CD Projekt RED

CD Projekt RED is a developer and publisher.

CD Projekt RED Webpage, Facebook

CD Projekt Red is a Polish game developer and publisher best known for its role-playing games, operating as part of the CD Projekt SA group. The studio was founded in 2000 by CD Projekt co-founders Marcin Iwinski and Michal Kicinski, who had previously established CD Projekt sp. z o.o. (now CDP.pl). The company is headquartered in Warsaw and has operated a local office in Krakow since 2013. Together, the two studios employ more than 300 people from around the world - a number that continues to grow. Since 2011, CD Projekt Red has been led by Adam Badowski, who also sits on the CD Projekt SA management board, overseeing the studio’s game development.

From the start, CD Projekt Red’s mission has been to “create the world’s best RPGs - telling fascinating, mature stories and setting new standards in video game entertainment”. That mission came to life with The Witcher trilogy, whose third installment showcased the studio’s rapid growth and untapped potential.

Alongside blockbuster projects like The Witcher series and Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red has also worked on several smaller titles. These smaller projects included The Witcher: Adventure Game (also released in a board game edition), Gwent: The Witcher Card Game - a standalone spin-off of the popular minigame from The Witcher 3 - and The Witcher: Battle Arena, a mobile MOBA developed with Fuero Games. The latter, however, received poor reviews and was pulled from the App Store and Google Play less than a year after release. Today, CD Projekt Red’s games are distributed worldwide through major publishers like Bandai Namco Entertainment and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. At the same time, the studio self-publishes the digital versions of its games.

History

The Witcher

CD Projekt Red was founded in 2002 in Warsaw by Marcin Iwinski and Michal Kicinski, the former founders of CD Projekt sp. z o.o. (now CDP.pl). The studio was the realization of a long-held dream for both, who had been active in the gaming industry since 1994 and always aspired to create their own development studio. In September 2003, the team began work on their first major project: the action RPG The Witcher – based on the iconic fantasy novel series by Andrzej Sapkowski. Released in 2007, the game was an immediate success, earning multiple awards and becoming Poland’s best-selling PC game. There were plans to bring the game to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 as The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf, but the port was never released.

In February 2008, CD Projekt acquired a majority stake in Metropolis Software and announced that the studio’s next game, codenamed They, would be developed in collaboration with CD Projekt Red. However, following the success of the first Witcher, the developers shifted their focus to its sequel, putting the previously announced project on hold. Released in May 2011, The Witcher 2 cemented the studio’s strong reputation, and its console edition - launched a year later in partnership with Bandai Namco Entertainment - helped make CD Projekt Red known beyond Poland.

The studio’s biggest success - and a major milestone - came with the third installment of The Witcher trilogy, released in May 2015 on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Bandai Namco Entertainment once again handled global publishing, with the release preceded by a massive worldwide marketing campaign. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt became one of the highest-rated RPGs in history and the biggest success in the Polish gaming industry, winning hundreds of awards at major events and earning “Game of the Year” honors from leading gaming portals worldwide. Despite the game’s massive success and the temptation to “cash in” on its popularity, CD Projekt Red stayed true to its original plan, announcing that The Witcher 3 would be the final chapter in Geralt of Rivia’s saga. In the following years, the studio would focus on developing an entirely new RPG based on the popular Cyberpunk universe.

Cyberpunk 2077...

However, before Cyberpunk 2077 firmly captured gamers’ attention, CD Projekt Red released another major title. This was Gwent: The Witcher Card Game, a standalone card game based on the popular minigame from The Witcher 3. Although announced in June 2016, the full version of the game launched on PC in October 2018, followed by releases on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in December, and on Apple mobile devices in October 2019. In the meantime, the studio also worked on a smaller project, Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales. The game, a hybrid of card, RPG, and strategy genres, debuted on PC and consoles at the end of 2018.

Let’s rewind to October 2017, when unofficial reports suggested that Cyberpunk 2077 was being developed “under intense pressure.” Selected developers working on the project complained about extreme crunch and poor management within the company. While concerns about the project briefly caused the company’s share price to dip, the outlook shifted dramatically after a new trailer debuted at E3 2018. From that point, a major promotional campaign for Cyberpunk 2077 kicked off, building up to the following E3 showcase. In Los Angeles, the premiere date was announced - April 16, 2020 - and it was revealed that Hollywood actor Keanu Reeves would play a major role. The game quickly became a bestseller on Steam, sending CD Projekt’s stock value soaring.

However, the release date announced at E3 2018 was not met. In January 2020, CD Projekt Red announced in a press release that the release of Cyberpunk 2077 had been postponed from April 16 to September 17, 2020. The delay was reportedly due to the studio’s desire to refine the game as much as possible. The delay didn’t hurt CD Projekt’s standing on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, where just over a month later it became the third-largest listed company.

After the outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in March 2020 caused widespread delays, the Polish developers assured that, despite adapting to remote work, the release of their long-awaited project remained on track. Interestingly, the global situation in spring 2020 caused steep declines for many companies on the WSE. While CD Projekt was affected, its losses were far smaller than those of PZU, PKN Orlen, or PKO BP. As a result, on April 2, CD Projekt became the largest Polish company listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Unfortunately, it soon became clear that players who had feared another delay for Cyberpunk 2077 back in March were ultimately correct.

On June 18, it was announced that the project had been delayed again, with its new release date set for November 19. As before, the delay was attributed to the studio’s desire to deliver a polished game that “will stay with us for years to come.” Unfortunately, this deadline was also missed. On October 27, CD Projekt Red announced yet another delay for its flagship project, pushing the release to December 10. The developers explained that the delay was intended to further refine the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions. As it later emerged, most of the team was unaware of this delay. Although the announcement angered some players and caused CD Projekt’s share price to drop, the studio quickly moved to recover from this hit to their finances and reputation, in part by showcasing the console versions of the game. Three days before the game’s release, reviews of the PC version were published. They concluded that, while CD Projekt Red had delivered another great game, its many strengths could be overshadowed by a large number of technical issues. Despite this, by December 7 the game held an average score of over 90% on Metacritic.

On December 10, 2020, Cyberpunk 2077 finally launched. The game’s grand release was accompanied by announcements predicting it would be a major commercial success.

...and its problems and their fixes

Although the launch of Cyberpunk 2077 was initially successful, players quickly began complaining - particularly about the poor performance of the eighth-generation console versions. On the base models of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the game suffered from numerous bugs, including textures failing to load properly and severe frame rate drops - especially noticeable during driving sequences. To make matters worse, early reviews of the console versions echoed these criticisms. CD Projekt Red quickly began rolling out updates, significantly improving the game week by week - especially on consoles, where extensive patches made Cyberpunk 2077 look far better by the end of December than on its release day.

In 2021, the studio consistently released new patches, which were generally well received by players. Well, at least well received enough for the game to earn “mostly positive” reviews on Steam and make its way back to the PlayStation Store, from which it had been removed shortly after release. Nevertheless, no effort could save the game from being featured in the Museum of Failure in Minneapolis.

In 2021, CD Projekt Red’s work extended beyond just fixing Cyberpunk 2077. In early February, the studio faced the fallout from a cyberattack during which the sourc code for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Gwent: The Witcher Card Game, and Cyberpunk 2077 was reportedly stolen. The studio refused to negotiate with the hackers, and shortly afterward the stolen code was reportedly put up for auction on the Darknet with a starting bid of $1 million. The auction concluded swiftly, with the hackers claiming they received a “satisfactory amount” from the buyer.

In March 2021, the CD Projekt group announced the acquisition of Canadian studio Digital Scapes, which was renamed CD Projekt Red Vancouver. In July, the team teamed up with Netflix to host WitcherCon, an event celebrating the Witcher franchise, where they announced a new DLC for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt inspired by the series. In the same month, The Witcher: Monster Slayer, a mobile game developed by Spokko in collaboration with CD Projekt Red, launched using augmented reality technology. In October, the CD Projekt group announced the acquisition of The Molasses Flood, the studio behind survival games Drake Hollow and The Flame in the Flood. Under its new ownership, the studio was set to collaborate closely with CD Projekt Red while retaining its creative autonomy.

Unfortunately, following the release of Cyberpunk 2077, several key figures departed from the studio. In March 2021, Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, director of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and Andrzej Zawadzki, the game’s lead gameplay designer, left the studio. In September, Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz, lead quest designer on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, joined Riot Games to work on an MMO set in the League of Legends universe. In January 2022, Mateusz Kanik, gameplay designer on The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, left CD Projekt Red, followed shortly afterward by Lukasz Babiel, the studio’s Quality Assurance Manager. In September, Jedrzej Mroz, a lead producer on Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher II and III, departed from CD Projekt Red.

The next chapter in the history of The Witcher and Cyberpunk

In April 2022, the studio announced it was developing a fourth Witcher game, the start of a new trilogy, which would run on Unreal Engine 5. On September 7, it was announced that Cyberpunk 2077 would receive the Phantom Liberty expansion, planned for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.

On October 4, the company revealed several upcoming projects, sharing their codenames and a few details about each. The first of these was Project Polaris, which would turn out to be the fourth Witcher game, initially announced in April. The second was Project Canis Majoris, being developed by an external studio that has not yet been disclosed. The third project, Project Sirius, developed by The Molasses Flood team, will feature both single-player and multiplayer modes, targeting primarily fans of The Witcher TV series rather than previous CD Projekt Red games. Additionally, Project Orion was announced - a full-fledged sequel to Cyberpunk 2077. Its development will involve up to 500 people from the newly opened Boston studio and the CD Projekt Red Vancouver team. The final project on the list was Project Hadar, a completely new IP overseen by the CD Projekt Red team.

A day later, it was announced that Marcin Iwinski, co-founder and vice president of international affairs at CD Projekt, would step down from his position. However, this did not signal a full departure; he planned to remain a major shareholder and continue supporting the company. Additionally, Iwinski was preparing to run for the position of Chairman of the Supervisory Board.

On October 26, the fifteenth anniversary of the original Witcher, it was announced that the game would receive a full-fledged remake. The remake, developed by the Fool’s Theory team, is being worked on under the enigmatic codename Project Canis Majoris. Like The Witcher 4, the game will be built using Unreal Engine 5 technology.

In July 2023, it was revealed that CD Projekt Red was undergoing mass layoffs. As part of the restructuring, around 100 employees - roughly 9% of the studio’s workforce - were expected to be laid off. The layoffs were planned to be phased, continuing gradually through the first quarter of 2024. According to studio head Adam Kicinski, the decision was driven by the desire to “meet our own requirements and ambitions to create the best role-playing games,” which involved “proper team formation” - building teams tailored to each project’s needs, with greater agility and efficiency.

On September 26, the long-awaited expansion for Cyberpunk 2077, titled Phantom Liberty, was released. The expansion was warmly received by both players and critics, earning “Very Positive” ratings on Steam and averaging 88–90/100 from industry media on Metacritic.

In October 2023, the studio announced a partnership with Anonymous Content, whose portfolio includes series such as True Detective and Mr.?Robot, as well as films like The Revenant and Spotlight. The collaboration is set to produce a live-action project, featuring actors, set in the Cyberpunk 2077 universe.

In February 2024, the key personnel overseeing Project Orion were revealed, along with their roles. It was also revealed that industry veterans had joined the team working on the sequel to Cyberpunk. Dan Henberg, formerly with Amazon Games and Blizzard Entertainment, has been appointed executive producer. Ryan Barnard, who previously worked at Massive Entertainment, Ubisoft, and IO Interactive, is stepping in as project director. Alan Villani, known for his time at Warner Bros. Games, took on the role of technical director, while Anna Megill - with credits at Remedy Entertainment, Arkane Studios, and Massive Entertainment - has been named lead writer. Joining them is Alexander Freed, who has worked at BioWare, EA DICE, and Obsidian Entertainment as a contributing writer.

The Witcher 4

On December 13, 2024, at The Game Awards, CD Projekt RED officially confirmed that the fourth installment of the series is in development. The game, simply titled The Witcher 4, debuted with its first trailer. The project’s main character is Ciri, who takes on the role of a full-fledged witcher. The game marks the beginning of a brand-new saga.

In March 2025, CD Projekt announced a strategic partnership with the American company Scopely, a studio specializing in mobile games. The partnership is set to produce a new game based on one of CD Projekt’s existing franchises.

Shortly after, in early April, CD Projekt RED fully absorbed The Molasses Flood, ending its run as an independent studio. Although co-founder Damian Isla called the move a positive change, he chose to leave the studio. At the same time, Isla expressed confidence that Project Sirius would be “an amazing game that will go down in history.”