The key points of CD Projekt’s strategy are the announcement of the parallel production of two games from 2022 and a more gradual approach to the multiplayer mode of “Cyberpunk” – experts assess. They praise the management’s cautious approach, but point out that there was no information that would change the current perception of the company. They positively assess the acquisition of studies in Canada.
“CD Projekt decided to take a step back, not to promise, not to raise hope, and to surprise rather than disappoint. The only facts that we heard were the resignation from ‘Cyberpunk’ multiplayer as a separate product in favor of extending the single-player version with an option. multiplayer gameplay. The question arises about the monetization of this functionality “- wrote Maciej Kietliński, an analyst at Noble Securites in a commentary for PAP Biznes.
“We also know that the company is working on a paid addition to Cyberpunk and from 2022 it will be able to work on two AAA projects and their additions simultaneously” – he added.
According to Michał Wojciechowski from Ipopema Securities, the announcement of parallel work on the production of two large games from 2022 means the start of production of another game from the “The Witcher” series next year.
According to the analyst, the real date of the game’s release is 2026. According to Wojciechowski, the market consensus assumes the premiere of another game in 2024 or 2025, which seems to be a very ambitious goal.
The analyst believes that the market expectations for the company’s future productions were set too high and the consensus will decline again, mainly due to the smaller scale of “Cyberpunk 2077” in the multiplayer version and the relatively late start of production of the next game. At the same time, he believes that the cautious approach of the management board and focusing only on 2021 is the right thing to do.
According to Paweł Sugalski, managing Rockbridge TFI, there is no factor in CD Projekt’s strategy that would allow for a change in the perception of the company. He pointed out that the version of “CP 2077” for next-gen consoles, planned for the second half of this year, will probably not appear until December, around Christmas.
“Only then will there be a new opening, new reviews, etc. Until then there are no significant events,” he said.
In the opinion of the manager, a breakthrough was also not the set of patches to “Cyberpunk 2077”, released on Monday.
“The patch was received better than the previous patches, the ratings on Steam are rising, but still not good. There is also no increase in sales – it seems that who was supposed to buy the game has already bought it, and the rest are waiting for something else, e.g. version for new consoles “- he said.
As reported by CD Projekt in the strategy update published on Tuesday, in 2021 the studio intends to focus on further patches and updates to “Cyberpunk 2077” and free add-ons (DLC) to the game. The release of a special version for the latest generation of PlayStation and Xbox consoles is planned for the second half of the year.
The studio also presented plans for this year related to the “Wiedźmin” brand: the release of the game for mobile devices “The Witcher: Monster Slayer”, the development of “Gwent” and the release (in the second half of the year) of the “The Witcher 3” version for new consoles. The presentation stated that so far the company has sold over 50 million games from the “The Witcher” series.
The management of CD Projekt is also working on adding multiplayer game elements to “Cyberpunk 2077”, and not – as previously announced – creating a separate, large version of the game with this mode. According to Paweł Sugalski, a more cautious approach is a good decision, but he adds that the details of the works remain unclear.
“You can see that the company does not want to spend a lot of money on one product – rather, it will be a gradual market research, similar to the case of ‘Gwent’. However, it is hard to imagine in the case of multiplayer mode. In single player you can make a demo and test the product. This is a big question mark “- Biznes Sugalski told PAP.
“For several months now, however, I have been saying that multiplayer is the most risky project that does not necessarily have to pay off, so I appreciate that the management made this decision. The direction is good, but it is a pity that there are no details,” he added.
Experts positively evaluate the planned acquisition of the Canadian Digital Scapes studio by CD Projekt. At the same time, they emphasize that the acquired company is small and will rather constitute a bridgehead for the group’s development abroad.
On Tuesday, CD Projekt signed a letter of intent with Digital Scapes specifying the conditions under which it will buy a development studio from Vancouver. Both companies have been working closely together since 2018.
Paweł Sugalski believes that the acquisition may allow CD Projekt to maintain the number of employees this year after some of them leave the studio.
“In my opinion, CD Projekt will have a big problem with retaining employees this year. The key will be to keep people who will receive shares from the incentive program” – said the manager.
Sugalski pointed out that the Canadian studio has so far dealt with multiplayer games and you can guess that this will also be his task in the CD Projekt group. The manager believes that perhaps a team from Canada will work on a multiplayer game in the “Witcher” universe. The creation of such a title would be – according to him – very good news.
“It could be the black horse of this strategy,” he said.
The interlocutors of PAP Biznes agreed that the “Cyberpunk 2077” sales data were the great absentee of the Tuesday presentation. The last information about the sale was announced on December 22nd. They showed that by December 20, over 13 million copies of the game had been sold.
“Unfortunately, this shows that the company has nothing to boast about. I read it that sales have not yet reached the round of 15 million copies. However, I would prefer even a smaller number to be given, and not to hide the data. This is especially important in the context of the recent of the M Science report, which said that 0.5 million copies of the game were sold digitally in March, “Sugalski said.
“The market may be negatively affected by the lack of information on the current sales of Cyberpunk, but such comments ahead of the year’s results would be unwise in our opinion as they could lead to an excessive increase in expectations. It is safer to present this data together with the full picture of financial results.” – assessed Michał Wojciechowski.
Sugalski also pointed to the lack of details regarding the potential dividend in the strategy. The company only announced that it would “deliberately” share profits with shareholders.
According to the managing director, the positive news is confirmation by a member of the CD Projekt management board, Michał Nowakowski, during the Tuesday teleconference of work on paid add-ons to “Cyberpunk”. The company did not inform about them in the strategy.
Łukasz Kucharski (PAP Biznes)
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