CD Projekt Founders Win Entrepreneur Award

The founders of The Witcher developer CD Projekt, Michal Kicinski and Marcin Iwinski, today won the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in Poland.

The two developers beat out eleven others in competition for the honor, and will represent Poland in the final worldwide competition next June.

Criteria for the judging included "resourcefulness, innovativeness, good management and the measure of worldwide success achieved by the company by offering products better than those offered by foreign competitors."

Kicinski and Iwinski founded CD Projekt in 1994, becoming the first Polish company to sell CD-based software, and one of the few Polish videogame developers.

CD Projekt was initially known as the first publisher in Poland to release local translations of foreign-developed titles, including Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment, and many others.

The company's internal development team CD Projekt Red was founded in 2002, and released its first title last year in The Witcher (PC). The RPG was a surprise hit, selling over one million copies worldwide. A remastered console version of the game is now in development.