CD Projekt to pay nearly $25 million in dividends to its shareholders, with co-founders getting over $5.5 million

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty

In a regulatory announcement last week, the Cyberpunk 2077 developer explained that it will pay PLN 1.00 per each company share. The dividend amount remained unchanged from the previous year.

This is also around 20% of the CD Projekt’s annual net profit of PLN 481.1 million ($120 million). The rest will be allocated to a capital fund used for the company’s needs.

Founders and executives, who are the largest shareholders (control over at least 5% of the votes), will receive the majority of dividend payments:

• Co-founder Marcin Iwiński (stepped down as CEO in 2022) — PLN 12.8 million ($3.19 million);
• Co-founder Michał Kiciński — PLN 9.57 million ($2.38 million);
• Chief financial officer Piotr Nielubowicz — PLN 6.85 million ($1.7 million);
• Chief strategy officer Adam Kiciński — PLN 4 million ($1 million).

Looking at shares held by other executives, joint CEOs Adam Badowski and Michał Nowakowski are likely to receive PLN 692.6k ($171.6k) and PLN 580.2k ($143.8k) in dividends, respectively.

This compensation is always linked to CD Projekt’s financial success. For example, shareholders received much higher dividends in 2021 — PLN 500 million ($124 million) in total, with $28 million split among five executives — thanks to record profits driven by strong launch sales of Cyberpunk 2077.

While these payments may seem huge, they pale in comparison to the wages and bonuses at larger game companies. Electronic Arts recently paid over $60 million to its executives, with CEO Andrew Wilson taking home over $25.6 million (including base salary, other compensation, and $20.3 million in stock awards).