With the release of the role-playing game Cyberpunk 2077 in 2020, CD Projekt made big numbers in a variety of aspects. The game got a favorable review from the critics and was pre-ordered 8 million times according to CD Projekt Red. However, because of the bug complaints, it had to be pulled off from various gaming consoles like Playstation and CD Projekt Red has offered to refund the amount to the buyers. It is time we dig into what this company does and how they make their money.
CD Projekt Red is a game developer and publishing company that was founded in Poland in 1994 by Michal Kicinski and Marcin Iwinski. The company is famous for The Witcher series which was formed in 2002. Initially, the company used to translate major video-games into POblish collaborating with Interplay Entertainment. The company was working on Baldur’s Gate, a game, with Interplay Entertainment to deliver its PC version but Interplay, unfortunately, had some financial problems that brought the project to a full stop. CD Projekt used the code to produce their own game The Witcher.
CD Projekt almost went bankrupt after the release of The Witcher because of the increasing costs and development issues. The company later went onto produce The Witcher 2 in the year 2011 and The Witcher 3 in 2015 that won various Game of the Year awards. The company recently released Cyberpunk 2077 which was based on the tabletop game Cyberpunk 2020.
About the Founders
Marcin Iwiński
Currently residing in Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland he pursued a Bachelor of Arts in the domain Management at the University of Warsaw in the year 1999. He has been working at CD Projekt as a Joint CEO for 26 years now.
Michał Kiciński
Currently residing in Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland he worked at CD Projekt for 17 years as the CEO before founding Mudita Sp.z o.o. in 2013.
How the company came into being
CD Projekt was founded in 1994 in the month of May by Marcin Iwiński and Michał Kiciński. Iwinski has always enjoyed playing video games as a child but their availability was scarce. He used to sell cracked copies of games popular in the west in high school. Iwinksi and Kicinski met in High School and became business partners in selling these cracked games. The business the two boys used to run was still illegal and so they moved on making it legitimate. They started importing games from retailers in the US and were the very first importers of CD-ROM games in Poland. After the communist regime shifted to a primarily market-based economy, they founded their own company. When they founded CD Projekt they had only $2,000 and used a friend’s flat as their rent-free office.
As the project by Interplay named Baidur’s game came to a permanent halt, the founder’s interest shifted to game development. They used the game code for Baidur’s game and developed the Witcher. The third version of this game won much game of the year awards.
CD Projekt Financials
With the sales increasing after the release of The Witcher, the company saw an increase in the sale of its other games as well. In the year 2015, it had sales revenue of $798,014, $583,903 in 2016, $463,184 in 2017, $362,901 in 2018, and $521,272 in 2019.
The profit before taxation in 2015 was $421,585, in 2016 was $311,938, in 2017 was $ 247,405, in 2018 was $ 123,033, and in 2019 was $189,162.
The total equity and liabilities of the company in the year 2015 were 673,946, 874,960 in 2016, 981,513 in 2017, 1,126,838 in 2018 and 1,404,108 in 2019.
CD Projekt Strategy
- Distribution and development of the world-wide recognized game through the CD Projekt rd development studio.
- Using platform GOG Galaxy and GOG.com to digitally sell video games to customers directly from around the world.
CD Projekt Business Model
They believe in providing quality videogames by dedicating themselves to the development process. The Business model is as follows.
- Development of the game
They have in-house developers who have the aim of producing quality games for people and are equipped with good knowledge of their field.
- Technology
They develop solutions keeping in mind the innovation that will take place in the hardware production industry on which the games will run.
- Publishing of the game
Publishing games of high quality that stand a class apart from other similar RPG (Role-playing games) in the market.
- Distribution of the games
They directly distribute their games to gamers through their distribution platform known as GOG.com and also have a well-connected chain of distributors that makes the game available for people for physical purchase.
- User priority
The priority of the company is gamers who mostly intend to play professionally.
The market environment for CD Projekt
The estimate of the global videogame market for CD Projekt is at $148.8 billion at the end of 2019. This marked a 7.2% increase from 2018 which was $138.8 billion. According to Newzoo analysts, the biggest portion of the worldwide videogame market is at present held by cell phones (46%), 80% of which are cell phone discharges. Gaming reassures come in second at 30%, trailed by the PC 24%. (By and large) throughout the following three years. As per gauges, the volume of the worldwide versatile game market will arrive at 93.6 billion USD by 2022 (it as of now remains at 68.2 billion USD).
CD Projekt Future Strategy
For CD Projekt Red:
- The arrival of Cyberpunk 2077.
- The arrival of another AAA RPG title.
- Extension of our center establishments with extra media substance and product offerings.
- Further dynamic advertising and backing for our previous deliveries.
- Close twofold extension of the CD PROJEKT RED group. Formation of four individual groups, two of which will be entrusted with the advancement of games speaking to new portions.
- Foundation of new neighborhood offices of CD PROJEKT RED in key domains.
For GOG.com
- Extra worldwide arrivals of major videogames created by unaffiliated substances with full help for GOG Galaxy.
- Innovative help for new CD PROJEKT RED improvement ventures, including tweaked answers for multiplayer gaming and other online highlights.
- The rollout of extra language localization of the GOG.com stage.
Cyberpunk 2077 and did it tank?
The latest release by CD Projekt, Cyberpunk 2077, was all over the internet post its release and was being highly praised by the gamers for its real-life graphics and amazing storyline. After delaying its release multiple times the company finally released the game on various consoles. Recently, however, Sony pulled the game Cyberpunk 2077 from its PlayStation because of constant bug reports and compatibility issues. It was having compatibility issues with consoles as recent as PS4 and Twitter users constantly posted videos and screenshots of Glitchy graphics of the game on the social media platform.
After being backlashed for it, the company issued an official apology and promised the users to fix the crashes and bugs with patches in 2021 by January or February. The company is also offering refunds to gamers who are not willing to wait. This company spent an estimated $1.2 billion in the making of this game according to Polish bank BOS analysts.
Sources and people associated with the company say that CD Projekt kept their reputation on the line to release the game.
CD Projekt under legal action?
A law firm indicated that it might consider a lawsuit against CD Projekt. New York-based Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman and Herz LLP have additionally reported it is hoping to speak to investors who’ve caused misfortunes coming about because of charges that CD Projekt may have given physically deceptive data to their investors and contributing public.
Since Cyberpunk 2077 dispatched, CD Projekt’s offers drooped after audits of the game recommended Cyberpunk may not wind up with an out of this world Metascore. While the PC adaptation of Cyberpunk has an 87 Metascore on Metacritic, the PS4 and Xbox One rendition remains at 55. Client scores are 7.2, 3.2, and 4.4 individually. CD Projekt managers have told staff they will get their full rewards despite Cyberpunk 2077’s carriage dispatch. Heads purportedly have assumed liability for the condition of the game at discharge.
Cyberpunk 2077 save documents are getting for all time debased for players on the off chance that they surpass 8MB in size. Although at first detailed as influencing games across all stages, some currently recommend it’s simply a PC issue. Notwithstanding, without affirmation from designer CD Projekt Red, in any case, players have been encouraged to keep a lower measure of things and making materials.
CD Projekt has likewise experienced harsh criticism for its utilization of mash during the advancement of Cyberpunk. In September 2020, CD Projekt advised representatives it would expect them to work six-day every weeks until the game’s November dispatch (it was hence shifted to December), breaking a past vow of not compelling necessary additional time to complete the venture.
