8 million would indeed be very small...but looking at and playing the game it seems amazing how they've done with with such a "small" budget. It makes their work even more incredible.

Especially when you take into consideration that Activision Blizzard uses around 20 million $ per Modern Warfare part...giving us 6 hours of gameplay which is 50% scripts and 50% explosions...

Plus they don't have a fraction of the talent CDPR does. When I read about the 8 million figure I was very surprised.

A relatively small team (not counting external work with things like motion capture), and a surprisingly small budget, and we still get one of the finest games ever made. It harkens back to the good old days - those countless masterpieces created with only a handful of developers, practically no money, and really limited technology. It's sad how such a thing comes as a shock, nowadays, when it was almost commonplace before.

they use most of it for marketing instead of actual game development.

I wonder why I suddenly see blood red dragons and vowels in my mind's eye! :-0

As far as I know, CDPR must've spent tonnes of money on marketing as well, at least here in Poland you had TW2 promotional materials everywhere you looked, including colourful magazines (like Playboy).

True, but Bioware / EA probably spent it in North-America which is a little bit bigger. A tiny little bit. :D

As far as central Europe is concerned I think both games where equally present in the media. I've seen more for DA2 on the internet, but I think I remember a tv advertising for The Witcher 2 only.

Well, obviously. I was just making the point, that marketing spending wasn't shy either, even with the smaller budget. Which is definitely a good thing, without a hype like this even a well made game could be easily overlooked and forgotten. Plus nothing convinces investors more than premiere sales.

The lower costs are actually an edge for CDPR if you think of corporate results in terms of costs-earnings.

Here's hoping you guys get enough money to make a brilliant third part, yet remain at heart the wonderful team that gave us the first two installments of this wonderful series.

I fully agree to the post and all it's points. From the heart. :)