CD Projekt Red CEO ‘not convinced’ its redemption arc is finished

While CD Projekt Red may have rebuilt much of its reputation with the turnaround of Cyberpunk 2077 in 2022 and 2023, the studio's co-CEO, Michał Nowakowski, believes there is still more work to do to restore the studio's reputation.

Speaking with Knowledge, a video games industry newsletter published by Edge, joint CEO Michał Nowakowski reflected on the years following Cyberpunk’s troubled launch, calling the period “heartbreaking” after building up such a solid reputation amongst gamers with The Witcher 2 and The Witcher 3. While many fans say CDPR redeemed themselves with Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty expansion in 2023, Nowakowski is unconvinced, saying: “I'm not 100 percent convinced we went through the full redemption arc”.

Nowakowski believes that CDPR “lost the faith of some people indefinitely”, but added that he hopes the studio can make it up to those people with The Witcher 4 and whatever comes after that.

The Witcher 4 has been in development for a few years already and has quickly accelerated towards full production. However, the game is not expected to release until 2028. At the same time, CD Projekt Red also has another studio based in the US working on Cyberpunk 2. The Witcher 4 team will immediately move from The Witcher 4 to a Witcher 5 as part of a new trilogy focused on Ciri rather than Geralt.

KitGuru Says: As incredible as Cyberpunk 2077 is now, the first two hours or so of the game still remain largely the same today as they did in 2020. To me, that portion of the game has always been the most disappointing, but everything that comes after that is some of CDPR's best-ever work.

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