Couple of days ago a major Polish finance journal interviewed Adam Kiciński about TW3. Since the article is paid content I won't translate it in whole, but just the questions and abstract of answer for each.
(The source can be found here:
http://www.parkiet.com/artykul/7,1358556-Produkcja--Wiedzmina-3--szybko-zmierza-do-finalu.html)
THIS IS NOT A TRANSLATION. Only the questions are translated. The answers are only summarized by me.
Dariusz Wolak: Is TW3 ready yet?
Adam Kiciński: You can play through the entire game already, although it obviously still needs some work, performance optimization, polishing graphics and so on. But it looks like it's nearly finished. 3/4 of the whole studio is involved in TW3, the rest working on CP2077. The boxes design is complete. The standard edition will be very rich, the collectors edition will be extraordinary. There will be 12-15 language versions (TW2 had 11, + 3 fan-made). Deals with the biggest retailers (like Gamestop or Amazon) are set, including all the details for presale campaigns.
DW: We only don't know the launch date.
AK: It will be unveiled in the first half of the year.
DW: Usually the date is made public a couple of months before the premiere, giving the time to launch the whole marketing machinery. Does it mean TW3 will be launched in autumn?
AK: Evaded the question.
DW: Do you have all the distribution deals signed?
AK: All the major ones. Couple of others are in the talks (RSA, Brazil). The distribution will be more geographically atomized than TW2 where there was only a couple of large distribution regions, which in turn resulted in some countries within those regions to be somewhat neglected. It should change now. Besides, all the major publishers actively seek the deals, so CDPR can select the best offers. The Chinese marked looks promising, and the Witcher franchise is known there thanks to pirates. There's a tremendous potential in there and CDPR will try to utilize it.
The distributors will only sell TW3 retail boxes, the digital distribution is entirely on CDPR's side. (Profits from a digital sale are two times that of a retail sale.)
DW: So TW3's development goes according to the schedule. What about the budget?
AK: Also looks good. It was a very conservative budget from the start, the whole production is being financed from current incomes and savings. There is also backup in form of a credit line for 40 million PLN (from which 30 million is designated towards game production), but there was no need to put it to use as of yet, and perhaps there won't be in the future.
DW: TW3 will be out for PCs and next-gen consoles. You have no regrets about this decision? The consoles were launched a bit later than expected.
AK: But they sell much better than expected. 4.2 million PS4s and 3 million of XBOs. Target forecasts state 33 million consoles at the end of the year. The decision was right.
DW: Marketing campaign is supposed to cost 25 million USD, more than the production itself. Why so much?
AK: They want that not only RPG fans buy TW3, but the gamers that buy all the blockbusters as well. This means reaching much broader audience. Up till now only a couple of percent of the marketing budget has been spent. The main campaign will start in a few months.
DW: Why CD Projekt publishes board games and comics?
AK: Its a strategy to build the franchise and gather new gamers. There is at least one new idea how to use the Witcher franchise in this year, but it's too early to talk about it.
