CD Projekt Red have delivered their earnings for the quarter ending March 31, 2021, and it was a bit of a dismal report for the Polish developer. Profits were down 65 percent year-on-year as both Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3 sales have slowed and further investment has been required to get the former up to snuff following a disastrous launch. On that subject, during their earnings call, CDPR provided a bit of an update on Cyberpunk returning to the PlayStation Store. Previously, they had simply said it was Sony’s call, making it sound like it could potentially happen any time. Today, they clarified that there are actually set metrics that need to hit before Cyberpunk can return to PlayStation, and it sounds like CDPR is still some ways from achieving them.
I cannot go deep into the set of metrics or how the conversation is progressing, this has to remain at the discretion of PlayStation [and] ourselves, but yes, there is some sort of metrics, let’s put it like that. […] There is a process, we’re in the middle of that process and there’s conversations happening. The decision will be announced when it’s ready to be announced.
CDPR did provide a rough chart showing the overall decline in Cyberpunk 2077 crashes as various patches and hotfixes have been released, but it’s clear the game still has some distance to go.
CDPR also provided an update on what’s currently keeping the studio busy. Previously, they had announced plans to begin development on multiple new AAA titles in parallel, but now say that won’t get going until 2022 at least, as the majority of the team is still working on getting Cyberpunk up to snuff…
As we announced during the strategy update, we are planning to start AAA development from 2022. This is a year of transformation, there is much more work [to be done] on Cyberpunk. A big part of the team is still working on Cyberpunk, but definitely there are teams preparing future unannounced projects. I would say 1/3 of the Cyberpunk team […] is working on an unannounced thing, but it’s not like we’re in parallel AAA development. […] Nearly half of Cyberpunk team continue working on Cyberpunk itself and [the] next-gen edition. Then we have teams preparing work on unannounced AAA lines.
Cyberpunk 2077 is out now on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and Stadia, although as mentioned, the game is not currently available to purchase digitally on PlayStation consoles. The Witcher 3 is available on PC, Xbox One, PS4, and Switch, and playable via backward compatibility on Xbox Series X/S and PS5. Next-gen console versions of both games should arrive later this year.
