CD Projekt Red, the developer behind The Witcher 4, says it still hasn’t reached its “complete redemption arc” after the disastrous 2020 release of the open-world action-adventure game, Cyberpunk 2077.
Its debut was fraught with issues to the point that CD Projekt investors considered taking legal steps against the studio over “materially misleading information.” Sony also ended up issuing refunds to players who were unhappy with how Cyberpunk 2077 performed on PS4, with some refunds going beyond the standard two-hour playtime window—before the company removed the game from sale soon after launch.
In a recent conversation with Edge’s Knowledge newsletter, co-CEO Michał Nowakowski described the aftermath as “heartbreaking,” noting that the studio’s reputation had been its “greatest asset.”
“I’m not sure we’ve fully completed the redemption arc,” Nowakowski remarked. “I’m convinced that we’ve permanently lost the confidence of certain people, and that’s a valid worry. Still, I truly hope we’ll be able to earn back that trust—whether that comes with The Witcher 4, or with whatever we release next.”
He added, “What remained were seasoned, toughened veterans—along with executives ready to meet a different kind of challenge.” “Our goal is to make more games, but we never want to transform into a team that puts out a major release every single year.”
Nowakowski further explained: “It could happen, but that’s not what we’re trying to do. We work with a rough ten-year rolling plan, though the intention isn’t to flood the market with CDPR releases. We simply want to create genuinely thrilling games, and we also don’t want to accumulate a large number of IPs. We’re not looking to grow in that way.”
Since then, the studio has focused on making major improvements, so much so that one month after the release of its Phantom Liberty DLC, 95 percent of the more than 7,000 reviews submitted were positive. Associate game director Paweł Sasko said he “always believed” that outcome was possible, even if he “never thought [he] would actually witness” it.