Years before The Witcher 3, CDPR was just trying to survive: "How do we escape annihilation?"

While CD Projekt Red was pretty beloved in some circles beforehand, The Witcher 3 was the game that launched the studio into superstardom when it was released 10 years ago.

While reflecting on The Witcher 3's 10th anniversary in an interview with PC Gamer magazine, Michal Nowakowski, joint-CEO of CD Projekt Red, revealed that things weren't always so good for the studio. Thanks to the 2008 financial crisis, some within CD Projekt Red were worried they would have to shut its doors after the release of the first game in The Witcher series. Nowakowski said it "was a very tricky period for the company."

Between the release of The Witcher in 2007 and The Witcher 2 in 2011, Nowakowski says the priority was "making sure we have the money to pay people their salaries, and making sure we make good with everybody we owe money to." He recalled "The early days were quite - for me - focused on 'how do we escape annihilation?'"

Thankfully, CD Projekt Red persevered, and since then the studio has reached the level of the likes of Rockstar, Bethesda Game Studio, and Kojima Productions, where whatever they're working on will instantly become the most anticipated game for many people – even if we know next to nothing about them.

Before The Witcher 3 smashed its "super ambitious" lifetime sales goals in just 3 months, CDPR's CEO was convinced Batman: Arkham Knight was going to "roll over us."