Cyberpunk 2 associate director and The Witcher 3's lead quest designer Pawel Sasko reckons the famous RPG threequel contributed to a shift in what it means to be a "mature game," mainly because its aging developers craved more than murder and sex in their stories.
Speaking to GamesRadar+, Pawel Sasko explained that 2011's The Witcher 2 existed in an era where "mature games were mostly associated with two things. One of them was aggression, just simply killing. And the second thing was sex and nudity." Somewhere along the way, by the time The Witcher 3 rolled around in 2015, things had changed, though. "It would be incredible to think that Witcher 3 added something to it," Sasko added. "I think it was part of a broader process."
Where did that particular change come from? Sasko reckons it's down to the developers at CD Projekt Red aging out of certain themes: "Because we as players were also getting older. And naturally, people who grew up with video games started setting up their own families, and they started having kids, and they naturally started looking for something more. When you're in your 30s and 40s, the topics that maybe were cool and fun in your 20s or when you're a teenager, it's not fun anymore."
The Witcher 3 was apparently in production during a time where many of its devs were transitioning into their 30s or even their 40s and wanted "something more" than straightforward bloodshed - even if the team's first two RPGs were already more complex than mindless murder.
"I think The Witcher 3 was a part of that process," he added. "I don't think The Witcher 3 created that wave, because I think it was part of a broader, bigger cultural shift and change when our whole medium was maturing."
Everyone's now got their eyes locked onto The Witcher 4 and its potential to push things even further, but CDPR recently said it's still "too early to talk about" the game or its sequels.
The Witcher 4 is learning lessons from CDPR's past: no fetch quests, an eye on Cyberpunk 2077's fan-favorite characters, and devs who "care about the art we're making"
