The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a 2015 action role-playing game developed and published by Polish developer CD Projekt Red and is based on The Witcher series of fantasy novels written by Andrzej Sapkowski. It is the sequel to the 2011 game The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings and the third main installment in The Witcher’s video game series, played in an open world with a third-person perspective.

The game takes place in a fictional fantasy world based on Slavonic mythology.[1][2][3] Players control protagonist Geralt of Rivia, a monster slayer for hire known as a Witcher who is looking for his missing adopted daughter on the run from the Wild Hunt, an otherworldly force determined to capture her. Players battle the game’s many dangers with weapons and magic, interact with non-player characters, and complete quests to acquire experience points and gold, which are used to increase Geralt’s abilities and purchase equipment. Its central story has several endings, determined by the player’s choices at certain points in the game.

Development began in 2011 and lasted for three and a half years. Central and Northern European cultures formed the basis of the game’s world. REDengine 3 enabled the developer to create a complex story without compromising the game’s open world. The music was primarily composed by Marcin Przybyłowicz and performed by the Brandenburg State Orchestra.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in May 2015, with a Nintendo Switch version released in October 2019, and PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S versions planned for release in 2021. The game received critical acclaim, with praise for its gameplay, narrative, world design, combat, and visuals, although it received minor criticism due to technical issues. It received numerous game of the year awards and has been cited as one of the best video games ever made. Two expansions were also released to critical acclaim: Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine. A Game of the Year edition was released in August 2016, with the base game, expansions, and all downloadable content. The game shipped over 28 million copies, making it one of the best selling video games of all time.