CD Projekt RED faces serious financial challenges, as development costs for The Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk 2077 sequel are forcing the studio into a dangerous niche. BioWare veteran Mark Darrah warns CDPR is now in the ‘big league,’ with 15-20 million copies of the game being the minimum just to turn a profit. So there is a lot of pressure on the studio, while they prepare the final version of their next big releases.
Mark Darrah highlights the financial risks facing CD Projekt RED’s upcoming titles
Darrah, former executive producer of Anthem, observes that there is not much room for mistakes in the modern economics of AAA games development. If there are minor glitches in the operation, 500 people can easily be a month behind in the development. Which means immediate additional 5-10 million in the project budget. This is a crucial value when you need millions of units sold to make a profit.
There are two tiers in the industry right now. Only a few games, such as GTA VI, can afford such huge budgets. CDPR has to carefully navigate this divide and not find itself in financial distress. On the other hand, Darrah is hopeful about the small studios such as Sandfall Interactive, who use outsourcing in clever ways, to keep budgets low and flexibility high.
We wrote about CD Projekt RED moving the development of Cyberpunk 2 into 1-4 week sprints, after the failure at the launch. They are trying to stabilize their workflow. This is a fundamental change in their structure, that they’re using in order to reduce some of the risks that Darrah mentions. The question is, if the changes inside of the studio are going to be enough to hit those 15-20 million copies sold mark, that they need for profit, with their next releases.
Source: IXBT
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