After the disastrous release of one of its most expensive developments — Cyberpunk 2077, the Polish company CD Projekt RED decided to change the entire process of creating video games.
The changes will allow CD Projekt Red to work on multiple AAA games and expansions simultaneously, starting in 2022. The failure of Cyberpunk 2077, which was supposed to become one of the main trump cards of the company but instead turned into a loss. It pushed the Polish developers to major internal changes.
CD Projekt Red began to stir up interest in their development back in 2013, releasing a colorful teaser trailer.
Gamers' expectations were very high, not only because of the beautiful video but also from other company titles - especially The Witcher 3.
Cyberpunk 2077 was postponed several times, and when the game came out, it smashed the diligently earned reputation of Polish developers in just a few days. Performance problems, hundreds of bugs, and inconsistencies with the stated capabilities - it got to the point that Sony removed Cyberpunk 2077 from its PS Store, refunding the game's cost to everyone.
CD Projekt Red tried to fix problems with patches, but they came out rather slowly.
On March 30, CD Projekt Red released a statement that it will update its strategy and approach to video game development.
One of the significant changes will be a new approach to developing a RED game engine, improving future games' performance. The developers explain this by the desire to fully work on several projects simultaneously instead of concentrating on one. It is also necessary to not repeat the situation with Cyberpunk 2077 when on the PC, the game looked relatively good compared to its versions for consoles.
CD Projekt will continue to focus on creating single-player games and promised not to forget about The Witcher and Cyberpunk, hinting at new extensions for them, including the possible introduction of online capabilities.
Changes will also affect marketing - the company realized that a long-term advertising campaign has too much-fueled gamers' interest in Cyberpunk 2077. The following games will not be advertised for that long, and various content about the game will appear closer to its actual release. The studio is also changing its approach to announcing new projects - every year, CD Projekt will report its plans for the future.
They also plan to use the opportunities for mergers and acquisitions to grow more actively. There are already some first successes here - CD Projekt acquired the development studio Canadian Digital Scapes, with which they collaborated since 2018.
