CD Projekt reports 88% profit growth on strong Cyberpunk 2077 sales, next Witcher game nears full production

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty

Financial highlights

• According to its interim earnings release, CD Projekt reached PLN 424.8 million ($109.8 million) in net revenue in H1 2024, up 30.6% compared to the same period last year.
• The CD Projekt RED segment accounted for the vast majority of the total, while GOG’s revenue grew 3.7% year-over-year to PLN 87.6 million ($22.6 million).
• Operating profit increased by 43% year-over-year to PLN 140.2 million ($36.2 million), while net profit soared 88% to PLN 170 million ($44 million).
• Cyberpunk 2077, including the Phantom Liberty expansion, generated PLN 257.6 million ($66.6 million), up 80.7% year-over-year. Sales of The Witcher franchise fell 21.2% to PLN 61.2 million ($15.8 million).

• North America accounted for 70% of gaming revenue, followed by Europe (19.2%), Asia (6.1%), Australia (0.9%), and South America (0.5%). The share of domestic sales (Poland) was 3.2%.
• CD Projekt CFO Piotr Nielubowicz noted that the company managed to significantly increase its financial reserves: “Despite having paid out almost 100 million PLN in a dividend, and allocating over 150 million PLN to new projects, our reserves nevertheless grew by more than 55 million PLN.”
• As of June 30, CD Projekt had a total of PLN 1.36 billion ($) in cash, bank deposits, and bonds.
• The company currently employs 1,134 people, down slightly from 1,165 as of December 31, 2023.

Project Polaris nears full production as CD Projekt continues to increase investment in future games

• As of June 30, capitalized development costs (completed games, upcoming titles, and new technology) reached PLN 586.6 million ($151.7 million), up 11% year-over-year. Of these, new projects in progress account for PLN 336.1 million ($86.9 million).
• In the first half of 2024, CD Projekt invested PLN 107.1 million ($27.7 million) in its upcoming games. Cost of maintenance on released titles decreased by more than 49% to PLN 10.8 million ($2.8 million)
• Research work costs increased 14x to PLN 45.9 million ($11.8 million). It was driven by Orion (the next Cyberpunk game, not far from entering pre-production), Canis Majoris (The Witcher 1 remake, in the research phase), and Hadar (a new IP).

• As of July 31, 2024, the Polaris team included 410 people — the game is ready to enter full production by the end of the year. 60 employees are now working on Orion, followed by 42 on Sirius (Witcher spin-off from The Molasses Flood, in production) and 20 on Hadar.

• “Work on Polaris is progressing — its development team is nearing a major milestone which will mark the end of the preproduction phase,” CD Projekt joint CEO Michał Nowakowski commented. “The first half of the year was also a busy period for our Boston studio, which is laying the groundwork for Project Orion.”