Witcher franchise sold 1.5 million copies in 2011
CD Projekt RED announced this morning that The Witcher franchise sold over 1.5 million units in 2011. The breakdown is 1.1 million copies of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings for the year, following its May launch, and another 400,000 sales of the original game, which launched in 2007.
"I have to admit, though, that the sales results for The Witcher, five years on from the game's premiere, are remarkable. If anything, they prove that the content we put into our games ages well," said Adam Badowski, head of the CD Projekt RED studio.
A surprising statistic about the sequel, given how entrenched we think digital distribution is in PC gaming, is that digital distribution only accounted for 24 percent of the sequel's sales. Digital distribution channels had 270,000 sales of The Witcher 2, with 40,000 of those through the DRM-free GOG.com.
The Witcher will also be introduced to new audiences this year when The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition makes its way to Xbox 360 on April 17.
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CD Projekt RED Sells 1.5 Million Copies of Witcher Franchise Games in 2011
Sales of the PC version of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings totaled more than 1.1 million copies in the first seven months following the game's release. Copies downloaded via digital distribution channels accounted for approximately 24 percent of that total. The Witcher, which was the first game in the franchise and has been available since 2007, also proved incredibly popular among gamers in 2011 and was purchased by more than 400 thousand people during the year.
"We were all incredibly surprised by the number of copies sold. The Witcher 2 has garnered over 60 industry awards, and gamers seem to love it. I have to admit, though, that the sales results for The Witcher, 5 years on from the game's premier, are remarkable. If anything, they prove that the content we put into our games ages well. I think that The Witcher will continue to generate buzz in the coming years," said Adam Badowski, head of the CD Projekt RED studio.
CD Projekt RED just released its sales figures for last year. All told, in 2011 sales of games in The Witcher franchise exceeded 1.5 million copies. The award-winning RPG The Witcher 2 netted total sales of 1,110,055 copies. Of that number, 270 thousand came via digital distribution channels, with 40 thousand of those sold by CD Projekt RED's subsidiary GOG.com. Furthermore, CD Projekt RED revealed that sales of The Witcher, the first game in the franchise, came to 401 543 copies.
CD Projekt RED plans to release The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition for Xbox 360 and PC on the 17th of April this year.
The new edition will include about 4 hours of additional content set in new locations and featuring new characters. This version of the game will also incorporate a significant number of new animations and cinematics. One of these is a CG intro directed by BAFTA winner and Academy Award nominee Tomasz Bagiński. Over a million people viewed the intro in the first week after its online premiere.
To pre-order the Enhanced Edition of The Witcher 2, go to www.buy.thewitcher.com.
