The Witcher 2 Interview

CD Projekt Interview

Bit-tech: So... nudity. There was talk that you’ve toned things down based on previews – can you clarify that at all?

CD Projekt: So, there was an interview with a website recently that a lot of people watched, where we are asked how we reacted to people seeing our Gamescom presentation and thinking, even though the woman is tortured, her breasts are naked, there might be a sex scene. There is no sex scene with this woman in here, but we thought that if people did think there would be, maybe we should think about changing the presentational aspect, not toning down the sex. Stressing the fact that it's a poor woman, not a naked, hot chick!

You know what, though? After what I said in the interview, people started getting back to us and saying ‘OK, please don't change that.’ It was only a few of the people who thought there was going to be sex, whoa, hooray for boobies. No, it was more about mature people really considering the environment, rather than focusing on two specific points on the screen. That's actually more mature, to think like that. It's not like every time you see boobies, you have sex. That's not right.

BT: Is sex integral to the game?

CDP: Well, it's difficult to make it completely integral in a video game, but I would say it's way more integrated into the game and the storyline than in the first one.


BT: Alchemy is also changing, we hear...

CDP: Slightly. I mean, many people liked the alchemy so we don't want to mess too much with it. It's still going to be about making potions and using them, but there are a few slight changes. You cannot use potions during a fight, for example, you can meditate anywhere, you can manually brew potions, sort of like a mini-game, and you can influence and create unique potions. These are like new ideas, but the basic concept is the same. You can also have an alchemy build, a specialised build for your character. Maybe he'll be a junkie.

BT: Have you had to compromise the game for consoles?

CDP: IF we release the game on consoles, as nothing is confirmed yet, we want to have exactly the same game as we have on PC. We're not hiding that we want to do it, but with Rise of the White Wolf, the proposed remake of The Witcher on consoles, there were many factors that resulted in it being cancelled in the end. Most of these made the project fail at a very late stage of production, and we definitely want to take care than when we approach any further console projects, we're doing it right, that we are announcing something that is bound to happen.

That's why we are not announcing the console version of The Witcher 2. We definitely don't want to do a console game on the outsource, as we tried previously.

BT: Will we see DRM in The Witcher 2? There must be an interesting conflict between The Witcher team and the Good Old Games team at CD Projekt. The Witcher 1 had TAGES DRM, which was later removed in a patch, but GOG is almost militantly opposed to DRM…

CDP: We're really extending the policy of GOG.com (Good Old Games) and we believe now that DRM is not the best way to combat piracy. Even if there will be DRM, it won't be as strong as in The Witcher 1, and definitely not as strong as recent times and recent trials have shown us. It's not our story, no, definitely not.


BT: Some quick fire questions, say the first thing that comes into your head. 3D?

CDP: Gadget.

BT: Downloadable Content?

CDP: Fable 2, I don't know why.

BT: Zombies?

CDP: Boring!

BT: Must-play game?

CDP: Quake 1.

BT: Retro?

CDP: Good Old Games.

BT: Hardware?

CDP: Expensive.

And that’s all we had time for! Stay tuned for more news on The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings and let us know your thoughts in the forums.