CD Projekt Red Now Second Largest Gaming Company in Europe

[Raevenlord]

CD Projekt Red has to be the most renowned games developer in the world, due to its consumer-friendly policies and overall posture when it comes to creating and maintaining their game worlds. The company has always given gamers more than the average company, with free DLCs being delivered throughout the first year of support for a given title (looking at you, The Witcher III: Wild Hunt), and added goodies to packages that from most other companies usually only feature the plastic packaging around the game disk. Their GOG games platform is also one of the most well-established out there, and has helped build the company's image due to its DRM-free approach.

All of this, alongside the fact that The Witcher series has seen a resurgence with the release of the Netflix series, and expectations on their upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 title, have led the company towards tremendous growth, with it now ranking as second largest European gaming company, second only to Ubisoft - and the difference is still tremendous. Ubisoft has around 16,000 employees (as of 2019), and is home to some of the world's most historic franchises, while CD Projekt Red counts more than 900 employees (as of 2018), with that number having certainly increasing in size in preparation for, and in continued development, of the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077.





CD Projekt Red took to Twitter to thank their fans, and added that The Witcher 3 has already accumulated more than $50 million on Steam alone - which means that now, the company takes in 80% of the value of each digital sale through that platform. I, for one, like to see the proverbial "good guys" doing well, and here's hoping for another resounding success in the form of Cyberpunk 2077.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Vayra86]

Hurray. Let's hope they can keep financials in check. Its always a struggle and will always remain so...

Great to see that talent is rewarded by us gaming folk

 

[HD64G]

Much deserved! Let's hope they will keep delivering as they are used to for the last 10 years at least (since Witcher 2).

 

[phanbuey]

SHHH!

Don't tell anyone or EA will try to buy them out.

 

[happita]

Man, that CDPR!!! All I wish is for them to keep to their original ideals and not have their decisions get too heavily influenced by the green.

Keep it gangsta

P.S. Here's hoping more people will recognize how amazing GOG is and if they have a choice, choose to support CDPR as much as possible compared to other platforms.

 

[bug]

And they did it the right way: a few high quality titles, instead of shovelware. I'm glad end users were able to recognize and reward value.

 

[Mr McC]

Great to see the success of a company with a consumer-friendly approach. DRM only hurts the paying customer, much like the telemetry and bloatware forced upon us by Nvidia and Microsoft, but a different business model clearly can work. It is a shame what we are willing to put up with within the PC community.

 

[Joss]

I like Eastern European gaming companies like Bohemia interactive, 4A Games, GOG, etc.
There's a distinctiveness about them (compared to Western counterparts) that's very refreshing.

 

[Kohl Baas]

All I wish is for them to keep to their original ideals

I hope they're not. I remember to their "original ideals". Before all this user friendly and supportive style they were one of the most blood-thirsty anty-piracy developers. Once they even stated that if they see a single copy of Witcher torrented, they will stop supporting at all. Funny to see people forget that so easyly. And of course it's good to se them changed.

I like Eastern European gaming companies like Bohemia interactive, 4A Games, GOG, etc.
There's a distinctiveness about them (compared to Western counterparts) that's very refreshing.

Sweden are also good towards their users.

 

[jeremyshaw]

I hope they're not. I remember to their "original ideals". Before all this user friendly and supportive style they were one of the most blood-thirsty anty-piracy developers. Once they even stated that if they see a single copy of Witcher torrented, they will stop supporting at all. Funny to see people forget that so easyly. And of course it's good to se them changed.

Right, a single developer (as in a single human) makes a comment in a forum = "they (implicitly, the whole company)."

Very cool.

 

[Chomiq]

I guess all that crunch finally paid off.

 

[Diverge]

One of the last good gaming companies... hopefully they don't get bought out or sell out like everyone else...

 

[rtwjunkie]

I hope they're not. I remember to their "original ideals". Before all this user friendly and supportive style they were one of the most blood-thirsty anty-piracy developers. Once they even stated that if they see a single copy of Witcher torrented, they will stop supporting at all. Funny to see people forget that so easyly. And of course it's good to se them changed

And yet when The Witcher was an absolute pile of steaming dung they fixed it completely, and released it again, also providing said game to everyone that had already bought the original bug-ridden mess. That is also the company you are talking about.

I do question your assertion abut CDPR tho, since The Witcher was released in October 2007, and 5 months later in February 2008 they began GOG, a place to buy drm-free games.

Only briefly, early after release of The Witcher 2, did they “go after” pirates. Even then it was not for legal action. They contacted them and asked them to pay, if they liked it. When that disnt go well in forums, and when they saw the version without securom was selling better, they decided from then on to kill the pirates with kindness and quality content.

Pirates Are Misunderstood Customers, Says CD Projekt RED

Owners of the ever-growing digital distribution outlet known for being pro-consumer and anti-DRM, CD Projekt RED talks about operating Good Old Games, bringing in new customers and trying hard to be the complete opposite of everything that Electronic Arts and Microsoft have turned into.

www.cinemablend.com

 

[Gralorn]

And CD Projekt Red makes better games with 900+ people than Ubisoft with 16000. I am not saying that Ubisoft games are bad, but they are worse for me than the CD Projekt Red games by a lot.