Before The Witcher 3, adult games were „mostly associated with two things.” Pawel Sasko says the RPG is „part of a broader process”
Pawel Sasko believes that The Witcher 3 has had an impact on how adult games are now. Before, they were associated with only two things.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is undoubtedly one of the most important games of the last decade, and perhaps even in the history of gaming overall. This is evidenced by the fact that many studies were inspired by the solutions used in the Polish production. One of the developers from CD Projekt Red even believes that the third Witcher contributed to changing the definition of " mature games."
In an interview with GamesRadar+, Pawel Sasko, one of the main quest designers in The Witcher 3, explained that when The Witcher 2 was released in 2011, adult games were only associated with violence, killing, sex, and nudity. The change occurred just around the launch of The Witcher 3, which, in his opinion, was part of this process.
Because we as players were also getting older. And naturally, people who grew up with video games started setting up their own families, and they started having kids, and they naturally started looking for something more. When you're in your 30s and 40s, the topics that maybe were cool and fun in your 20s or when you're a teenager, it's not fun anymore.
Older devs simply wanted to see something more in games than just bloodshed and nudity. As a result, mature themes such as the one with the Bloody Baron appeared in The Witcher 3. Sasko has previously pointed out the significance of the age of the game's creators for its production.
I think The Witcher 3 was a part of that process. I don't think The Witcher 3 created that wave, because I think it was part of a broader, bigger cultural shift and change when our whole medium was maturing.
The upcoming Witcher 4 will most likely not be different in this respect and will also offer mature and difficult themes. For sure, the game will also feature "physical characters" that CD Projekt Red has learned to create over time.
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