The Witcher and PC survival: The success of Polish gaming companies

This article was originally published in Polish

The big shot in the popularity of video games in recent years has seen the Polish gaming scene start to triumph not only domestically, but also internationally. Companies such as CD Projekt recorded increases, while other, smaller projects went public at the same time. So what has been the key to their success?

Although gaming companies were doing so well in Poland that a new WIG-Games index was created on the stock exchange in 2019, bringing together key Polish companies, it was the COVID-19 pandemic that was the golden period for many game developers.

Popularity was influenced by the lockdown and interest in gaming among users who, confined to their homes, began to crave emotional and spiritual entertainment more than ever. The development of interest in games was seen, among other things, in the huge increases in the WIG-Games index during the pandemic.

At the time, games with a post-apocalyptic theme were particularly in demand. The obvious winner of the pandemic was CD Projekt, whose stock price skyrocketed and broke its record in August 2020 with a price of PLN 446 (€104.3) per share.

However, the pandemic also saw large, unexpected profits from seemingly completely inconspicuous companies, such as the Creepy Jar studio. After the box office success of the game Green Hall, the company moved from New Connect to the WSE, where it recorded huge increases within four months.

Due to the growing interest in survival games, other companies connected with this subject have begun to celebrate their triumphs — DRAGO Entertainment, which deals with games bordering on horror and post-apocalypse, moved from New Connect to WSE in 2023, and Spirit Game Studio is planning its debut on New Connect in the near future.

According to Konrad Pisula, producer at Spectral Games, interest in multiplayer games also increased during the pandemic. “There was definitely a lack of some kind of social, community experience at that time. A lot of games then started to adapt to that,” Pisula said. Concerts that could be participated in via games were also popular.

“It was big stars like Travis etc. who were very keen to go on such collaborations because they couldn’t give concerts at the time.”

Creepy Jar: Survival stimulation for post-apocalypse fans

Creepy Jar is a studio that produces indie survival simulation games that have gained considerable popularity, especially during the pandemic.

In 2020, their flagship title, Green Hell, generated more than €30 million in sales revenue, which translated into a net profit of €22 million. Later that year, the game was made available for the Nintendo Switch console, followed by PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in June.

Creepy Jar’s games are usually simulators that aim to stimulate participants’ instinct for self-preservation — a key element of survival in difficult situations.

In Green Hell, the challenge is to survive in the harsh conditions of a tropical jungle. This unique approach sets the studio’s games apart in the market, and interest in the genre has already been confirmed by more than 7 million players worldwide.

The studio’s other flagship game is StarRupture, which was originally going to be called Chimera. It depicts a world where players have to face extreme temperatures on an alien planet. The protagonists are exiles from Earth who have to acquire resources to build a base and face various unexpected situations.

In the studio’s games, we see a post-apocalyptic world similar to the films we remember from our childhood. Perhaps this sentiment has made the company’s video games so popular, especially among the millennial generation, who, after all, associate the console exceptionally well.

CD Projekt Red: The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077

“We want to reach out to the sensibilities of people all over the world by providing them with excellent, moving entertainment,” the developers of The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077 games state on their website.

It is probably the most famous Polish video game developer, which began its dizzying career with productions based on Andrzej Sapkowski’s cult book series The Witcher.

On the creation of the first game, CD Projekt Red studio worked for five years. In 2007, the premiere took place, and the results from the product sales were so good that immediately after the debut, the studio started working on its continuation.

The problem that arose in the meantime was the console version of the first The Witcher, on which work was halted for financial reasons. Eventually, the company cancelled the project, which ricocheted off its results.

To get out of the difficult situation, the company focused fully on the production of the second part of The Witcher, which was released in 2011. Since its release, more than 1.7 million users have purchased it.

Now, the company has announced that it will celebrate the 10th anniversary of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s release with a tour in Warsaw in May 2025.

The company is also known for the game Cyberpunk 2077, set in the dystopian world of Night City, where corporations run the world, and every action can have serious consequences.

The future of video games in Poland

Although the strong boom in video games has passed somewhat, as can be seen, for example, from the graph of the WIG-Games index, Polish audiences are still intensely interested in the products of companies that have already established themselves on the market.

Except that, analysts say, the trend has changed recently, at least when it comes to visuals and what really interests the video game viewer.

As experts point out, the interest in realistic graphics is now the domain of 40-50 year olds, while young audiences are now mainly interested in games that support social interaction. Graphics should be simple, like in the US-made game Fortnite, published by Epic Games, or the Chinese production Genshin Impact.

As Pisula said, this trend, which started during the pandemic, is growing stronger.

“Most of the joy of these games is not its graphics, but the fact that you can play them together, that there are social bonds. I myself have very fond memories of playing such games together with my mates, literally for hours,” he said.

“They definitely train multiplayer games, but for more hours. It’s a bit like TV series. When someone starts a series that has 50 episodes, you say, I don’t have time, I’ll watch the one that has eight.”

“It was a bit like with video games, in the sense that suddenly, when more time appeared, people started playing games that engage for longer, and they wouldn’t have played them before because there simply wasn’t time,” Pisula explained.

As for the future of Polish video games, stock market analysts assume a quiet, stable time for most companies involved in video games.

It is worth mentioning that the success of The Witcher was also influenced by the series, which was declared the biggest box office success of the Netflix platform in 2020.** The books by Sapkowski, creator of the Witcher saga, have been translated into over 20 languages.