The developers of the role-playing game series The Witcher and the card game GWENT, CD Projekt Red, have published their business figures for the first quarter of 2017. The really surprising thing was the fact that the hit game The Witcher 3, released in May 2015, sold better in this first quarter than in the same period last year.

This is a seldom seen phenomenon in the game industry, where games are now considered "old" just 2 months after being released and are being sold off. One of the few exceptions so far was GTA V, which is still sold in large quantities, but in this case mainly because of the online mode.

For CD Projekt Red this means an increase in yield of 17% to 99.3 % PLN. Without having released a new game in the last year, the gaming division grew by 10%.

The GoG department, which is a DRM free alternative to Steam, has meanwhile increased by 63%.

GWENT - The new competition for Hearthstone?

This year, the Polish developers will be releasing GWENT: The Witcher Card Game. The stand-alone version of the mini game from The Witcher 3 is supposed to stand up to established card games such as Hearthstone or Magic, the Gathering. Thanks to new game mechanics, the Free2play game should stir up the branches. The open beta for GWENT started a few days ago.

The other plans for the card game were also presented:

• More translations
• New game modes
• A Chinese version
• Solo player campaigns offered as paid DLC
• Other tournaments and events

The second hot potato is CD Projekt Red Cyberpunk 2077 in the fire. In the first quarter alone, around 16 million PLN was invested in the development of new titles.

You can find the developer video with the highlights at the beginning of the article.