CD Projekt had a major financial win in 2023 thanks to the success of Cyberpunk 2077 and ongoing interest in The Witcher franchise, helping the company rake in $120 million in net profit.
The company, which is the biggest games developer in Poland, also reported a 39% rise in full-year net profit on Thursday. Officials said that this success was driven by strong sales of its flagship game Cyberpunk 2077 and its Phantom of Liberty Expansion.
CD Projekt's Financial Win in 2023
(Photo : CD Projekt / Screenshot taken from official website)
Since the title's bug-ridden debut in late 2020, the game has grossed revenues exceeding $750 million. The company added that Cyberpunk 2077 had sold more than 25 million copies since its release up to the end of 2023. It added that the Phantom Liberty expansion had sold more than 5 million copies.
CD Projekt, which faces a couple of years without game releases, is said to be working on several new projects. These supposedly include the first installment in a new trilogy that will expand the universe of its highly popular The Witcher medieval fantasy franchise, according to Yahoo Finance.
The endeavor, which is codenamed Polaris, is said to have more than 400 people working on it and is scheduled to enter the production phase in the second half of 2024. CD Projekt's joint CEO Michal Nowakowski said in a conference call that he is not able to go into too much detail but told the public to expect Witcher 3 in new clothing.
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He noted that they will be adding a lot of things, new elements, new gameplay mechanics, and other changes that have not been seen in their previous games. Nowakowski also said that the second-most developed game is Project Sirius, which is currently in the early pre-production phase.
The CEO also noted that the game developer has plans to maintain its current employment structure in 2024. He noted that recruitment will primarily focus on their Boston hub, which he said is still at an early stage and still in the process of building its structures, which is a reference to staffing.
Cyberpunk 2077's Success
CD Projekt chief financial officer Piotr Nielubowicz also said that 2023 was the company's best year in history. He revealed that the Phantom Liberty expansion was bought by roughly a quarter of all Cyberpunk 2077 owners, said IGN.
He described Phantom LIberty's sales as an "excellent result," particularly because it was released three years after the base game's launch. Despite the historic profits, the company still underwent a round of layoffs in the summer of last year that caused its workforce to drop by roughly 9%.
The studio described the situation at the time as "an alignment of the scale and size of the team with the requirements of ongoing projects and the CD Projekt Group strategy. The layoffs then resulted in the creation of the Polish Gamedev Workers Union which was founded by gameplay QA analyst Pawel Myszka and programmer Lev Ki.
The success comes after CD Projekt was able to stay committed to Cyberpunk following its controversial release and promised its players continuous updates, support, and game improvements, according to GameSpot.
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