The Witcher 3 has just turned 10 years old. Yep, time flies when you’re running around The Continent slaying beasties and also saving the world from becoming a bit chilly. Naturally, a bunch of devs at CD Projekt have chosen to commemorate the anniversary be sharing their defining memories of the game’s development, as well as do a bit of looking forward.
Most of their thoughts were shared on Twitter, as a response to the studio putting out a post in recognition of it being ten years since TW3 debuted all the way back on May 18, 2015. God, I can’t even process how many hours of my life the game’s nicked since that point, and I was relatively late to the party with it – bouncing off a couple of times before things finally clicked.
Starting off, Paweł Sasko – current associate game director on Cyberpunk 2077‘s sequel and a quest designer on TW3, wrote as part of a thread: “I was there from the very first day, saw it develop from the first pitch, have been so lucky to impact it’s shape to some small degree, and never thought you will love it this much. Art does not exist without the audience and you all are an important part of this story.
“I want to make you proud of us and excited again,” he added, “Capture the lightning in the bottle, give you lifetime of memories, make you laugh and break down crying. So we can have another anniversary like this, one day again.”
Meanwhile, CD Projekt joint-CEO Michał Nowakowski recalled: “10 years ago, I remember being exhausted, anxious (to see the scores and players’ reactions), buzzing with excitement I think no one on the team had a decent sleep that night and we were all refreshing websites of media sites.
“In the year prior to that launch I spent more time on the road preaching W3 to our partners than I did at home with my family. If there ever was game changer in my professional life, I think that was it more than anything else before. Cheers to the fantastic CDPR Team and to all the fans that have been with us through all the good and bad. Cannot wait for what is yet to come.”
Those two were far from alone, with a number of devs currently working on The Witcher 4 and/or Cyberpunk 2 – including narrative director Philipp Weber, cinematic director Kajetan Kapuściński, and senior cinematic designer/coordinator Michał Zbrzeźniak – joining in. “I still remember just watching the wind in the trees on an early version of Skellige,” Weber wrote.
CD Projekt comms staffers Marcin Momot and Pawel Burza both wrote about firing the game up for the first time, and we even got a post from the voice of Geralt. “What a time it’s been friends…” wrote actor Doug Cockle, clearly keen to provide a line that’d sound cool in a gravelly voice ahead of featuring in a CD Projekt stream celebrating the anniversary that’s set for later today (May 19) – you can catch that stream here at 4PM BST/11AM ET.
What are your favorite Witcher 3 memories and how tough a task do you think the series’ currently under construction next entry will have following in its award-winning footsteps? Let us know below!
