The Witcher 3 Dev Praises Rockstar Development Model

CD Projekt RED’s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt may have been a strong game for the developer – netting more than 200 Game of the Year Awards – but it’s keen to maintain its approach of focusing on fewer projects at a time.

Speaking to Games Industry International, CD Projekt CEO Marcin Iwiński said that maintaining a strong level of quality has been due to large teams focused on singular projects at a time. “The Witcher finished with 80 people, The Witcher 3 finished with 250, so Cyberpunk will probably be even more. Don’t think about scale in terms of us doing 20 projects; no, we’ll focus, we’ll focus on certain things…We don’t want to be a 10 project studio. The Rockstar model is nice.”

The Rockstar model, by the way, is the studio’s habit of focusing on a single game and supporting for years at a time before bringing out a sequel. Grand Theft Auto 5 is a key example.

Iwinski noted that CD Projekt RED’s next game Cyberpunk 2077 will be more ambitious “on every single front” from The Witcher 3. The studio is also working on Blood & Wine, the next big expansion for The Witcher 3.