Next Witcher Game From CD Projekt About to Enter Full Production
– 2 min read
In its latest half-yearly report, the Polish CD Projekt Group states that the production of the next Witcher game will soon enter the full production phase, while the back catalogue continues to generate strong sales. Incidentally, the second-largest user group on GOG.com comes from Germany.
CD Projekt has completed the first half of the current fiscal year - from January to the end of June 2024. The Group's revenues in the first half of 2024 amounted to PLN 425 million (99.3 million Euros), driven mainly by sales of Cyberpunk 2077 and its expansion Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty. 81 per cent of revenues came from CD Projekt Red, with the remainder coming from GOG.com. The group posted a consolidated net profit of PLN 170 million (39.7 million Euros). All revenues are from back catalogue titles.
"In addition to strong financial results, which - in terms of net profit - outperformed the comparative period by nearly 90% - in H1 2024 we also noted an increase in our financial reserves. Despite having paid out almost 100 million PLN (23.4 million Euros) in a dividend, and allocating over 150 million PLN (35 million Euros) to new projects, our reserves nevertheless grew by more than 55 million PLN (12.9 million Euros)," notes Piotr Nielubowicz, CFO of CD Projekt.
The company is preparing to enter the full production phase of Project Polaris, the next instalment in the new Witcher trilogy. The development team is approaching a major milestone that will mark the end of the pre-production phase. Of the 639 game developers in the group at the end of July, 410 were working on Polaris. "The first half of the year was also a busy period for our Boston studio, which is laying the groundwork for Project Orion – a new game set in the Cyberpunk universe," says Michał Nowakowski, Joint CEO of CD Projekt. 60 developers are currently working on the new Cyberpunk project. 42 people are working on the multiplayer project Sirius (by The Molasses Flood), which was also launched last year and is also set in the Witcher universe. 20 people are involved in the Hadar project, while 99 people are assigned to General Development Services (e.g. Localisation, Quality Assurance), Data, Insights & Experiences, Artificial Intelligence). A remake of The Witcher is also being developed in collaboration with Fool's Theory. At the investor conference, it was also announced that there will be more animation projects in the Cyberpunk universe (after Cyberpunk: Edgerunners).
In total, the company employed 1,134 people as of 30 June (69 per cent male and 31 per cent female). Nearly 1,000 employees work for CD Projekt Red, 133 for GOG.com and 29 for The Molasses Flood. Half a year ago, the company as a whole employed 1,165 people.
In May 2024, CD Projekt released REDkit, a modding tool for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. "It's been several months since our dev tools were released to gamers, and there’s already a slew of interesting modding projects out there. We are happy to see the engagement of the gaming community, which is eager to share its ideas, bringing new strength to The Witcher 3 - a game set to celebrate its 10th anniversary next year," says Michał Nowakowski.
Speaking of GOG.com, during the first half of the year, the largest group of GOG.com customers came from the United States (31%), followed by Germany (14%), Poland (9%), the United Kingdom (6%) and France (6%). This geographical breakdown followed the pattern of previous years.
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