Exactly 10 years ago on May 19, 2025, developer CD Projekt RED took a huge leap, launching The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt after years of work.
File this under "water gets things wet," but it turned out to be a popular game, receiving critical praise and commercial success — so much so that as of 2023, it's sold over 50 million copies.
As The Witcher 3 celebrates its 10th anniversary, I'm indulging in a trip down memory lane. Over a decade ago, I was in a pretty rough headspace and I was having a hard time finding my place in everything.
Still, I loved the Witcher series, enjoying the books and the second game, and I was scarfing down every last bit of information I could find on the then-upcoming third entry in Geralt's journey.
While it was CD Projekt RED's third mainline game, it was a gargantuan leap from what had been accomplished in 2011's more modestly-scoped The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. The Witcher 3 promised a huge open world, more involved monster contracts, as well as the debut of major characters from the books like Ciri and Yennefer.
When I eventually got my hands on the full thing, I fell in love. It was everything I wanted it to be, with a world filled with secrets and mystery, an open breeze at the player's back.
It was a game that delivered tough choices, with side quests and monster hunts that often felt just as involved and complex as the main story. I was enraptured with the narrative of the Bloody Baron and his shame, chasing after the titular Wild Hunt, and of course, Ciri reuniting with Geralt after so many years.
That continued in the Hearts of Stone expansion, which tells a dark, Brothers Grimm-esque tale, a solemn warning that sometimes you'll get what you asked for. Finally, the developers brought it in for a landing with 2016's Blood and Wine expansion, a 30+ hour story of vampires and fables that could've been a standalone game by itself.
Games seeking to induce raw emotions can often be hit or miss, but there's more than a few moments in The Witcher 3 that can still kick off the waterworks. It's inextricably tied to one of the hardest parts of my life, and in being so, it has more than stood the test of time.
If you haven't played it yet, this is the perfect time to correct that mistake.
Of course, The Witcher 3 isn't the only big game that CD Projekt RED is well-known for. Constant support means that Cyberpunk 2077 has come a long way since its rough 2020 launch, and I thoroughly enjoyed 2023's Phantom Liberty expansion, which introduced spy thriller elements and a tense mystery.
Even so, this game is still CD Projekt RED's undisputed crown jewel, a triumph of storytelling and game design. Updates have made it shine even more on modern hardware, adding ray tracing support on the latest consoles and PC, but it's always been the same special game.
More personally, The Witcher 3 is still one of my favorite games of all time.
It's that beautiful foundation that I hope CD Projekt RED keeps in mind in developing The Witcher 4. Ciri is taking the lead, and I'm happy to see her as the protagonist.
There's so much potential in seeing things through her eyes, pulling from what worked extremely well in The Witcher 3 while introducing new mysteries and horrors hidden through the world.
I'm sure this next adventure is still a ways off (2027 seems possible, at least), but if it can reach the same heights as The Witcher 3, then I'll be ecstatic.
Until then, I'll see everyone on the Path.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is currently available on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC (via GOG, the Epic Games Store, and Steam), PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch.
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