To celebrate the upcoming 10th anniversary of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s release, CD Projekt’s Co-CEO Michał Nowakowski recently took to Twitter to commemorate the occasion and build excitement for The Witcher 4, the next chapter in the series that CDPR refers to as “the new saga,” revealing that about 100 of The Witcher 3’s developers are still working at the studio.
CDPR
In a series of posts, Nowakowski disclosed that around 100 developers who worked on the iconic 2015 RPG are still at CD Projekt, working on various titles. This list includes Nowakowski himself, fellow Co-CEO Adam Badowski, the “main Story Director” (likely referring to Marcin Blacha, the current VP of Narration at CD Projekt Red), and “the main vision holder,” possibly Lead Writer Borys Pugacz-Muraszkiewicz. He also clarified that a little over 200 people worked on The Witcher 3, meaning the studio has retained about 50% of that team.
Over in the comments, however, a large portion of the gaming community didn’t celebrate the retention ratio, as Nowakowski’s reveal raised more questions than it provided answers. As some of you might be aware, there have been a number of issues and controversies involving the current team working on The Witcher 4, such as CDPR’s current Franchise & Lore Designer Cian Maher expressing disdain for gamers and the development team not consulting with series creator Andrzej Sapkowski, making the Co-CEO’s comments appear more like an attempt at damage control in the eyes of many.
The commenters quickly pointed out that the 100 remaining devs are working on different projects, not just The Witcher 4, leaving the exact percentage of The Witcher 3 developers among the overall The Witcher 4’s production team unknown.
Moreover, the community was quick to remind everyone that while the Story Director and “the main vision holder” are the same, key figures behind Wild Hunt, such as Game Director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, Art Directors Marian Chomiak and Bartłomiej Gaweł, Creative Director Sebastian Stępień, Lead Quest Designer Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz, Senior Writer Jakub Szamalek, and Marketing Manager Tomasz Tinc, along with prominent CDPR members like Mateusz Kanik, Tomek Wojcik, and many others, all left CD Projekt in the early 2020s, with the vast majority of them joining Rebel Wolves following the departure.
Subsequently, they were replaced by both CDPR veterans and newcomers, with former Head of Animation Sebastian Kalemba, for example, serving as The Witcher 4’s Game Director, Gosia Mitręga, who joined the company in 2019, long after Wild Hunt’s release, becoming the game’s Executive Producer, Agile Coach Mateusz Czarnecki taking on the role of Game Producer, and Damian Milczarek, also an Agile Coach and a former Content Editor and Game Reviewer at Eurogamer Poland, serving as the Senior Technology & Narrative Producer for The Witcher 4.
So, what do you think of Nowakowski’s ratio? Is 100 developers a lot, or is it just a drop in the bucket considering CDPR has over 1,000 employees? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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