When CD Projekt Red struck a deal with Polish fantasy author Andrezej Sapkowski to use his Witcher character in PC games, they’d struck gold. They just didn’t know it yet. In the company’s most recent earnings report, though, it’s pretty tough to miss. Geralt of Rivia has done a ton of work to make the company what it is today. In that report, the company revealed that the sales of the final game in the series, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, has pulled in over $253 million since launch, or about 1 billion Polish Zloty. Meanwhile, the Witcher series has sold over 25 million copies since the first game released back in fall of 2008.
The company’s 2016 revenues saw a 25 percent drop compared to 2015, the year The Witcher 3 released. That demonstrates just how well The Witcher 3 has continued to sell and how successful the Blood and Wine expansion ended up being for the studio as well.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it
“These excellent financial results for the past two years enable us to pursue new, ambitious undertakings and further expand our enterprise,” said CD Projekt’s Piotr Nielubowicz, the Vice President for Financial Affairs, reiterating the continued development of both Cyberpunk 2077 and GWENT: The Witcher Card Game.
The company spent just under $16 million in development costs so far, but is looking at about $52 million in positive cash flow. Aside from development on GWENT and Cyberpunk 2077, the company is organizing the first major tournament for their Witcher-based card game, and it hopes to continue expanding the Witcher brand beyond that of things with Geralt’s face on them. That’s not a promise of another Witcher game necessarily, but it leaves the door wide open for the possibility. Can we get a Ciri game?
“A trilogy cannot have a fourth part,” said a CD Projekt exec during a Q&A briefing after the initial report, according to Gamespot. “We like this world a lot. We invested 15 years of our lives and a lot of money. So, we’ll think about [making a fourth Witcher game].”
All of this, though, reaffirms the company’s philosophy of focusing on a few good properties and supporting them well rather than throwing money at anything that looks like might stick. In other words, don’t expect CD Projekt to suddenly announce a bunch more Projekts before the release of Cyberpunk 2077, regardless of when that ends up being.
GWENT: The Witcher Card Game, however, is set for a retail release in the second half of this year.
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