CD Projekt has shared new details about its updated strategy. The company several games in its pipeline, including a brand new IP. It also plans to expand its brands into new mediums and partner with third-party teams.
What is known about CD Projekt’s updated strategy?
- CD Projekt plans to add multiplayer elements to most of its new games to “enrich the single-player experience.”
- At the same time, it will remain focused on its main goal, which is “telling memorable stories.” So this means the company will continue to create story-driven titles.
- CD Projekt will open a new studio in North America, which will be located in Boston. The company already has three offices in Poland and one hub in Vancouver, Canada.
- Last year, CD Projekt acquired Boston-based studio The Molasses Flood. However, The Flame in the Flood developer will remain creatively independent and will operate separately from the company’s new office in Boston.
- CD Projekt will implement the “franchise flywheel concept” that aims to expand its gaming IPs into new mediums like TV, films, comics, and books. The latest Netflix hit Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, which boosted sales of the game, is an example of this flywheel approach.
- “We are doing this to create new, exciting ways of interacting with our brands, and also to enable our internal teams to focus on what drives us as a company: developing revolutionary role-playing games,” CD Projekt VP of business development Michał Nowakowski said.
- The company also plans to partner with third-party teams and license out its IPs. This means more non-core titles, including mobile games, based on The Witcher or Cyberpunk brands.
All games in CD Projekt’s pipeline
- Phantom Liberty — the upcoming expansion for Cyberpunk 2077, which is in the final production phase and is due out in 2023. Over 350 people are now working on it. Besides Phantom Liberty, CD Projekt has seven brand new titles in its pipeline.
- Project Orion — the next Cyberpunk game, which is in the early stages of the creative process. CD Projekt wants to “continue harnessing the potential of this dark future universe” with this title.
- Project Polaris — the next installment in The Witcher series and the beginning of a new trilogy, which was announced earlier this year. The game, developed by CD Projekt RED with Unreal Engine 5, is currently in pre-production.
- Two other Witcher games, which will become part of the new trilogy. The company plans to release these titles within a 6-year period following the Polaris launch.
- Project Sirius — a standalone Witcher game developed by The Molasses Flood. It will include both a story-driven campaign and multiplayer elements. The game is currently in pre-production.
- Project Canis Majoris — another standalone Witcher title, which is described as a “single-player open-world RPG.” It will be developed by a third-party studio led by The Witcher veterans, whose names are currently undisclosed.
- “This is the first such product being developed outside of [CD Projekt],” CEO Adam Kiciński said in a statement. “However, this does not imply that its quality will lag behind our in-house productions. From the technological standpoint it will be based on Unreal Engine 5, along with the toolset created for Polaris.”
- Project Hadar — the first new IP since Cyberpunk. The game is in the conceptual phase, with a small team at CD Projekt RED now working on the “foundation for this new setting.” It is created entirely from scratch and is not based on any other product CDPR has ever worked on.
Hadar is a codename for a third, entirely distinct IP, created from scratch within CDPR. The project is in the earliest stages of the creative process, which means we are not developing any game yet, but working exclusively on the foundation for this new setting. pic.twitter.com/1LdoXSTniv
— CD PROJEKT RED (@CDPROJEKTRED) October 4, 2022
CD Projekt CEO steps down after 28 years
Marcin Iwiński has stepped down as the joint CEO of CD Projekt, which means that Kiciński will now remain the only CEO of the company. He will hand over his duties to other board members by the end of 2022.
“It is thanks to that commitment and amazing talent that right now I have that same feeling I had all those years ago — hunger and optimism for what’s ahead,” Iwiński said. “It really feels like this is only the beginning. Our hugely ambitious strategy has such an inspiring and strong team at the helm, and I deeply believe in our plan to take CD Projekt to new heights.”
Iwiński co-founded CD Projekt in 1994 with Michał Kiciński and worked there for 28 years. He will remain the company’s major shareholder and will take on the new non-executive role.