The Success Story of CD Projekt Red, Which Sold Pirated Games When First Established (2/2)
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However, their sadness did not stop them and in 2002 they opened a game studio under the name "CD Projekt Red".
CD Projekt has not given up on the dream of making its own games despite the financial difficulties it has experienced. The studio's first project was "The Witcher", a game based on the books by Andrzej Sapkowski.
This game required CD Projekt Red to overcome many challenges, such as developing its own game engine, negotiating licensing deals and expanding into international markets. However, the company was already familiar with these issues from the process of developing Baldur's Gate.
The Witcher was released in 2007 and received critical acclaim. The game featured a dark and adult atmosphere, a rich story, a complex character development system, and gameplay in which choices have important consequences.
The game sold more than 1 million copies, making CD Projekt Red internationally recognised and, as you may know, paving the way for the start of the legendary game series. It was also during this time that the company established its own digital sales platform, Good Old Games (GOG), in 2008.
CD Projekt Red took a big risk with Cyberpunk 2077 and ran into unexpected problems.
CD Projekt Red started working on a new IP (intellectual property) following The Witcher series. This IP was Cyberpunk 2077, a science fiction game inspired by a tabletop role-playing game called Cyberpunk 2020.
This board game was set in the year 2020 in a fictional metropolis called Night City. Players created their own characters to explore different parts of the city, perform various missions, and use weapons, cyber equipment, or vehicles to influence the course of the story. In fact, this was the role-playing game Cyberpunk 2077 wanted to make.
Cyberpunk 2077 was CD Projekt Red's biggest and most ambitious project.
It was announced in 2012 and the first gameplay video was released in 2018. This gameplay video promised outstanding graphics quality, a detailed world design, a living world, an immersive story, and a free gameplay where you can role-play just like in a board game.
It was eagerly awaited by both Witcher fans and sci-fi fans. CD Projekt Red, fuelling the excitement of the players even more, even brought Keanu Reeves to the game.
However, the development process of the game was much more challenging and longer than expected. The game was delayed many times and the developers were under the stress of overwork. But the company still continued to advertise and release videos talking about the features that would be in the game.
Finally, Cyberpunk 2077 was released in December 2020. However, the game was full of serious problems, especially on older generation consoles. In addition, most of the features described in the advertisements were not in the game, so they received a big lynching from players on social media.
CD Projekt Red apologised for the state of the game and said that it will work hard to fix both the game and its lack of trust with players.
For 3 years, he constantly brought updates to the game. Each update was pages long. Finally, the game received the "Ultimate Edition" with the Phantom Liberty DLC and the free 2.0 update.
Also during this period, an anime called "Cyberpunk: Edgerunners" anime was also made on Netflix. The anime was very popular with the viewers and revitalised the game during its release.
What do you think about CD Projekt Red? Has it regained your trust? Do you think it will become one of the most talked about companies again with its new Witcher series? We are waiting for your comments.
