- CD Projekt Red becomes Europe’s most valuable gaming company
- “Cyberpunk 2077” will be released on September, 17
The producer of “The Witcher” and the upcoming “Cyberpunk 2077” has surpassed French Ubisoft, becoming the largest game producer in Europe in terms of market value. The market capitalization of CD Projekt has just exceeded 38 billion Polish złoty, just over 8 billion euros. Also, the company is the most valuable company in Poland after PKO Bank Polski’s shares dropped as much as 36 percent due to the coronavirus crisis.
Warsaw Stock Exchange
It means that if on January 1, 2013, you had bought 100 shares of the Polish game producer for 664 złoty (148 euros), today you would have 40,580 złoty (around 9,000 euros) by selling them which estimates the profit at nearly 8,000 percent. Maybe you did?:)
Known for the “Assassins’ Creed” and “Far Cry” game series, Ubisoft at the moment of writing the article, sell shares for 71.32 euros each.
Euronext Paris Stock Exchange
This situation is extraordinary because Ubisoft is a real tycoon in the world of video games. The company has offices in 20 countries and employs almost 16,000 people. For comparison, CD Projekt has just over 1,100 people on the payroll.
Maciej Kuc, Head of Communications at G2A, told ITKeyMedia, ‘It’s been fantastic to see a global company with Polish roots, drive innovation within the industry, winning all possible prizes, and… gamers’ hearts all around the world. It’s truly an exciting time for the Polish gaming industry.’
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The game-changing Witcher
Becoming the highest-valued video game producer in Europe is an incredible result for the Polish company. The firm was founded in 1994 by two friends from school: Michał Kiciński and Marcin Iwiński. Initially, the company was dealing mainly with game distribution from the USA to the Polish market. But soon they realized that they can produce and sell their own products.
It was “The Witcher” who made CD Projekt a global brand. The first game released in 2007 has not gained much publicity, yet “The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings” was the true hit with avid gamers all over the world.
“The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt” started its own popularity hunt in 2015. Within just two weeks of the premiere, CD Projekt sold 4 million copies of “The Witcher 3”, and the cost of game production returned on the first day of sale. In July 2019, the developers reported that the global sales of “The Witcher 3” exceeded 20 million copies.
Cyberpunk 2077 is just around the corner.
Keanu Reeves, Cyberpunk 2077 Actor, unveils the release date at the Xbox E3 2019 Briefing at the Microsoft Theater at L.A. June 9, 2019, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Casey Rodgers/Invision for Xbox/AP Images)
CD Projekt is about to release a new product. The game was announced seven years ago, and it wasn’t until 2018 that the creators broke the silence. In 2019, it was announced that the role of one of the main characters of the game will be played by the icon Hollywood actor Keanu Reeves. Keanu liked the game so much, he asked to double his character screen time. A few hours after the pre-sale of “Cyberpunk 2077” started, it jumped to the top of the Steam bestseller list.
In late 2019, Bloomberg analysts predicted that in 2020 CD Projekt could sell up to 20 million copies of Cyberpunk 2077. These forecasts have to be updated since in January the company announced the postponement of the game’s release from April 16 to September 17, 2020.
There is another event related to the game premier that is scheduled for June 11, 2020, Night City Wire. Yet no details have been revealed regarding the event, ‘The whole formula of the event is treated as a surprise, so there is nothing we can share at the moment,’ Marek Bugdoł, Investor Relations Specialist at CD Projekt, told ITKeyMedia.
Supposedly, the sales of “The Witcher” have increased considerably during the quarantine. However, the company informed us that they are not ready to disclose the details just yet. Stay tuned for more information.
