Geralt in a bath tub in The Witcher 3's introduction. CD Projekt Red has reflected on The Witcher 3’s iconic bath-tub scene to celebrate the game’s 10th anniversary, and revealed that one of its biggest discussions was over how much skin Geralt should show.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before – The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is one of the best RPGs to have released in the last few console generations. That’s a worn-out statement by now, but it’s one that still holds a lot of water (that pun will make sense in a minute) and a conclusion that most of us jumped to from the very start of the game, which has become iconic in the decade since The Witcher 3 launched.

For those that don’t remember, The Witcher 3 kicks off its 100+ hour journey with a surprisingly intimate and laid-back scene introducing Geralt of Rivia by showing him relaxing in a bath-tub. Beyond how memeable the moment has become (shout-out to the Geralt in a bath-tub statue), seeing Geralt and Yennefer wearing literally nothing in their intro is a hell of an opener for the game.

CD Projekt Red Had A Lot Of Conversations About Geralt’s Butt In The Witcher 3

“One Of The Longest Email Threads In Our Company History”

Over the years, The Witcher fans have come to love Wild Hunt’s opening moments and how charmingly it introduces Geralt and Yennefer, something that CD Projekt Red is clearly well-aware of. As pointed out by GamesRadar+, a video celebrating The Witcher 3’s 10th anniversary was recently shared by the studio on its YouTube page.

The video goes over a lot of The Witcher 3’s history and impact, but one of the most interesting parts comes when the developers discuss the iconic opening bath-tub scene. Narrative director Philip Weber says that “one of the longest email threads” in the studio’s history was about how naked Geralt should be when he stands up in the tub – or in other words, “how much butt should we show?”.

Although that seems a little silly, it’s worth remembering that the bath-tub scene is the introduction to the whole game and likely the first time many people had even played The Witcher before. It needed to set the tone without being juvenile, which is reflected in the final game as Geralt doesn’t really show any cheeks when he stands up.

Weber finished his thoughts on the scene by saying that he thought CDPR “chose a good middle point”, and that The Witcher 3 showed nudity in a “kind of European way”. That’s basically saying that what they showed of Geralt was done with tastefulness in mind, and that it could have easily gone much further for the sake of it.