Much-loved mechanic from The Witcher 2 didn't find favor with the CD Projekt Red CEO. „Waste of resources”

The CEO of CD Projekt thinks that the "experiment" in The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings was a waste of time and resources for the Polish developer, so they decided to ditch that idea in the next game.

The second part of Geralt's digital saga didn't get as much hype as its sequel, but it's still a big deal in the history of Polish video games. After the somewhat clunky first installment, Assassins of Kings was a much more polished title. However, there are opinions that the second game loses to its predecessor in terms of atmosphere, and its gameplay was a "raw" version of that in Wild Hunt.

What definitely distinguishes Assassins of Kings is a certain choice in the middle of the game. Without delving into details, the choice Geralt has to make greatly influences the reception and progression of The Witcher 2's narrative. A similar feature is hard to find in Wild Hunt.

Experiment that had no place in the open world of The Witcher 3

It could be considered a source of pride for the game's creators, even though they opted out of a similar approach in the third installment. However, Adam Badowski (one of the joint CEO of the CD Projekt Group) wasn't a fan of this feature.

In an interview with PC Gamer, Badowski called this important decision in The Witcher 2 a "waste of resources" that cost the devs too much. The CEO admits that from a player's perspective, it might have been "cool," but apparently, this approach took up too much of the developers' attention.

The reason's pretty clear: branching the storyline makes the game's structure complicated and means they have to create two separate paths. This would be particularly problematic in "The Witcher 3" because CD Projekt wanted to create a vast open world while maintaining a high level of narrative quality. The second Witcher focused on "chapters" and semi-open locations. Badowski was convinced that such a fragmented storyline simply wouldn't work in a "sandbox" RPG. Therefore, the team went for a different solution.

Maybe adding a plot twist like that could work, but even without it, making The Witcher 3 wasn't exactly smooth sailing. Furthermore, the devs already had many doubts. After all, Skyrim didn't become famous for its narrative layer. Moreover, at a certain point, Badowski wasn't convinced whether players would see the "potential" of a game that leaned more towards dark fantasy themes. As a result, he had trouble convincing potential partners to support CD Projekt.

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

May 17, 2011

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