Their distribution achievements, which did not end with Baldur’s Gate, allowed them to establish a game-making business. In 2003, CD Projekt RED studio started working on the game The Witcher, based on popular books by Andrzej Sapkowski. After numerous changes in the concept of the gameplay, screenplay, team members working on the game, as well as the premiere date – The Witcher was eventually released in 2007 (two years after the initial launch date). Within a year, the authors sold the first million copies of the game. Even though the game was only released on PCs (the lack of console version largely limited sales in the West), the results achieved by the first game were satisfactory. The creation of the first Witcher and its positive critical reception was however most of all an investment in future – it was the following parts that were to bring true profits to the company.
Before the second part of adventures of the witcher came out, the company was still working on the first person action game They (the works were initiated by Metropolis company acquired by CD Projekt). However, eventually, in 2009, when CD Projekt hit very serious financial issues, mostly related to the global economic crisis and excessive investments – works on They were suspended and never restarted again.
In May 2011, the long awaited continuation of The Witcher series was released. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings – initially released for computers only – was a much more polished production than its successful predecessor and met with very positive reviews. The game received numerous awards – including best game of its genre and even game of the year – while in the first week of distribution it sold 400,000 copies. Less than a year after the premiere of the computer version, the game was also released for Xbox 360. In October 2012, the company announced that The Witcher 2 was sold in 2 million copies in total.