Thu. 10/13 Conference Cdp - Cd project red - The Witcher 2 - Part 2

CD Projekt’s Conference Spring 2010: Presentation CD Projekt RED – The Witcher 2. Speakers: Michał Kiciński, Marcin Iwiński. Support: Tomasz Gop. For us as a company from a profitability point of view, The Witcher 2 means also higher profitability. Much costs incurred in the case of The Witcher 1 will no longer be incurred in case of The Witcher 2. I’m thinking about costs necessary to build a whole company. Costs incurred on building CD Projekt RED were included in The Witcher 1 project costs. Now we don’t incur those costs anymore. There won’t be costs of licensing the technology either, which globally were at a high level by the occasion of such a big success on the market. What’s interesting, our technology is designed not only for PCs but also for consoles of present generation. So even though today we are announcing that the game will be for PCs only, our technology was created with a view to consoles and we will come back to the subject of The Witcher 2 for consoles in a due time. I don’t want to give a date but I assure you we will come back to that, because of course we plan that The Witcher 2 was available on all platforms, that count. So that would be all in case of business goals and our expectations concerning The Witcher 2. Let me talk about a few things from a business perspective, then we will move to the game itself. I would like to make you aware of the fact how big this project is and what a big challenge. Work has been carrying on for 3,5 years. There is almost one year ahead us. The premiere that should take place in the first quarter means that we still have almost a year of work. 70 persons work on the project. It is a really big team. It has to be coordinated. Luckily more than a half of work is behind us, the biggest risks are behind us, so at the moment there is simply a lot of typical, developer work left. All experiments are also behind us. What you will be able to see soon, the game is working. Budget of The Witcher 2 will be higher than one of The Witcher 1, so it will be over 27 million zlotys. We are not revealing the amount, this budget will be significantly bigger. One day we will tell you that, probably when we are finished with it, what the final amount was. Again, there will be many language versions, simultaneous premiere in the world. Just like my brother has already said, we hope to sell 30% more of The Witcher 2 than we sold of the former part. What’s more, last week we concluded an agreement with AGORA, so we have started to have a back up from companies not only from our line of business. AGORA will secure additional financing for us and additional marketing budget. This means AGORA will make us some of their media accessible for promotion of The Witcher 2, what, we hope, in Polish circumstances, will translate into the sale in Poland, maybe we can think of a bigger increase of sale of The Witcher 2, in comparison with the first part, than 30%. And we also have a financing from the European Union – down here we can see the sign. I would like to thank EU for that – we got a grant and we are currently holding talks for another grants, so… So that would be all concerning a business part. Next slide please. In a moment it will be about the game itself. Before I ask developers on the scene, I would like to show you another film, In which the authors will say some words about their work. We started thinking about The Witcher 2 around the time we were finishing the story for the Witcher, then throughout production of that first game We got to work on it immediately after we released The Witcher – laying out the details of the story, of the technology we wanted to use to build The Witcher 2. Seeing the reactions to The Witcher around the world, looking at how many people became fans and continue to monitor the game and all things related to it – that confirmed our belief that we can create a good RPG, which is exactly what we aim to do. At the same time we have a slew of ideas that we couldn’t implement with the previous technology. I’m convinced that by combining those ideas combined with the new technology, we’ll be able to produce a game far better than The Witcher 1. Veterans of The Witcher are making The Witcher 2. It’s the same studio, the same team. We’ve had to expand because of the project’s scope. So we’ve hired a number of specialists – filmmakers, graphic artists, programmers. Their contribution will make the game even better. The engine for The Witcher 2 was created within our studio. That means that it includes a number of capabilities unavailable in We’ve entirely revamped the game visuals, the game renderer, so showing the complexity of game locations, characters, how the two combine, is a lot easier now. We’ve also created a number of new gameplay and story production tools. I think all of this just gave us the power to surprise players, draw them into the story we want to tell in The Witcher 2. On top of that, we have heavily tweaked the combat system. The animation system is entirely new and much more dynamic than our previous system. We’re currently working on the PC version, but the engine has a built-in flexibility, and that means we can already be thinking about versions for other platforms. The story of the Witcher 2 picks up a few months after the final events depicted in The Witcher. We basically continue the story where we left off. We get a first-hand look at the consequences of events we experiences in the game’s first installment, after which we proceed to see what happens next to our cast of characters. The Witcher 2 builds on The Witcher, so it’s a thoroughbred RPG with none of the simplifications that come with blending genres. At the same time, I can say that we’re emphasizing action and offering a far more modern telling of the story. The Witcher 2 will feature truly deep moral dilemmas. One of our chief objectives in making the first game was to make it mature. We wanted to avoid offering simple, black or white choices, opting instead for shades of gray. The Witcher 2 builds on the previous game. It’s got to be a lot better, so the choices will be a lot deeper and more complex. Their consequences won’t be revealed until much later on, forcing players to really think, really focus on the game and on the choices they make. Combat in The Witcher 2 is all-around impressive, dynamic, spectacular, and incredibly brutal. We’re giving players full control of their character, the witcher. I think it’s safe to say that we’re taking combat in The Witcher 2 to a totally new level, one never previously has seen in any RPG. In terms of visuals, The Witcher 2 will be one of the best-looking RPGs ever. We’ve kept all the best things from The Witcher 1. The engine we’ve created for The Witcher 2 goes beyond any engine thus far created for an RPG. This’ll be the best-looking RPG you’ve ever seen. The new technology has really given our graphic artists an opportunity to demonstrate just how capable and talented they are. And that has allowed us to make the world of The Witcher 2 exquisite, colorful and thoroughly unique. Adam, Tomek – how did you like yourselves on the screen? Please, come on the scene. Now you, creators of the game, will talk about it. And then there will be a demonstration.