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CD Projekt: From Warsaw Bazaar to Gaming Powerhouse
How two high school friends selling pirated games at a Polish street market built one of Europe's most valuable game studios—and nearly destroyed it with one catastrophic launch before orchestrating gaming's greatest comeback
I. Introduction: The Central Question
On a cold December morning in 2020, the executives at CD Projekt should have been celebrating. Their company had just reached a market capitalization of over 40 billion Polish złoty, making it briefly the most valuable company in all of Poland—not just the most valuable game studio, but the most valuable company, period. CD Projekt was valued at over 40 billion Polish złoty in December 2020.
Eight years of development. $316 million in production and marketing. Eight million pre-orders. Cyberpunk 2077 was supposed to be the crowning achievement of a studio that had already delivered what many considered the greatest role-playing game ever made.
Instead, within days, the company found itself facing class-action lawsuits, the unprecedented removal of its game from the PlayStation Store, a stock price in freefall, and a ransomware attack that would leak its source code to the world. CD Projekt's stock has fallen by more than 75% since the release of Cyberpunk 2077, and the company is now worth less than 10 billion złoty.
How did two high school friends selling games at a Warsaw street bazaar build one of the most valuable game studios in the world? And how did they nearly destroy it all—only to orchestrate one of the greatest comeback stories in entertainment history?
This is a story about bootstrapping in post-Communist Poland, the power of owning your intellectual property, the contrarian bet of going DRM-free, catastrophic launches, and the remarkable resilience of a company that refused to give up. By May 2020, CD Projekt had reached a valuation of US$8.1 billion, making it the largest video game company in Europe.
As of Q3 2025, total sales of Cyberpunk 2077 have surpassed 35 million units, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, celebrating its 10th anniversary in May 2025, has sold over 60 million copies. The company that was written off as dead is now back among the elite, with The Witcher 4 in full production and a sequel to Cyberpunk in development.
II. Post-Communist Poland: Setting the Stage (1980s-1994)
To understand CD Projekt, you must first understand the Poland in which it was born—a country emerging from decades of Communist rule, where market economics was a new experiment and pirated software was sold openly in the streets alongside bootleg cassette tapes and counterfeit blue jeans.
According to Iwiński, although he enjoyed playing video games as a child they were scarce in the Polish People's Republic (which experienced political unrest, martial law, and goods shortages during the 1980s). This was not an environment of abundance. Access to Western consumer goods—especially luxury items like video games—was severely limited.
During communist government rule of Poland (the Polish People's Republic), copyright laws went largely unenforced, and copyright infringement was rampant across electronic media. Following the change of government, consumer perception of copyright in Poland remained largely the same, making it difficult for legitimate sellers of electronic media; pirated and bootlegged versions were often sold in open markets right next to boxed copies of legitimate items, but for a fraction of the cost.
When the Communist government fell in 1990, Poland embarked on what economists called "shock therapy"—an aggressive transition to a market-based economy. Streets that had been regulated by state planning suddenly became open bazaars. Entrepreneurship, previously illegal or highly restricted, became the pathway to opportunity.
Growing up in Poland in the heat of the 90s was more of a struggle than a fruitful lifestyle. With the Polish economy bound to recover—slowly, yet surely—trading took to the streets and overwhelmed the bazaars and open-air markets with a variety of in-demand products, including games.
For two teenagers passionate about video games, this represented not just economic opportunity, but a chance to turn their obsession into a profession. The question was simple: Could someone actually make money selling video games in a country where most people simply copied them for free?
III. Founding Origins: Two Friends, $2,000, and a Dream (1994-1996)
The story of CD Projekt begins with an empty seat in a Polish high school classroom.
Marcin Iwiński, in high school, was selling cracked copies of Western video games at a Warsaw marketplace. In high school, Iwiński met Kiciński, who became his business partner; at that time, Kiciński was also selling video games.
Marcin and Michal first met in high-school, when Marcin took an empty seat next to Michal in class. By the time school was out, they had both become somewhat of truants—skipping classes in the name of gaming!
Both Marcin Iwiński (born 1974) and Michał Kiciński (born 1974) had been fascinated by computers from an early age. A computer-obsessed teen at heart, Marcin's joy knew no limits when his father came back from one such trip bearing a special gift—a ZX Spectrum computer featuring not one, but four games to play. He was overwhelmed!
Michał was quite the prodigy of his generation. Throughout his youth, Michal frequently visited his uncle, where a ZX81 computer had been waiting for him to play and learn.
But it was the arrival of CD-ROM technology that changed everything. These new discs could hold vastly more data than floppy disks, enabling games with full-motion video, orchestral soundtracks, and voice acting. Wanting to conduct business legitimately, Iwiński and Kiciński began importing games from US retailers and were the first importers of CD-ROM games.
Marcin Iwiński and Michał Kiciński, a pair of high school friends who shared a passion for games, believed they could profit from computer games in the 90s. It was an era of transformation, with the Polish economy taking on an entirely new shape.
The company, originally named CD Projekt, focused on importing CD-ROM software releases from the United States.
The pair could often be found trading games at the Warsaw computer bazaar, located at Grzybowska Street. While Michal handled sales, Marcin made arrangements with suppliers and managed international shipments.
The founding capital was minuscule—approximately $2,000 and the use of a friend's flat as a rent-free office. Marcin and Michał were each only twenty years old when they officially established CD Projekt in May 1994. CD Projekt was founded in May 1994 by Marcin Iwiński and Michał Kiciński.
Adam Kiciński, now Co-Chair of the Supervisory Board, recalls: "Michał called me to ask if I could help with packaging. Every day I would pick up a batch of packages and deliver them to the post office. The packages contained game CDs. Michał and Marcin were 21 while I was 25."
Their strategy was straightforward: rather than competing with pirates on price, they would differentiate on legitimacy and service. They imported original games from the United States and sold them to Polish gamers who wanted authentic products. Marcin and Michał often recall spending long hours at the Warsaw computer bazaar, selling games shipped from abroad. Eventually they signed their first official distribution agreement with American Laser Games. More contracts followed, with such producers as Acclaim, Blizzard, Blue Byte, Interplay and Psygnosis.
IV. The Localization Play: Building a Sustainable Business (1996-2002)
By 1996, CD Projekt had evolved beyond simple importing. The founders realized that simply bringing American games to Poland wasn't enough to compete with pirates who charged a fraction of the price. They needed to add value that couldn't be easily copied.
Two years after its creation CDP.pl (still operating under the CD Projekt name) became the first Polish distributor to publish games in Polish boxes and with Polish manuals. What seems obvious today was a novelty at that time. The enthusiastic reactions by gamers proved that the Company had hit a marketing bullseye.
They would obtain import rights from foreign publishers, and where possible, provide in-game localization for text and voice lines, typically through reverse engineering to decompile the game's code. They would then package the game with localized instruction manuals and other physical goodies, hoping that the added features would draw buyers away from pirated copies.
The breakthrough came with Baldur's Gate in 1998. The next milestone for the Company was its first full videogame localization. The game was Baldur's Gate and CDP.pl enlisted the voice talents of Krzysztof Kowalewski, Piotr Fronczewski, Wiktor Zborowski, Marian Opania and Jan Kobuszewski, among others.
This wasn't amateur dubbing—CD Projekt hired some of Poland's most famous and beloved actors to voice the characters. Suddenly, Polish gamers could experience a world-class RPG in their native language, with professional voice acting by celebrities they recognized.
Their first major success was with Baldur's Gate (1998) with which they had 18,000 units sold on its first day of release in Poland.
To put that in perspective, Poland's population was about 38 million at the time, and the gaming market was nascent. Selling 18,000 units on day one was extraordinary—and proved that quality localization could command premium prices even in a market dominated by piracy.
The success paved the way for further distribution agreements covering such global hits as Diablo II and Baldur's Gate II. In short order CDP.pl became the official Polish distributor of Atari, Cryo, Konami, Microsoft, Sega and others. The company also secured exclusive distribution rights for Ubisoft releases on PlayStation and PlayStation 2 consoles.
But the founders were already dreaming bigger. Marcin Iwiński recalls: "We had always wanted to make our own game. While attending fairs in London and later in the USA we met with Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk [of BioWare]. We also talked to David Perry from Shiny Entertainment. Instinctively we felt we belonged in that world."
V. The Pivot: From Distributor to Developer (2002-2004)
The catalyst for CD Projekt's transformation from distributor to developer came, ironically, from a cancelled project.
The company began by translating major video game releases into Polish, collaborating with Interplay Entertainment for two Baldur's Gate games. CD Projekt was working on the PC version of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance when Interplay experienced financial difficulties. The game was cancelled and the company decided to reuse the code for their own video game.
Due to this success, Interplay, the publisher of Baldur's Gate, asked CD Projekt if they could do a similar treatment to Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, a console title released in 2001. As their past work had been strictly on personal computers, the company accepted to try to port it, but the project fell through before it was completed. However, as a result, CD Projekt realized they had the ability to make their own games, and moved into games development.
What game would they make? The answer would define the company's future.
The WiedĹşmin (Witcher) books by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski were immensely popular in Poland and across Eastern Europe. A previous attempt to make a Witcher game by another Polish studio, Metropolis (led by Adrian Chmielarz, who would later create Bulletstorm), had failed.
Sapkowski originally agreed to sell the rights to the book series to CD Projekt back in 1997, turning down a profit-sharing deal in favor of a cash deal—largely because he didn't think the studio would find success in the world of video games.
"They offered me a percentage of their profits. I said, 'No, there will be no profit at all—give me all my money right now. The whole amount,'" commented Sapkowski. "It was stupid. I was stupid enough to leave everything in their hands because I didn't believe in their success. But who could foresee their success? I couldn't."
According to reports, Sapkowski sold the license to the developers at CD Projekt Red for 35,000 PLN, paid across two installments of 15,000 PLN and 20,000 PLN. That translates to just under $10,000, around $9,500.
For less than $10,000, CD Projekt had secured one of the most valuable intellectual properties in European fantasy literature. It remains one of the most consequential deals in video game history.
The department responsible for developing original games, CD Projekt Red, best known for The Witcher series and Cyberpunk 2077, was formed in 2002.
VI. The Witcher 1: A $6 Million Bet (2003-2007)
CD Projekt Red had ambition. What they didn't have was experience.
The studio made a demonstration game, which Adam Badowski called "a piece of crap" in retrospect. "We tried to convince Marcin and Michal not to go on the first business trip with the demo, but they decided..." to show it to a dozen publishers all around Europe on the most expensive and powerful laptop money could buy, Iwiński fills in. "After two weeks of meetings, we get two emails saying, in a very nice British way, 'It's not so good'. So pretty much: 'Boys, go home'. We were shattered. We were like, 'Oh my god we suck'."
It was a devastating rejection. The demo was so bad that publishers essentially laughed them out of the room. A lesser company might have given up.
Instead, they doubled down. They rebuilt. They learned.
The premiere of The Witcher took place on October 26th, and the game was a commercial success. In Poland alone, 35,000 people bought the game within three days of its release.
BioWare, the creators of Baldur's Gate, proved crucial allies. They licensed their Aurora game engine to CD Projekt Red and even provided booth space at E3 2004, lending credibility to an unknown Polish studio. The original 15-person development team eventually grew to about 100 people, with a total budget of approximately 20 million Polish złoty (around $6 million at the time).
Atari agreed to publish the game, bringing The Witcher to international audiences. The game was released in October 2007 to critical acclaim and commercial success. Since its release the game has garnered over 100 international awards, including notable recognitions from GameSpot, GameSpy and IGN for the best role-playing game.
But the company's troubles were far from over.
VII. Near-Death Experience & The GOG.com Gamble (2008-2010)
The Witcher's success created new opportunities—and new risks. CD Projekt agreed to develop console versions of the game, partnering with French studio Widescreen Games.
Although they collaborated with French studio Widescreen Games for the console port, it entered development limbo. Widescreen demanded more manpower, money and time to develop the title, complaining that they were not being paid; according to Iwiński, CD Projekt paid them more than their own staff members. The team cancelled the project, suspending its development.
Unhappy with the decision, Atari demanded that CD Projekt repay them for funding the console port development and Iwiński agreed that Atari would be the North American publisher of the sequel of The Witcher 2.
The dispute over White Wolf was costly; the company faced bankruptcy, with the 2008 financial crisis as a contributing factor.
With the company on the brink of collapse, the founders made a counterintuitive decision: they would launch a new business entirely.
CD Projekt saw potential to offer DRM-free versions of classic games through digital distribution. In this manner, they would have a reason to draw players to buy their product instead of simply downloading it for free from pirate game websites and services. They founded a new subsidiary, Good Old Games, to serve this purpose in early 2008.
In 2008, CD Projekt launched the digital distribution service Good Old Games, now known as GOG.com. A video game distribution service, GOG.com, was established by CD Projekt in 2008 to help players find old games. Its mission is to offer games free of digital rights management (DRM) to players.
This was radical. At a time when the gaming industry was obsessed with DRM—digital locks meant to prevent piracy—CD Projekt was betting that treating customers with respect would build loyalty that locks could never achieve.
Their first challenge was to find a publisher that would be willing to work with them. Their first big break was from Interplay Entertainment, who knew of the company's past work, and allowed them to offer their games on the service. After some time, Good Old Games was approached by Ubisoft, who were interested in selling their older titles through the service as well. Once Ubisoft was signed, it became easier for Good Old Games to convince other publishers to allow them to offer older titles on the service.
The DRM-free philosophy was more than marketing—it was ideological. CD Projekt Red opposes the inclusion of digital-rights-management technology in video games and software. The company believes that DRM is ineffective in halting software piracy, based on data from sales of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. CD Projekt Red found that their initial release (which included DRM technology) was pirated over 4.5 million times; their DRM-free re-release was pirated far less.
VIII. Going Public: The Reverse Merger Strategy (2009-2011)
With a hit game under their belt and a growing digital distribution platform, CD Projekt needed capital to execute their ambitious plans.
In 2008 the Company underwent a reorganization. The newly established CDP Investment became the holding company of the CD PROJEKT Group. On 21 October 2009 CDP Investment concluded an investment agreement with Optimus S.A.—a company listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange since 1994. As a result, on 1 May 2010 Optimus purchased 100% of CDP Investment shares. Since the 2008/2009 crisis Optimus had not carried out production and distribution of IT equipment—consequently, the activities of CDP Investment group companies became the new core business of Optimus.
In 2009, CD Projekt's then-parent company, CDP Investment, announced its plans to merge with Optimus S.A. in a deal intended to reorganise CD Projekt as a publicly traded company. The merger was closed in December 2010 with Optimus as the legal surviving entity; Optimus became the current incarnation of CD Projekt S.A. in July 2011.
This reverse merger was elegant: rather than going through the expensive and time-consuming process of an IPO, CD Projekt effectively acquired a dormant public shell company, gaining access to the capital markets while retaining founder control.
IX. The Witcher 2 & Building Global Ambition (2011-2014)
With their near-death experience behind them and public market access secured, CD Projekt Red set out to prove that The Witcher wasn't a fluke.
To stay afloat, the team decided to focus on The Witcher 2 with the Witcher 3 engine. When the engine (known as RED Engine) was finished, the game could be ported to other consoles.
After three-and-a-half years of development, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings was released in 2011 to critical praise and sales of more than 1.7 million copies. After The Witcher 2, CD Projekt wanted to develop an open-world game of a quality similar to their other games.
The decision to build their own engine—the RED Engine—was strategically critical. Rather than licensing technology from Epic or others, CD Projekt would own their core technology, giving them both creative control and cost advantages over competitors who paid royalties on every sale.
GOG's service was expanded in 2012 to cover new AAA and independent games.
By 2014, sales of The Witcher 2 had surpassed 2 million copies—nearly double the first game's performance. CD Projekt was no longer a scrappy Polish upstart. They were building toward something that would change the entire industry.
X. The Witcher 3: Industry Domination (2015)
In May 2015, CD Projekt Red released The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and nothing in gaming would be quite the same again.
The company developed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt with a self-funded budget of US$81 million over three-and-a-half years. The project began with 150 employees, eventually growing to over 250 in-house staff. 1,500 people were involved in the production globally.
Breaking that down, CEO Adam Kicinski explained that The Witcher 3 was built over three and a half years by a team that knows how to "develop games efficiently." According to the CEO, the core development team was made up of 240 people, representing 18 nationalities—the majority of whom were Polish. Globally speaking, 1500 people worked on the game at various points.
The $81 million budget was remarkably efficient by AAA standards. $81 million is an awfully big pile of money, but it's actually not outrageous in terms of modern blockbuster game budgets. EA is rumored to have blown upwards of $200 million on Star Wars: The Old Republic back in 2012, while Rockstar reportedly sunk more than $260 million into Grand Theft Auto 5.
The return on investment was spectacular. "It was a good investment, because in the first six weeks after the launch of Witcher [3], we generated six million copies," Kiciński said. "We sold six million copies of the game, and made a net profit of zł236 million [$63 million]."
The Witcher 3 received 260 game of the year awards and was the most awarded game of all time until 2021, when it was overtaken by The Last of Us Part II. By August 2016, it had received over 800 awards. In 2020, Gamesradar listed it as the top game of the generation.
The game has sold over 60 million units as of May 2025, making it one of the best-selling video games of all time.
By September 2017, it was the largest publicly traded video game company in Poland, worth about US$2.3 billion. In March 2018, the company joined WIG20, an index of the 20 largest companies on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
The Witcher 3's success created enormous expectations—and enormous pressure—for whatever came next.
XI. Cyberpunk 2077: The Most Anticipated Game Ever (2012-2020)
CD Projekt Red announced Cyberpunk 2077 in 2012 with a cryptic teaser trailer. The game wouldn't be released for another eight years.
The game's development began following the release of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Blood and Wine (2016). The game was developed by a team of around 500 people using the REDengine 4 game engine.
The total budget was reportedly 1.2 billion PLN or roughly $316 million USD. Keep in mind that this likely includes the marketing budget as well. As the IR profile notes, there were over 55 localized marketing campaigns and more than 3.1 billion ad impressions in the global digital campaign (from November to December 2020). While 530 developers from CD Projekt RED worked on the title, the total number of people "engaged" with the project was more than 5200.
The marketing was extraordinary. Keanu Reeves made a surprise appearance at E3 2018, announcing his role as Johnny Silverhand and uttering the now-famous line "You're breathtaking!" The internet exploded.
CD Projekt Red released a memo to investors, revealing that they had already secured 8 million pre-orders of Cyberpunk 2077.
On December 10, 2020, the game finally launched. It was a huge sales hit straight out of the gate, moving 13.7 million copies in 2020.
But the celebration would be short-lived.
XII. The Cyberpunk Disaster: A Cautionary Tale (December 2020-2021)
Cyberpunk 2077 is arguably one of the most controversial games of the past decade. It was released in December 2020 and received backlash from the entire gaming community for various reasons. Users faced all sorts of technical issues when playing Cyberpunk 2077 on consoles, particularly the base PS4 and Xbox One systems. The PC version fared better, especially on high-end systems, but they too came across several bugs and other problems. Aside from glitches and technical issues, many gamers claimed that CD Projekt Red lied about the gameplay features of Cyberpunk 2077. It was marketed as a next-generation open-world game with a dense and immersive city.
The game was far more unpolished than journalists had expected. It was riddled with bugs. Performance was sluggish. Crashes were frequent. This came as a genuine surprise, especially considering how long the game had spent in development. Investors got nervous, and CD Projekt Red's stock price started to slip. For a title that had been billed as the most anticipated best-seller of 2020, the reviews just weren't glowing enough.
Sony has announced that it is removing Cyberpunk 2077 from the PlayStation Store, and will offer refunds for players who've purchased the game.
In a decade of digitally selling games on the store, Sony has yet to take down a large, high-profile title like Cyberpunk 2077. This is the first time Sony has had to remove a AAA title from its PlayStation Store over issues with the game.
Sony removed it from the PlayStation Store from December 2020 to June 2021 while CD Projekt rectified some of the issues.
CD Projekt Red's stock price took a stunning nosedive. It lost almost 40% of its value—which translates to a decrease of over $1 billion in wealth. What should have been a moment of triumph for the developers has turned instead into an anguished ordeal with no end in sight.
The legal challenges mounted. A few groups of investors filed several lawsuits against the Polish company since the Cyberpunk 2077 launch. Four of them were united into one in May 2021, with plaintiffs accusing CD Projekt of concealing important information regarding the game's technical issues from investors.
CD Projekt has announced that it came to an agreement with investors to settle a class-action lawsuit over Cyberpunk 2077's controversial launch. The company and other defendants named in the case refused to admit any wrongdoing. The settlement cost the company and Colonnade Insurance S.A. $1.85 million.
Then came the cyberattack. Unknown hackers penetrated internal company systems, downloaded a significant amount of data, encrypted all information, and left a ransom note. In the note, they threatened CD Projekt with the publication of the data they'd acquired.
In a statement posted to its Twitter account, the company said it will "not give in nor negotiate" with the hackers, saying it has backups in place. "We have already secured our IT infrastructure and begun restoring data." According to the ransom note, the hackers said they would release the company's stolen source code and other internal files if it did not pay the ransom.
The ransomware gang posted that they sold the data to someone "outside the forum." As the terms of the sale required the threat actors to no longer distribute the data, they subsequently closed the auction.
XIII. Redemption Arc & Recovery (2021-Present)
CD Projekt could have abandoned Cyberpunk 2077. Many companies would have. Instead, they committed to fixing it—regardless of cost.
As a point of comparison, it reportedly cost $174 million to develop Cyberpunk 2077. That number gets ever larger when you factor in the $142 million CDPR spent on marketing the dystopian RPG.
CDPR revealed that it spent $40-$41 million to bring Cyberpunk 2077 to the current console generation and create the 2.0 update. This would suggest CDPR spent almost $125 million on fixing Cyberpunk 2077's image and saving its reputation.
In October 2023, CD Projekt Red revealed that they have spent $125 million on Cyberpunk 2077 since launch, accounting for updates and bug fixes. The base game cost $174 million to develop and $142 million to market, the development and marketing of Phantom Liberty cost roughly $85 million alone. The game's total production cost is said to have been between $436 million, and around $440 million, making it one of the most expensive video games to develop.
The turning point came in September 2022 with the release of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners on Netflix. Produced by the Japanese animation studio Trigger under the supervision of CD Projekt, it premiered on Netflix in September 2022. Set in the Cyberpunk universe, the anime serves as a prequel to the game. Upon its release, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners received critical acclaim, with praise directed at its characters, animation, and worldbuilding.
In its first week, the show debuted on Netflix's top ten list, with 14.88 million hours of viewing. Its success helped increase the sales of Cyberpunk 2077 to 20 million units.
CD Projekt revealed that the success of the Edgerunners anime helped drive sales even further, and pushed the studio to a new quarterly financial record. "In terms of financials, this was the best third quarter in our entire history, with consolidated revenues at zł246 million ($54.3 million), mostly owing to strong sales of Cyberpunk," CD Projekt chief financial officer Piotr Nielubowicz said. "The group posted zł99 million ($21.8 million) in net profit."
Quest Director Paweł Sasko became emotional over how well the game was now being received compared to launch, seemingly holding back tears while somber music played. "When I was sitting there in that armchair, listening to the questions, and thinking what the hell I'm supposed to say… It's hard to express y'know? Like, when you're putting so much heart and soul into something. And you know for some of us it's been like, what? Six, seven, eight years sometimes. So like, to have this moment, of actually people liking something that we did is really… It's really feeling a bit unreal. That finally there are people appreciating it."
The Phantom Liberty expansion launched in September 2023 to critical acclaim. In November 2024 cumulative sales of Cyberpunk 2077 topped 30 million copies, while the Phantom Liberty expansion had sold over 8 million copies.
Cyberpunk has now reached 35 million sales, up 5 million copies from the last update in November 2024. Roughly five years after release, Cyberpunk 2077 has now reached 35 million copies sold on all platforms.
XIV. Current State & Future Outlook (2024-2025)
Today, CD Projekt stands as a transformed company. As of November 2025 CD Projekt has a market cap of $6.91 Billion USD. This makes CD Projekt the world's 2527th most valuable company by market cap.
CD Projekt has a market cap or net worth of $6.83 billion as of November 28, 2025. Its market cap has increased by 71.26% in one year.
According to its earnings presentation, CD Projekt reached PLN 985 million ($255 million) in revenue in 2024, down 20% compared to 2023. Net profit fell 2% to PLN 469.9 million ($121.6 million). Despite a slight decrease, it is the third-best result in the history of CD Projekt—behind only 2020 (Cyberpunk 2077 launch) and 2023 (Phantom Liberty launch).
The Group's sales revenues in Q3 2025 reached 349 million PLN, which represents a 53% year-over-year increase. Consolidated net earnings during the reporting period stood at 193 million PLN—2.5 times more than during the corresponding period of the previous year, which results in a net profitability of 55%.
The company's cash position is robust. As of 30 September 2025, the aggregate value of Cash and cash equivalents, Bank deposits (maturity beyond 3 months) and other liquid financial assets i.e. treasury bonds was 1,407,581 thousand PLN.
The future pipeline is extensive:
The Witcher 4 (Project Polaris): It remained in pre-production from May 2022 until November 2024, when full production began. As of March 2025, over 400 employees were working on the project. In March 2022, CD Projekt Red (CDPR) announced that they were working on a new game in The Witcher series. By October, the studio revealed that this entry, internally codenamed "Project Polaris", would initiate a new trilogy.
411 people are now working on The Witcher 4, which entered full-production in November 2024.
The Witcher 4 release date will be in 2027 at the earliest. This was confirmed by CD Projekt Red CFO Piotr Nielubowicz during the investor conference for fiscal year 2024.
The game is being developed using Unreal Engine 5. The Witcher IV is an upcoming action role-playing game developed by CD Projekt Red and published by CD Projekt. It is the planned first installment of a new trilogy in The Witcher series. The game is set after the events of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Unlike the original trilogy, which featured book protagonist Geralt of Rivia as the playable character, The Witcher IV features his adoptive daughter, Ciri, as the protagonist.
Cyberpunk 2 (Project Orion): The Project Orion (the next Cyberpunk game) team includes 84 devs.
In the coming quarters, CD Projekt will continue to build its Boston team, which is working on Project Orion (currently in pre-production).
Other Projects: Project Sirius (a Witcher spin-off developed by The Molasses Flood) has 49 developers. Project Hadar (new IP) and The Witcher 1 remake, which is being developed by third-party studio Fool's Theory, remain in the research phase.
CD Projekt Red announced in July 2025 that a stand-alone sequel series, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2, was in development, with most of the original creative team returning, and to be streamed on Netflix. It will feature a new story separate from the first series and a new cast of characters.
XV. Bull Case, Bear Case, and Strategic Analysis
The Bull Case
1. Proven IP Ownership: CD Projekt owns both The Witcher (for video games) and Cyberpunk franchises outright. The agreement with Sapkowski satisfies and fully clarifies the needs and expectations of both parties, past and present, and sets out a framework for the future cooperation between the two sides. The agreement grants CD PROJEKT new rights, as well as confirms the company's title to "The Witcher" intellectual property in video games, graphic novels, board games, and merchandise.
2. Demonstrated Comeback Capability: The Cyberpunk 2077 redemption arc proves management can execute complex turnarounds. The $125 million invested in fixes generated substantial returns through continued sales.
3. Transmedia Expansion: The Edgerunners success demonstrates the potential of CD Projekt's universes beyond games. The Netflix Witcher series (despite mixed reviews) drove massive game sales. When The Witcher adaptation landed on Netflix back in 2019, it boosted physical sales of The Witcher 3 by a massive 554 percent.
4. Financial Strength: "These resources enable us to remain independent in both financial and creative terms." The company has over $350 million in liquid assets and no significant debt.
5. Learning from Failure: CDPR is already going to great lengths to test their next project from the early stages. "For our next project, Polaris, we're already running our demos and internal reviews on the console from the very beginning."
The Bear Case
1. Execution Risk: The Witcher 4 will be developed on Unreal Engine 5—a new technology stack for the studio. The transition from proprietary RED Engine carries technical and operational risk.
2. Concentration Risk: Dependence on major, infrequent game releases and shifting industry trends threaten revenue stability and growth prospects. Rising costs from labor, platform fees, and capital pressures weigh on margins and future profitability.
3. Extended Development Cycles: The Witcher 4 won't release until 2027 at earliest. Long gaps between releases create execution and market risk.
4. Platform Dynamics: Steam takes 30% of PC sales. Console platforms take similar cuts. GOG.com, while DRM-free, faces intense competition from Steam and Epic.
5. Valuation: The company trades at 55x P/E and 24x P/S—premium multiples that require flawless execution of The Witcher 4 to justify.
Porter's Five Forces Analysis
Threat of New Entrants: LOW-MEDIUM AAA game development requires hundreds of millions in capital and years of development time. However, indie studios can occasionally produce breakout hits.
Bargaining Power of Suppliers: LOW Talent is the key input. While experienced developers are scarce, CD Projekt's reputation and Warsaw location provide recruiting advantages.
Bargaining Power of Buyers: MEDIUM Gamers are price-sensitive and have many entertainment options. However, strong IP loyalty (Witcher, Cyberpunk) creates pricing power.
Threat of Substitutes: MEDIUM-HIGH Gaming competes with streaming, social media, and other entertainment. Free-to-play games compete for attention. However, premium single-player RPGs are differentiated.
Competitive Rivalry: HIGH CD Projekt competes with Rockstar, Bethesda, BioWare, and others for the premium RPG market. Development costs are escalating industry-wide.
Hamilton Helmer's 7 Powers Framework
Scale Economies: MEDIUM Game development has high fixed costs and low marginal costs. However, each new game requires substantial fresh investment.
Network Effects: LOW Single-player RPGs don't benefit from traditional network effects. However, modding communities and online discourse create cultural momentum.
Counter-Positioning: HIGH CD Projekt's DRM-free philosophy, consumer-friendly practices (free DLC, no microtransactions in single-player games), and focus on single-player narrative RPGs differentiate from industry trends toward live-service models.
Switching Costs: LOW Players aren't locked into CD Projekt's ecosystem. However, emotional investment in characters and worlds creates preference.
Branding: HIGH The Witcher and Cyberpunk are globally recognized gaming brands. The studio reputation for quality (post-redemption) is strong.
Cornered Resource: HIGH Exclusive ownership of The Witcher game rights and Cyberpunk franchise. Deep expertise in open-world RPG development.
Process Power: MEDIUM Demonstrated ability to develop world-class RPGs, though execution failures (Cyberpunk launch) show limitations.
XVI. Key Metrics to Track
For long-term investors, three KPIs matter most:
1. Launch Quarter Sales-to-Development Cost Ratio
The single most important metric for CD Projekt is whether new releases recoup their development investment quickly. The Witcher 3 generated $63 million net profit on an $81 million budget within six weeks. Cyberpunk 2077 recouped its entire budget from pre-orders alone. The Witcher 4's launch quarter performance will be the definitive test of the company's execution.
2. Franchise Lifecycle Revenue per Title
Both Witcher 3 (60 million copies) and Cyberpunk 2077 (35 million copies) demonstrate remarkable long-tail revenue generation. Watch cumulative sales velocity across the catalog—strong IP generates revenue for decades. This "evergreen" revenue between major releases sustains operations and funds new development.
3. Development Workforce Allocation
As of February 28, 2025, CD Projekt had 707 developers involved in ongoing projects. 411 people are now working on The Witcher 4. The Project Orion team includes 84 devs, followed by Project Sirius with 49.
Track the relative allocation between projects as a leading indicator of near-term priorities and medium-term pipeline health.
XVII. Conclusion: The Road Ahead
The story of CD Projekt is a distinctly European entrepreneurial saga—two friends from a country emerging from Communism, building a global entertainment powerhouse through technical excellence, strategic contrarianism, and an unshakable commitment to their creative vision.
They nearly lost it all. CD Projekt RED lost 75% since 2020. The Cyberpunk 2077 launch disaster could have ended the company's reputation permanently.
Instead, they invested $125 million to fix their mistakes. They released an acclaimed expansion. They partnered with Netflix for an anime that captured hearts worldwide. They transformed one of gaming's greatest failures into one of its greatest comeback stories.
Over a span of five years, Cyberpunk 2077 sold more units than The Witcher 3 did in the same timeframe. This highlights how strong the demand for the sci-fi RPG remained despite its infamously troubled launch.
Now the question is whether they can do it again. The Witcher 4 will be the ultimate test—a new engine, a new protagonist, a new trilogy. The stakes couldn't be higher.
But if there's one lesson from CD Projekt's thirty-year journey, it's this: never bet against the two friends from the Warsaw bazaar.
Material Risks and Regulatory Considerations
Legal Overhangs: The U.S. class action lawsuit has concluded. The Final Approval of Class Action Settlement confirms the final terms of the settlement and ends the legal proceedings related to the U.S. class action lawsuit filed against the Company and other defendants.
Cybersecurity: The company suffered a significant ransomware attack in 2021. While CD Projekt refused to pay and maintained backups, source code for major titles was reportedly leaked. Future attacks remain a risk.
Development Execution: All future projections depend on successful delivery of The Witcher 4 and subsequent projects. Development delays and quality issues remain inherent risks in AAA game production.
Key Person Risk: While co-founder Marcin Iwiński has transitioned to a supervisory role, institutional knowledge concentration remains a consideration.
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