In 2007 a small studio in Warsaw shipped a rough, ambitious role-playing game about a white-haired monster hunter named Geralt of Rivia. The character came from the novels and short stories of the Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, barely known outside central Europe at the time. Eight years later, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was one of the most celebrated games ever made, and the studio behind it, CD Projekt Red, had become a name spoken in the same breath as the biggest developers in the world.
What sets CD Projekt Red apart is where its worlds come from. Geralt began on the page. Cyberpunk 2077 grew out of Mike Pondsmith's Cyberpunk 2020 tabletop game. Both became huge, choice-heavy open worlds, and both spilled back out into other media: a Netflix series for the Witcher, the anime Edgerunners for Cyberpunk. This is a map of that catalogue, from Geralt's first outing to the neon sprawl of Night City.
The essential CD Projekt Red
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From the page to the console
CD Projekt Red's roots run through Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher saga, and the games treat that source with real respect while carving their own path. The first The Witcher was a cult European hit that put the studio on the map. By the time of Wild Hunt, the team had learned to build enormous, reactive worlds where your decisions ripple outward. The studio even stepped sideways into a different form with Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales, a story-driven role-playing game grown out of the Gwent card mini-game, proof that the Witcher's world could carry a narrative in more than one shape.
The Witcher saga
Geralt of Rivia, from his first hunt to a card-game kingdom
Cyberpunk and Night City
The merc, the city, and the expansion that turned it around
A short history of CD Projekt Red
- 2007The Witcher launches, adapting Andrzej Sapkowski's novels and putting a Warsaw studio on the map.
- 2015The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt arrives to enormous acclaim and becomes a landmark open-world role-playing game.
- 2018Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales grows a narrative role-playing game out of the Gwent card game.
- 2019Netflix's The Witcher series brings Geralt to a mass television audience.
- 2020Cyberpunk 2077 launches, adapting Mike Pondsmith's Cyberpunk 2020 tabletop world into Night City.
- 2022The anime Cyberpunk: Edgerunners revitalises interest in the game and its setting.
- 2023Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty delivers a spy-thriller expansion and completes the game's turnaround.
More modern studios
Every studio in the series. More on the way.
Geralt began on the page and Night City began on a tabletop. CD Projekt Red's gift is turning someone else's world into a place you can get lost in for a hundred hours.
Frequently asked
What is CD Projekt Red best known for?
The Witcher trilogy, especially The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and the open-world game Cyberpunk 2077. The Polish studio is known for large, choice-driven role-playing worlds built from strong source material and detailed writing.
Are the Witcher games based on books?
Yes. The games follow the monster hunter Geralt of Rivia, a character created by the Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski in a series of novels and short stories. The games are their own continuation of that world rather than direct adaptations of specific books, and the Witcher was later adapted again as a Netflix series.
Is Cyberpunk 2077 worth playing after its rough launch?
Cyberpunk 2077 launched in poor shape in 2020, but CD Projekt Red rebuilt it heavily over the following years. With those updates and the Phantom Liberty expansion, many players and critics now consider Night City one of the most detailed and atmospheric settings in games.
What order should I play CD Projekt Red's games in?
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077 both stand on their own, so either is a fine starting point. For the full Witcher story you can begin with the 2007 original, and Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales is a self-contained narrative game set in the same world.