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Developer Rebel Wolves' September success story, The Blood of Dawnwalker, cost just $40 million to make.
Information related to the Warsaw, Poland-based studio's behind-the-scenes activities comes from a new Bloomberg report. It included the news that Rebel Wolves managed to bring The Blood of Dawnwalker to life and find a solid audience with little more than the $40 million budget supplied by NetEase Inc.
Game designer Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, who previously served as one of the leading developers behind games like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077, worked on early versions of Rebel Wolves' first game with a small team back in 2022. Tomaszkiewicz self-funded the project for that first year as the team hammered out its prototype in hopes of finding a partner, with NetEase later stepping in with the fund the game while acquiring 26% of the studio.
The $40 million figure comfortably lands The Blood of Dawnwalker in the AA space instead of the AAA realm where games often carry heftier price tags. For comparison, IO Interactive's 007 First Light reportedly carried a budget of more than $200 million. Sony's struggling Marathon game is said to have had a similar budget, with games like The Last of Us Part 2 and Horizon Forbidden West also reportedly in that range.
A relatively modest budget means the risk for Rebel Wolves, NetEase, and publisher Bandai Namco wasn't quite as great, but it doesn't seem to have had any impact on their game's achievements. Metacritic recorded that The Blood of Dawnwalker has received "Generally Favorable" reviews from both critics and users alike. IGN, for example, awarded it a 9/10, calling it "an impressive, bloody cocktail of interesting ideas and well-written characters, making it one of this year’s best open-world RPGs."
It's unclear just how successful The Blood of Dawnwalker has been since its launch for PC and consoles earlier this month, but a few clues have helped shed some light. Rebel Wolves told Bloomberg it is "extremely" happy with what it's seen so far, which includes reaching more than 1 million copies sold in just a few days. SteamDB has reported that player numbers for the single-player RPG are holding strong, too, with the game currently boasting a 24-hour peak of 24,495 concurrent users after hitting a peak of 78,188 shortly after launch.
Tomaszkiewicz told Bloomberg that his original goal was to keep Rebel Wolves from growing too much, but as ambitions grew, so did the team. The studio employed around 90 staff in 2024 but has since ballooned to encompass 160 members. Now, as they charge ahead on The Blood of Dawnwalker sequels and more, Tomaszkiewicz said they "don't want to overdo it."
"We decided that the size of the team we have right now is the most fitting for our needs," Tomaszkiewicz said. "It’s still letting me know everyone. I can speak with everyone every day. I still feel like a creator and not a manager, which is the place I want to be."
The Blood of Dawnwalker launched for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S September 3, 2026. As work on more projects happens behind closed doors, more updates for Rebel Wolves' debut title are on the way, too. New Game Plus, for example, was recently confirmed to be in the works.
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