Cyberpunk 2077 wasn’t a flop, but it certainly disrupted CD Projekt’s forward momentum, delaying Cyberpunk DLC in favor of a fix and hurting the stock price. We learned last week that the punk launch amnesty is not part of a long-term downsizing. If anything, CD Projekt’s ambitions have doubled. The company says it will create a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 and in just six years he will release three new witcher RPGs and create new games set in new worlds.
At the same time, co-CEO Marcin Iwiński said he was stepping down and taking on a new role on CD Projekt’s supervisory board. These announcements inevitably led to speculation that CD Projekt might be an acquisition target. In theory, its hyper-ambitious roadmap is either an attempt to attract large investors, or a way to discourage acquisitions by raising its share price.
With all the game studio shopping that big companies like Microsoft have done, it feels like anything is possible, says Rhys Elliott, an industry analyst who works for a game research firm. newzoo (opens in new tab)I don’t think CD Projekt’s bold roadmap justifies any immediate conclusions about current or future ownership.
“The broad roadmap is not a clear sign that the company is anticipating an acquisition, and we don’t want to speculate about the possibility of CD Projekt being acquired,” Elliott told PC Gamer.
According to Elliott, midsize developers typically have ambitious internal roadmaps with the goal of predicting revenue and setting deadlines. What’s atypical is telling the world about these roadmaps, like CD Projekt does. Elliott believes the company realized its rising status, especially after the success of his Cyberpunk: Edgerunners on Netflix, and wanted to capture that moment.
“If [CD Projekt] Had CD Projekt published this roadmap before revising the state of Cyberpunk 2077, there would have been an outcry from the public and investors, further fueling negative sentiment towards the company.” says Elliott. We hope to harness that sentiment and build on it to completely change the negative narrative. The stock market has also responded positively to the announcement.”
This is music for investors’ ears.
Rhys Elliott, Newzoo
CD Projekt’s stock is up about 28% over the past month. Elliott announced that investors will be announcing an unlicensed game (one game wholly owned by CD Projekt, unlike the Cyberpunk and Witcher games) and that CD Projekt will switch to Unreal Engine 5 this year. I think you particularly appreciated the news at the beginning of the .
“The company wants to learn from its mistakes, double down on its most successful strategies, and let everyone know it has more projects in its pipeline,” says Elliott. “This is music for investors’ ears.”
Another analyst, David Cole’s DFC Intelligence (opens in new tab)had similar prospects.
“In my view, this announcement was made to give current and potential investors confidence that there are many exciting things afoot,” Cole said.
But could any of these potential investors be eyeing a controlling stake in the company? Elliott says both Tencent and Savvy Games Group want big acquisitions in Europe. I am noticing what you are saying.
Saudi Arabia-funded Savvy Games Group has explicitly said it is interested in spending $13 billion on “major game publishers.” CD Projekt won’t cost him $13 billion, but the fund may be planning multiple acquisitions. It wouldn’t be too hard to imagine CD Projekt instead being under the Xbox banner, going through Embracer’s adoption, or becoming a Sony studio, but none of those scenarios would make us It’s not a rumor you’re hearing. In fact, the only other co-CEO Adam Kiciński has heard about this topic recently. 2021 interview (opens in new tab): “For years we have repeatedly said that we will remain independent and will not be part of a larger organization.” (Machine-translated from Polish by Google.)
We haven’t seen Microsoft’s Bethesda or Activision Blizzard acquisitions, so we’re not ruling out anything, but analysts don’t think continuing game announcements will be enough. The fuel for this is CD Projekt’s declining stock price (which has been rising in the short term, but has been declining since 2020) and the fact that a number of gaming companies have been acquired recently.
Currently, CD Projekt’s largest single shareholder is co-CEO Marcin Iwiński, who owns 12.78% of the company. Another CEO, Adam Kiciński, owns 4.02% of him. Other major private owners are Michał Kiciński and Piotr Nielubowicz. The remaining 66.04% of his shares are listed.
