On Monday afternoon CD Project published financial results for the first quarter of 2021. To say that the results disappointed is not to say anything. The company only noted PLN 32.5 million consolidated net profit, while analysts expected a profit of approx PLN 91 million.
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The lower than usual net profitability is the result of, among others continuation of the depreciation of the production costs of Cyberpunk 2077, work on updates to the game and ongoing research work related to subsequent projects. The expenses are included directly in the costs of the current period and are not capitalized
– explained Piotr Nielubowicz, vice-president of the management board of CD PROJEKT for financial matters.
At this point, it is worth recalling that in April, the company boasted a record result for 2019 (PLN 1.15 billion of net profit!). CD Projekt then decided on payment of dividends in heights PLN 500 million, and the company’s management board paid itself generous bonuses of PLN 106 million.
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CD Projekt shows the results. The nervous reaction of the stock exchange
There could be only one reaction to the published quarterly results. On Tuesday, during the opening of the session on the WSE, the shares of the Polish game producer lost almost 8 percent. At 09:10 CD Projekt’s shares were valued at PLN 156. For comparison, in November last year, at their peak, they were worth more than 450 PLN, So we are talking about a threefold decline in value in just six months.
Cyberpunk 2077 the source of problems
The increasingly difficult situation of CD Projekt is primarily an effect problems with Cyberpunk 2077, which premiered last December. Although the game initially received excellent reviews, it quickly turned out that its version for PS4 and Xbox One was in a terrible condition. As a result, it was withdrawn from the PlayStation Store for an indefinite period.
In December 2019, both Sony and Microsoft also started a campaign in which money was returned to dissatisfied players for the purchase of Cyberpunk 2077. Similar activities were also carried out by CD Projekt itself as part of the “Help Me Refund Cyberpunk 2077” initiative.
Why the problems with Cyberpunk 2077 were not reflected in last year’s results? This is the result of huge interest in the game before its premiere. CD Projekt earned a lot money the preorderach. As a result, just a day after the premiere, CDR informedthat all the costs associated with the production and promotion of Cyberpunk 2077 have already paid off.
Unfortunately – in the end – the “bad reputation” currently enjoyed by Cyberpunk 2077 caught up with the game’s developers. From the end of December last year a progressive decline in interest in this production is visibleas shown, among others, by statistics provided by the Steam platform – the largest digital game store.
Cyberpunk 2077 Steam Charts
In the first days after the premiere Cyberpunk 2077 hit on Steamie any records. At its peak, the game was launched simultaneously by over 830,000. an absolute record among single-player games and the fourth all-time score of all games on Steam.
Later, however, it was much worse. Earlier this year, the media reported that the game lost over 80 percent of players on Steam, which is an overwhelming result. In turn, in March it turned out that Cyberpunk 2077 is already played by fewer people than … in The Witcher 3.
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