Launching The Witcher 3 alongside Batman: Arkham Knight, the horror CD project

The Witcher 3 has sold over 60 million copies and counting. We found out this past May, for the record, and it comes almost two years after Bethesda guru Todd Howard said the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. In other words, while Skyrim may still be a bit further, Geralt of Rivia's epic final adventure has kept things ridiculously close. Why make this tired comparison? Because both games have gone through a lot in common with even the most successful role-playing games of all time.

Skyrim's success was hardly a given, but CD Projekt was particularly concerned about The Witcher 3. Why? Well, myriad reasons, of course, but as we're now learning, even the Caped Crusader looks down on Geralt and looks ready to win. 'None other than Batman: Arkham Knight put the fear of God on CDPR ten years ago, and while it's hard to imagine things going backwards for The Witcher 3, there's probably a world where that happened, in fact, happens.

fear of the night

In a chat with PC Gamer, CDPR co-CEO Michael Nowakowski recalls the trying times. In short, Batman: Arkham Knight was scheduled to launch simultaneously with The Witcher 3, and that was an outrageous prospect. While The Witcher 2 was no sales slouch, it was still a small-fry series on the commercial front compared to the huge numbers Warner Bros. and Rocksteady had seen from previous installments in the Arkham catalog.

Compounding matters, the United States and much of Europe saw Warner Bros. as the publisher of The Witcher 3. In practice, this meant that retailers, who choose which new titles to market in storefronts and online based on potential sales pull, were already leaning toward Batman. and Warner Bros. themselves saw reason in such a possibility. “I still remember when we found out that Rocksteady was going to launch Arkham Knight” alongside The Witcher 3, Nowakowski recalls.

. “Let's say GameStop has a window, the main window, which [they] Going to sell you. Some two weeks, some two weeks. And it's their decision. It's their call. Whether they give this game or that game is their bet, and it can kill or elevate your game depending on the decision. And of course, they wanted to get it right to ensure they sold as many units as possible. ” – Michael Nowakowski

As luck would have it, Batman: Arkham Knight received what I believe was its third delay in a row, pushing the June 3 launch back slightly to June 23. This freed up much-needed marketing time for Witcher 3, and it was ultimately pretty adamant about nothing. It's impossible to gauge how much this helped, but CDPR would surely know better than I do, and they were very concerned.

“[Rocksteady] appeared [for] Our demo,” the CEO remembers well. “Like, oh my god, these guys — really over the top. I mean, they're just going to Roll us up“The Batmobile didn't, in fact, roll into Geralt, and the rest is history.