Sex and Violence Integration Helped The Witcher Series

The development team at CD Projekt believes that video games can benefit from including sex and violence as long as they are an integral part of their game world and not just something used to create hype among the possible customer base.

Marcin Iwinski, who is the chief executive officer at CD Projekt RED, has told Rock, Paper, Shotgun that, “You have to look at it from the quality of the product perspective.

“If it’s overused, it probably won’t be a big product anyway. Really, I think the market is eliminating all the weaknesses and all the cheap tricks.”

The executive says that he himself is actually offended by some of the ways publishers use to promote their titles, but there are properties where R rated content is just part of their core DNA.

He added, “So with Witcher, we’re not a Dungeons and Dragons where kissing is prohibited. We’re not Barbie world. Game of Thrones is a testament to that.

“Where sex makes sense, put it there. Because that’s how it was during the Medieval times, and that’s how it is today.”

Iwinski added Game of Thrones, the television series from HBO inspired by the books of R.R. Martin that also spawned a couple of video game projects, to the list of universes that benefit from the inclusion of violence and sex.

The main reason for the attraction is, according to the CD Projekt CEO, the fact that much of the audience for the core video game market is represented by men and publishers need to make sure that their promotional efforts is aimed mainly at them.

The Polish developer is now working on a new game called Cyberpunk, based on a table top role-playing system of the same name.

The game will use a near future setting and deal with questions about the nature of power while also delivering the trademark choice and consequence system that The Witcher has already showcased.