CD Projekt Co-Founders Named Entrepeneurs of the Year
Michal Kicinski and Marcin Iwinski, co-founders of The Witcher creator CD Projekt, have been named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneurs of the Year.
The annual award is granted to businessmen who "present the most valuable examples of business success to the general public." The main criteria used in determining the award are "resourcefulness, innovativeness, good management and the measure of worldwide success achieved by the company by offering products better than those offered by foreign competitors."
CD Projekt's official announcement cites their success as publishers and developers as key to the duo's win. The Witcher, developed on a budget of only $11 million, has sold more than a million copies worldwide since release in 2007.
Image courtesy Atari
I'm really glad to see this, too. Not only are these guys making money, they're doing things that are good for the industry and good for the gamer. Just look at GOG.com. And with The Witcher, their commitment to the fanbase was exemplary.
This is so refreshing to see, as opposed to that Bobby Kotick Activision CEO guy getting nominated for awards. Yuck. Nominate him for greasy jerk suit of the year.
We have had rumble since launch
web sites:
Great news indeed. I'm playing The Witcher Enhanced at the moment and it is truly a remarkably good game. It's very cinematic right from the start, with a beautifully edited opening sequence. The characters are interesting with often opaque motivations, the monsters are inventive, and the graphic design is excellent. A very adult game for anybody who's outgrown the rather tedious hack/slash and simplistic morality of games like WOW or Warhammer. Good gritty storytelling, a dose of black humor, a touch of sex, and sword fights worthy of a Hong Kong action flick. What makes it all the more remarkable is that these guys took the originally released game - which admittedly had some production issues - totally cleaned it up and gave away the Enhanced edition to all the original purchasers for free, knowing that they'd get more sales because of it due to excellent word of mouth. Compare and contrast to the manure shoveled out by the likes of EA Games who treat their customers like criminals. In any event, I'm a satisfied customer and am looking forward to more of the Witcher franchise or other projects from these guys. BTW, there's an English translation of one of the Polish books The Wticher is based on called "The Last Wish". An entertaining read despite some minor translation awkwardness here and there - a nice complement to the game.