Original Witcher story lead says the surprise twist at the end 'was a mistake,' because instead of focusing on Geralt the sequel was forced into 'a story about witchers who are killing kings for some reason'

The Witcher - game opening cinematic of Geralt drinking a potion before a fight — (Image credit: CD Projekt RED)

Artur Ganszyniec, the lead story designer of the original Witcher RPG, recently completed a full playthrough of the game he helped create nearly 20 years ago, documented across 26 separate episodes on YouTube. And at the end of it all, he dropped an interesting little bit of trivia: The game's epic, out-of-nowhere ending wasn't originally what the story team wanted, and he thinks it was a "mistake."

First things first, the ending in question: Geralt collects his payment from King Foltest and heads for the door, but there's trouble afoot!

Cool fight, but it's the up-close look at the dead dude that really sets the table: The would-be assassin is a witcher! It's a very obvious setup for a sequel, which you might naturally think meant that CD Projekt had something specific in mind for subsequent games. And maybe CD Projekt management did, but the story team? Not really.

"That's where we wanted the game to end, like with an open question and open future," Ganszyniec says as the game's closing montage plays. "But while we were finishing the game, someone decided—like the board decided, or [CD Projekt co-founder Michał Kiciński] decided that we needed an animated outro of the game.

"And the script for this ... it was created not really involving the story team. So it was sort of, we weren't really paying attention. And that was a mistake I think."

The problem, in Ganszyniec's mind, is that the outro effectively locked The Witcher 2 onto a particular path: "It became evident that the next game will have to follow up on this and tell a story about witchers who are killing kings for some reason. And that's why the second Witcher is very political and there's not really much room for exploring who Geralt is, his family, his history, and stuff like this."

I can understand Ganszyniec's frustrations. Building to an open-ended conclusion that leaves Geralt's future adventures open to whatever, only to have it superseded by a surprise twist that really constrains the creative direction of the follow-up game, has to suck a little bit. On the other hand, it's hard to argue with success, and The Witcher 2 was very successful indeed: As of January 2026, it's sold more than 15 million copies, helping turn CD Projekt into one of the biggest game studios in Europe.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

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