The Witcher 2's momentous mid-game choice might've been "cool" for players, but CD Projekt's co-CEO now believes it was a "waste of resources"

Why CD Projekt Red Scaled Back Branching Narratives in The Witcher 3

In-game choices have always been a hallmark of The Witcher series, but few moments in RPG history are as impactful as the fork-in-the-road decision in The Witcher 2. There, players’ choice between Iorveth and Roche sets the entire remainder of the game on drastically different paths, influencing dialogue, character development, and story perspective.

Despite its ambition, CD Projekt Red’s leadership later concluded that the branching structure, while impressive for players, was resource-intensive and unsustainable for future titles.

"In The Witcher 2, we had a very difficult structure of the game, because there are two paths," Adam Badowski, co-CEO of CD Projekt, told PC Gamer. "You can go one path and you won't see the other path. From the production perspective it's a waste of resources. From [the] player's perspective, it might be cool, but definitely it was [an] experiment."

When developing The Witcher 3, the team opted for a more unified narrative structure, prioritizing expansive open-world design over divergent storylines. "We brought totally something new, something that supported the open world concept," Badowski explains. The studio focused on world-building, allowing players to immerse themselves in Geralt’s story without the technical and logistical burdens of maintaining multiple full-length story paths.

"The biggest thing was how we can deliver such a big game in the open world, keeping [the] great story of Geralt, and there were many doubts back then," he adds. The result was a critically acclaimed game that balanced freedom and narrative coherence, setting a new benchmark for open-world RPGs.

The Witcher franchise has since expanded beyond video games into a Netflix series, animated films, and several spin-offs. Alongside the upcoming The Witcher 4, a remake of the first game is underway, opening the door for future revisits of The Witcher 2’s ambitious but labor-intensive branching narratives.

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References

1. Badowski, Adam. Interview with PC Gamer, 2025 — On narrative design decisions in The Witcher series.

2. CD Projekt Red. The Witcher series development history, 2025.

3. The Witcher official franchise site. Expansion into TV and spin-offs, 2025.