The Witcher 3 was cheaper to produce than you might expect

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is easily one of the best games to come out this year, one we loved, and is a clear contender for a number of Game of the Year awards, but just how much did it cost to make?

Developers CD Projekt RED has revealed some interesting numbers behind the game and the company’s financials for the first-half of 2015.

According to the studio’s CEO, Adam Kiciński, the game cost a whopping $81 million (R1.1 billion) – that includes productions costs and marketing, including 40 “fine-tuned” marketing campaigns in “every key market” as well as a simultaneous global campaign.

There were also a few other interesting figures he cited: CD Projekt RED’s internal development team was made up of more than 240 people representing 18 nationalities, while around 1500 people were involved in the development and launch of the game globally.

The Witcher 3 was published in 15 different languages, seven of them fully dubbed, which required 500 voice actors in total.

Now $81 million is a lot of money (let’s make no mistake about that), but it’s pocket-change in comparison to some of the big-budget games.

EA was said to have blown upwards of $200 million on Star Wars: The Old Republic back in 2012, while Rockstar reportedly put more than $260 million into Grand Theft Auto V – which given the scale of the game is somewhat understandable.

Bioshock Infinite was rumoured to have cost around $200 million, although Ken Levine was quick to dismiss that number.

Another analyst estimated last year that Blizzard spent $50 million on Titan before deciding to cancel it altogether.

Back to the The Witcher 3 – $81 million is still a lot of zeroes to throw at a game, so what was the return like?

“It was a good investment, because in the first six weeks after the launch of Witcher [3], we generated six million copies,” Kiciński said. “We sold six million copies of the game, and made a net profit of zł236 million [$63 million].”