author: Zuzanna Domeradzka
The Witcher 4 Full Production Set to Begin in Coming Months. CD Projekt Reports Second Best Year Ever
CD Projekt Group published its financial report for 2023. It also reported how many people are currently developing the company's upcoming projects, including The Witcher 4, and what stages of production each game is at.
Today, CD Projekt Group has released details about its financial results for the entire year 2023, which turned out to be very good. We also learned updated data regarding the upcoming projects of CD Projekt.
CD Projekt - financial results for the last year
Let's start, however, with the issues most interesting to investors. CD Projekt Group has proudly announced that 2023 is the second most profitable year in its history, significantly better than 2022. Let us emphasize that 2020 remains a record year, the year in which Cyberpunk 2077 was released.
- In 2023, the CDP Group's consolidated sales revenues exceeded 1.23 billion PLN (about $307.5 million). Net profit totaled 481 million PLN (about $120 million) - which is 39% higher than the previous year.
- Such positive financial results were achieved, in part, due to the sale of the Phantom Liberty expansion for Cyberpunk 2077. The DLC reached 5 million players last year, which is about 1/4 of those who have the base game. Revenue from the sale of Cyberpunk and its expansion amounted to 826 million PLN (about $206 million) in 2023 - this is a result about 1.8 times better than last year. As stated by Piotr Nielubowicz (Chief Financial Officer):
Update 2.0 and the Phantom Liberty expansion for Cyberpunk 2077 were released in September and met with enthusiastic reception on the part of gamers and gaming media alike. This resulted in strong sales of both titles. In just over three years our cumulative revenues from sales of games which comprise the Cyberpunk franchise exceeded 3 billion PLN [about $750 million], further attesting to the strength of this IP.
It is worth noting that in 2023, The Witcher series games sales surpassed 75 million copies. In total, together with Cyberpunk and its expansion, both CD Projekt games sold 100 million copies. So, there have been few changes in this matter since October 2023.
Source: YouTube, CD PROJEKT IR
The Witcher 4 is a priority for the Studio
Currently, the CD Projekt Group is working on 5 games that have already been announced earlier. Today, new information about them has been released (employee numbers data is from the end of February).
- At the moment, a handful of people are working on Cyberpunk. The majority of them transitioned to work on The Witcher 4, a project codenamed Polaris. In total, over 400 people are already overseeing this game. Its full production is scheduled to commence in the latter half of 2024, although it is currently in the early stages of production.
- The second most developed game is Project Sirius, another production from the Witcher universe, which is being developed by the American studio Molasses Flood. The team consists of 37 people.
- The sequel to Cyberpunk 2077, project Orion (developed by a team based in Boston), is still in the conceptual phase, just like the remake of the first Witcher. The second of these games is developed on Unreal Engine 5 and, more interestingly, uses the same "tools" as Polaris.
- CD Projekt's new brand, currently known as the Hadar project, is in a very early conceptual phase. 20 people are working on the game.
- All new titles have already received an investment of 273 million PLN (about $68 million).
- The company has a team of around 100 employees, known as Share Services, who can take turns supporting the development of all projects.
CD Projekt is considering mobile games in the Witcher and Cyberpunk universe
It's worth mentioning that a question was raised during today's broadcast Q&A about the possibility of licensing one of CD Projekt's brands to develop mobile games. One of the board members of the company stated:
The answer is: yes. We are considering such move. And in fact, we were pursuing through conversations, you know, opportunities like that. We have nothing to announce just yet, but when the time comes, we will.
An investor chat with Piotr Nielubowicz and Karolina Gnas (VP Investor Relations) is scheduled for tomorrow, during which we may gain further insights into the financial results and upcoming projects of the Polish company.
