Home Gaming The Witcher 3 and GoG are driving CD Projekt RED’s big profits

The Witcher 3 and GoG are driving CD Projekt RED’s big profits

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Witcher3_13

The Witcher 3 is one of the most successful and beloved games of this generation – and for very good reason. CD Projekt RED has become one of those developers that everyone just loves to love – and it’s something they’ve cleverly cultivated through simple things like actually deliver on their promises and make games that people want to play.

As you’d imagine, The Witcher 3 has become quite a successful endeavour for the Polish developer. That and their Good old Games service have been beneficial to their bottom line. In a new biannual financial report, CD Projekt Red has shown off just how much money The Witcher 3 and GoG are generating. While it’s a far cry from the sort of money that mega publishers like Activision and EA play with, it’s an incredible feat for a largely independent company.

For the first half of this year, CDPR earned 319 million Zloty, which is roughly the equivalent of $82 million, or R1185, 831,257. Of that staggering amount of cash, 135 million Zloty (around $35 million) is profit. While the number is actually lower than their earnings from the same period last year, that period benefitted from the release of the Witcher 3. It’s still 32% higher than analysts predicted, which has driven the company’s stock price up enough for the company to now be valued at $1BN.

Here’s what the press release from CD Projekt RED CEO Adam Kicinski says:

“The Group’s sales revenues and net financial result were dominated by continuing high sales of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and by the global release of the game’s second expansion – Blood and Wine. We’re wrapping up a very busy six-month period. Our second expansion for The Witcher 3 – Blood and Wine – was widely acclaimed and, together with the base game, generated most of our sales during this period.

But we’re not done: on 30 August we’re releasing The Witcher 3: Game of the Year Edition for all those who haven’t yet had the chance to play the most celebrated videogame of 2015. In later months we will focus on the recently announced multiplayer card game – GWENT, with a closed beta launching on 25 October”

Last Updated: August 29, 2016

30 Comments

  1. Pariah

    August 29, 2016 at 11:06

    The question is: what’s next?

    Reply

    • Trevor James

      August 29, 2016 at 11:09

      Cyberpunk 2077

      Reply

      • Pariah

        August 29, 2016 at 11:14

        Incidentally the same year I’ll have a graphics card that’ll run the game. 😛

        Reply

        • Trevor James

          August 29, 2016 at 11:17

          hahaha brilliant 🙂

          Reply

  2. Admiral Chief

    August 29, 2016 at 11:10

    GWENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Reply

  3. Ghost In The Rift

    August 29, 2016 at 11:11

    All in all a good news for Cyberpunk, well done CD Project, well deserved. *cough Sean Murray take notes cough*

    Reply

    • Pariah

      August 29, 2016 at 11:13

      That last *cough* bit is a tad underhanded. Completely different genres, studios, games – everything.

      Yes, NMS didn’t deliver all Sean promised. BUT, comparing it to The Witcher 3 is like saying “This row boat should fucking well fly, because I was promised an engine on it”.

      Reply

      • Ghost In The Rift

        August 29, 2016 at 11:37

        My comparison is not that of the games, genres etc but that of the developers, publishers and how they “sell” “market” their product to us as consumers with the customer protection act in mind, oh and you want an engine on that boat? Mod it 😛

        Reply

        • Pariah

          August 29, 2016 at 11:39

          So you never ever buy an EA, Activision or Blizzard title I take it?

          Reply

          • Ghost In The Rift

            August 29, 2016 at 12:02

            EA never, i usually wait 3 to 4 months for the reviews and most patches to be released, TW3 was the 1st game i ever pre-ordered after Mass Effect 3 and that was on a hunch that the game would be good, i pre ordered NMS on what it was advertised and marketed and i’m left with a burn, i my self feels like i was “hustled” into buying NMS and have yet again lost faith in developers and their “advertising”, still contemplating on if i should refund my NMS and go for Dues Ex or should i hold onto the game and hope updates will fix and add to the game but then the “paid DLC”.

          • Pariah

            August 29, 2016 at 12:04

            “EA never”. Mass Effect is EA. lel.

            But yeah I get it, you bought into the hype and got burned. Like many, many others out there. Moral of the story is simply: don’t buy into hype. Look for yourself, look at what’s there, and decide for yourself. Hype is killer.

          • Ghost In The Rift

            August 29, 2016 at 12:16

            “EA NEVER” after the ME3 ending and C&C 4 i mean lol, nah i was never hyped, i simply bought into what was showed and advertised to me, which from my perspective is 2 completely different games,you know, like burger joints where they show the massive burger and you end up with half a butter’d dry bun, the beef patty playing hide and seek with the 1 slice of tomato and lettuce.

          • Pariah

            August 29, 2016 at 12:18

            hahahaha! That analogy is pretty on-point. I’m lucky I went in expecting that “half a buttered dry bun” bit. 🙂

      • Spy Master Tokashi

        August 29, 2016 at 12:25

        Actually, he is correct to compare Witcher 3 and No Man Sky based on what was demo’ed and what was delivered.

        CD P RED never told their fans any BS story. They were open from the start and we knew what we were getting when we bought the game and after a few hours I realised how much they have not told me that was SO AMAZING about the game…

        No Man Sky showed everyone what the game can be and we all knew what we are getting when we bought the game but after you started to play the game you realised how much is missing …
        Now they are even more quiet as ever, not even a promise to fix their kak!
        It is sad to say this but they do not deserve any money and should go bankrupt, I cannot stand a company that lies in your face and take your money while doing it…

        Reply

        • Pariah

          August 29, 2016 at 12:51

          The difference is simple. CDPR didn’t hype their game. HelloGames did. Stuff happened, HelloGames didn’t deliver some of the stuff they said, and the backlash has been worse than the failed promise.

          Like what you said “they should go bankrupt”. Wishing that on anyone is really, really bad. And is part of the problem with gamer society today. Wishing that on anyone is worse than not delivering on everything in probably the most ambitious title to release in a long time. Much, much worse.

          Reply

      • Audacity (or-das-it-eeee-eee)

        August 29, 2016 at 14:51

        Still, it is comparing 2 Indie dev studio’s, one of whom implied that a number of features were in the game which turned out to unfortunately be a blatant or accidentle lie

        Either way, as a wannabe-indie-dev (I won’t call myself a fully fledged one just yet), the indie scene still has a way to go before it is going to be taken seriously. CD Projekt Red really showed the world this, but I feel like NMS did the opposite. The world, and investors, react to these things. I had alot of hope in NMS and respect for the team, but not so much since its release

        Reply

        • Pariah

          August 29, 2016 at 16:11

          There is a tl;dr post I made above in reply to Allykhat that answers the first bit of this neatly. CDPR are not Indie. Haven’t been for quite a while. Witcher 2 pulled them out of that.

          The rest is simply opinion, which I can’t refute, and partially agree with.

          Reply

  4. Original Heretic

    August 29, 2016 at 11:25

    A well polished game from a good Polish company. Glad they’re doing so well.

    Reply

  5. The Order of the Banana

    August 29, 2016 at 11:30

    I’m enjoying this game slowly… (I am not rushing through it, but rather taking my time with it) This is my game of the decade! CD Projekt Red has shown those idiots at Bioware how it’s done.

    Reply

    • Pariah

      August 29, 2016 at 11:32

      Well in the fantasy genre perhaps. But Mass Effect nailed it.

      Reply

    • miaau

      August 29, 2016 at 13:09

      I think there are some aspects that they can learn from each other on.

      Reply

  6. HairyEwok

    August 29, 2016 at 11:33

    Release a great game with all the things you say it will be and the masses will buy it. Then afterwards they’ll be ready to buy any other game you make.

    Reply

    • Pariah

      August 29, 2016 at 11:48

      Partially correct. I will never buy a Witcher game. Because I found TW2 boring as hell. I finished it because I had nothing else to play when I bought my new PC 4 years ago. If I had other options, I would’ve happily jumped on them.

      Then I got internet. And a year later I tried a 2nd playthrough. Didn’t finish the first act. SO. BORING.

      So taste has to be accounted for as well. Yes, most people loved it. But not all. 😛

      And I will wait for extensive reviews (and probably some Twitch time) before I think of buying Cyberpunk 2077.

      Reply

      • HairyEwok

        August 29, 2016 at 12:06

        Twitch is both a saving grace and reaper when it comes to games. Saving grace in the manner of showing actual gameplay to people. Reaper in the manner of where developers will start using them to promote a game.

        Reply

        • Pariah

          August 29, 2016 at 12:08

          No different to YouTube, except that it’s live. Live does have the benefit of seeing just how interested they actually are. Not a review – just them playing. If they play the game beyond their sponsored stream, and talk about it, get hyped etc. Then yeah, has more weight to it than just sponsored stream – back to other games. And if they’re bored, talking to chat, talking about other shit. Also – good indication.

          Reply

      • Spy Master Tokashi

        August 29, 2016 at 12:26

        Do you find Skyrim more interesting than TW2?

        Reply

        • Pariah

          August 29, 2016 at 12:49

          Vastly

          Reply

      • Allykhat

        August 29, 2016 at 13:10

        Fair argument. I had the same thing with Dragon Age. I started playing Dragon Age 2, which ruined the whole thing for me for years. Then I hopped back in with Inquisition and loved it. It also comes down to preference. I got Witcher 3 on Launch, EXP1 on launch too. I finished the main story yesterday and only started the second EXP yesterday too. Easily over 100 hours of playtime just dicking around the map.

        I equated Witcher to NMS a while back:
        “While fundamentally this game is entirely different to something like The Witcher, but I don’t see how, price wise, you can even class these games at the same price point. Witcher has exploration, Inventory management, a solo only play style, hunting/gathering mechanics and even to a degree a market/trading/economic system. Pretty much the only thing NMS has over Witcher is space flight and procedurally generated content. While technically impressive, after a good few jumps even the procedural content begins to get a bit “samey”.”

        I figured NMS was meant to be the standard of exploration, and Witcher, to a degree, fueled that as I found many, MANY things in Witcher’s map. I was sorely dissapointed.

        Reply

        • Pariah

          August 29, 2016 at 13:21

          I understand why you’d compare them. But they’re fundimentally different on many levels. 1) Witcher is a story driven, quest based game that allows you to explore. The core is the story, and the exploration is limited to that. No Man’s Sky is about exploring for exploring’s sake. No direction, no goal. Just curiosity. Yes, there could easily be more to it, mechanically and gameplay-wise, but it’s totally different to Witcher.

          Further to that – No Man’s Sky was a small indie developer. What they COULD achieve in the given time frame is significantly less than CDPR – a 200+ strong team and an independent AAA developer. The realms of what is possible from either team is so different you cannot begin to compare. And while Witcher has a target, it has confines, No Man’s Sky attempted to remove those – for exploration anyway. It was a tall ask, especially for such a small team. Technically they nailed it. But as for content – they have a lot to learn. But this is their first big game. Their first. Witcher had 2 full games before it from which to draw inspiration, direction, and lessons hard learned.

          So all I’m saying is be fair. Compare apples to apples. You may still find some unripe apples from Hello Games, but if one sees it for what it is, one might not be so harsh. Comparing the row boat startup to the cargo ship manufacturer is bound to leave some sour tastes.

          Reply

  7. Peter Pan

    August 29, 2016 at 16:34

    They earned every penny of that fortune! Any they don’t even have copy protected games in their DNA!!!! I am so hyped for Cyperpunk 2077! Gwent never really interested me in The Witcher 3!

    Reply

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