It’s easy to take a look at CD Projekt Red and think, “here’s a successful company” based on their success with The Witcher 2, the goodwill they’ve built with the community and their GOG storefront, and all the hype their upcoming game, The Witcher 3 is getting.
But the company hasn’t always been the juggernaut it is today, and came from humbler times—unlike many other studios, which had the financial backing of major investors or publishers from the get-go.
A fan of their Witcher series, Sagitarii, shared an image on Reddit of their E3 2004 booth, which was provided to them with the aid of the already-successful RPG Dragon Age and Mass Effect studio BioWare.
Their history is a colorful one, in that they only came into existence due to CD Projekt’s (CDPR’s parent company) friendship with BioWare as the Polish publisher of BioWare games like Baldur’s Gate.
It’s fascinating to see where they came from, and where they are today.