A sign advertising the Cyberpunk 2077 game.
Mike Kemp | In pictures via Getty Images
Shares of Polish games publisher CD Projekt rose sharply on Wednesday after the company announced several major games it is working on in the coming years, including new installments in its popular Cyberpunk and Witcher franchises.
In a strategic update on Tuesday evening, CD Projekt revealed a slew of new titles currently in development, including a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 codenamed “Orion.” The game will “take the Cyberpunk franchise further and continue to tap into the potential of this dark future universe,” the firm said.
Shares of CD Projekt rose about 7% on Wednesday afternoon, after jumping as much as 9% when the market opened.
This follows a series of incidents that have plagued the company over the past two years. After much hype, Cyberpunk 2077’s launch in 2020 sparked rage among gamers who encountered bugs and poor performance on older consoles. The launch of the game came in the same year as the release of new machines from Sony and Microsoft.
The backlash from the gaffe was so fierce that at one point Sony pulled the game from its digital PlayStation Store. Cyberpunk 2077 was later reinstated on the service.
Since then, CD Projekt has made several updates and improvements to Cyberpunk 2077, while the release of an anime TV series based on the futuristic sci-fi franchise, “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners”, has helped revive interest. for the game.
CD Projekt claims to have sold 20 million copies of its Cyberpunk 2077 game to date and more than 65 million copies of all three games in its Witcher franchise.
Last year, the company suffered a ransomware attack that saw hackers steal the source code for several of its games – including The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 – and sell it on the dark web. In particular, CD Projekt had at the time refused to pay the ransom demanded by the hackers.
Despite a surge in CD Projekt’s share price on Wednesday, the stock is down more than 40% year-to-date.
Here are some other highlights from CD Projekt’s strategy update:
- The company offered an equity-based employee incentive program aimed at attracting and retaining top developing talent. According to chief financial officer Piotr Nielubowicz, the program will be “similar to those offered by our main global competitors”.
- It opens a new development studio in Boston, Massachusetts, to help expand its presence in North America.
- CD Projekt plans to buy up to 100 million Polish zlotys ($21 million) of its own shares from investors under a share buyback plan.
The company also revealed that its co-founder and co-CEO Marcin Iwinski will step down after 28 years in the role. Iwinski will remain co-CEO until the end of 2022, after which he will become chairman of the supervisory board.
He will remain “a major shareholder” and “active and engaged” in supporting the board, according to a statement on Tuesday.
Pipeline full of games
Three new games in the Witcher RPG series are set to launch in the coming years, including a new installment in the franchise codenamed “Polaris”. Previously announced by the company in March, the game follows on from the highly acclaimed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. It is currently in pre-production.
CD Projekt didn’t specify a timeline for when the new games would be released, but said its three new original Witcher titles would launch within six years of Polaris’ release.
The company plans to jump into online multiplayer with some of its future titles, including another game in the Witcher franchise named “Sirius.”
“We plan to add multiplayer to some of our future titles, and we plan to do more in TV and film,” said Michal Nowakowski, senior vice president of business development at CD Projekt.
CD Projekt also announced a brand new game they are working on beyond their two main franchises, named Hadar. The company didn’t give many details but said it was “currently in the design phase”.
It was an unusual display of transparency in the games industry. Major publishers often remain tight-lipped about planned major releases until they’re ready to showcase visuals and gameplay to fans, usually at major trade shows.
Companies like Sony and Nintendo have increasingly shunned industry conferences like the E3 expo in favor of smaller-scale updates. After being canceled once in 2020 and then replaced by a digital alternative in 2021, E3 was again scrapped this year by organizers, who cited health risks from Covid-19.
