I don't mean to alarm you, but the first The Witcher game just turned 18. Yes, our interactive introduction to Geralt and The Continent arrived in October 2007, and one day we will all be dust.
Needless to say, it was a monumental game. A pop culture icon began making waves to a larger English-speaking audience, after prior comic and TV adaptations were made primarily for Polish audiences, while this was the first release from CD Projekt Red. The studio's veterans remember the project well, and what a long road it’s been since.
"I remember the launch, and the uphill battle for the first Witcher game to get noticed at all. Can't believe it was that long ago. So much happened in the meantime, both for The Witcher IP and for CDPR in general," Michał Nowakowski, co-CEO of CDPR, posted on Twitter to mark the occasion.
I remember the launch, and the uphill battle for the first Witcher game to get noticed at all. Can’t believe it was that long ago. So much happened in the meantime, both for The Witcher IP and for CDPR in general. Proud I had (and continue to have!) a privilege to be a part of… https://t.co/YE76l54fFQOctober 26, 2025
Indeed, it might be hard to believe now, but Geralt of Rivia was not an overnight sensation. Quite the opposite. Although the first game had some inventive ideas, like the ability to choose between isometric and third-person views and control schemes, it very much lived in the shadow of Mass Effect and The Elder Scrolls, releasing the same year the former debuted and a year after the arrival of Oblivion.
Yeah, that's a lot of competition for a then-largely-unknown fantasy series, and it didn't help that the game was PC-only. But as any good Witcher does, CDPR hung in there, making the second, then finally breaking into the mainstream in the third, leading us to now, where the property is now one of the biggest TV shows of the last two decades, with Henry Cavill taking on the lead role before being replaced by Liam Hemsworth.
A remake of the original is underway from Fool's Theory, with supervision from CDPR, as development continues on The Witcher 4. "Proud I had (and continue to have!) a privilege to be a part of that crazy story. More adventures ahead!" Nowakowski finishes.
