game for players. As someone concerned with the business side, I had a lot of concerns. The game was costly and difficult to develop, and at the time, it was our only project. The Witcher is a dark fantasy story, which wasn’t a mainstream genre, and I worried whether players would connect with that type of world.

High fantasy games were incredibly popular with players. While World of Warcraft was a dominant force for a long time, the landscape shifted after the success of Game of Thrones.

George R.R. Martin’s book series became widely popular thanks to its television adaptation, which helped define the dark fantasy genre. The show was groundbreaking for its realistic portrayal of a world filled with complex characters and moral ambiguities, a departure from the traditional heroic narratives often found in mainstream fantasy. Interestingly, this shift towards grimmer themes coincided with the release of the video game Dark Souls, which quickly became a massive hit for its developer, FromSoftware.

This was a turning point for Badowski, and he finally felt relieved. The success of Game of Thrones proved that audiences were open to grimmer fantasy stories, which was a good sign for the new CD Projekt game. That game would go on to become a massive hit, not only for the company but for the entire Polish video game industry a few years later.

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2025-11-12 18:34