‘You guys are not Bethesda’: During development, The Witcher 3 devs were told by a Walmart rep ‘I like you guys, but it’s just not gonna happen’

The Witcher 3 is perhaps one of the most memorable RPGs of its era—we certainly like it—but, like all games, it took a lot of time and money to make. CDPR didn’t spin it from the fabric of dreams, and while co-CEO of the studio Michał Nowakowski says the Witcher 2 definitely sold enough to fund the next game, they still had to go around doing pitches and making deals.

That’s per an interview with PC Gamer’s own Joshua Wolens, who talked with Nowakowski about the game’s 10th anniversary for our Witcher 3 anniversary week.

“A few years back,” Nowakowski explains, “Skyrim had launched, and Game of Thrones was picking up on HBO. So every presentation we ran ended up with the words ‘Skyrim meets Game of Thrones’ … That was a very nice line that landed with everybody who saw it, and they remember that.”

But even the power of a potent elevator pitch couldn’t convince some of the industry’s pickiest retailers. “We spent those two years talking to distributors, talking to the manufacturing plants, talking to the retailers. We made a few tours around the US. We went to Arkansas to meet the Walmart people—to Dallas to meet the Gamestop people—and so on and on and on.

“And some of them, especially the ones who were a little bit more experienced, they very much openly said they don’t believe [in us].”

Not with any malice, though, Nowakowski is quick to emphasise: “They liked us, they liked the vision and ambition, but … I still remember there was a guy, he was ex-Gamestop, but he was at Walmart, and we were in the HQ of Walmart, and he said: ‘I like you guys, but it’s just not gonna happen. You guys are not Bethesda.’

“‘You don’t have the history of games like that. The last game you made was a very nice game, but it was not that size. Not gonna happen’.” Oof. Said guy very well might be eating humble pie right now, but we live in a seemingly random and capricious industry—sometimes a hit just comes outta nowhere, defying all conventional wisdom.

Speaking of pie, Nowakowski says he’d made a bet with said rep that’s gone un-fulfilled: “I remember I made a bet with him that if we sold well, I was gonna fly over to Arkansas and he was gonna buy me dinner … That never happened, although I think he kind of still owes me that dinner.”

Still, Nowakowski doesn’t bear any grudges, and even he admits that The Witcher 3 was, like a lot of ambitious games, a tough sell. “He was a super smart guy. And to be honest, I’m not really surprised [he said that] … He was really knowledgeable about the industry. And if I were in his shoes, a very experienced buyer, I maybe would’ve judged it the same way.”

Mind, we’ve seen where “very experienced” businesspeople have gotten the industry lately, and it’s nowhere good. Regardless, CDPR’s pitches eventually landed, because you’re sitting here and reading this article about one of the decade’s most important RPGs—and on its 20th birthday, no less! But it’s humbling to remember a time where it was not so, and Geralt’s third adventure was but a lonely pitch in an elevator, waiting to be born.