For less than a fifth of what IO Interactive reportedly poured into 007 First Light, Rebel Wolves delivered one of September’s biggest RPGs. The figure is $40 million — the entire development budget for The Blood of Dawnwalker, per a new Bloomberg report on the Warsaw, Poland-based studio.
By comparison, 007 First Light reportedly ran north of $200 million. Sony’s troubled Marathon is said to sit in the same bracket, and The Last of Us Part 2 and Horizon Forbidden West are both reportedly in that range as well. Dawnwalker, by contrast, lands squarely in AA territory rather than AAA.
The game doesn’t appear to have suffered for it.
The year Konrad Tomaszkiewicz paid for it himself
Back in 2022, game designer Konrad Tomaszkiewicz — one of the leading developers behind The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077 — began building early versions of the studio’s first game alongside a small team. Throughout that opening year he covered the costs out of his own pocket while the team put together a prototype and searched for a partner.
The funding eventually arrived from NetEase Inc., which picked up 26% of the studio as part of the deal. The $40 million is NetEase’s money.
Keeping the budget modest lowered the risk for Rebel Wolves, NetEase and publisher Bandai Namco alike. It also left a thinner safety net — which is what makes the aftermath worth a closer look.
A million copies in days
Speaking to Bloomberg, Rebel Wolves said it is “extremely” happy with the results so far, citing more than 1 million copies sold within a few days of release. Beyond that, precise sales numbers haven’t been disclosed.
The player base is proving durable, too. The single-player RPG is currently posting a 24-hour peak of 24,495 concurrent users, down from the 78,188 it hit shortly after launch. For a story-driven title with no live-service hooks dragging players back in, that’s a healthy tail.
Metacritic recorded “Generally Favorable” reviews from critics and users alike. IGN handed it a 9/10, describing it as “an impressive, bloody cocktail of interesting ideas and well-written characters, making it one of this year’s best open-world RPGs.”
Ninety people became 160, and that’s where it stops
Tomaszkiewicz told Bloomberg that his initial aim was to stop Rebel Wolves from expanding too far. The ambitions scaled up regardless, and the headcount followed. Staff numbered roughly 90 in 2024; today the figure is 160.
That, he said, is the limit. Even with sequels and further projects in motion, Tomaszkiewicz said the studio “don’t want to overdo it.”
The Blood of Dawnwalker arrived on September 3, 2026 for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. Further updates are planned for the debut release while the studio develops other projects out of public view. New Game Plus was confirmed to be in development recently.
“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.”