CD Projekt Red co-CEO admits Cyberpunk 2077's launch permanently cost the studio some fans

CD Projekt Red co-CEO Michał Nowakowski says the studio still hasn't fully recovered from Cyberpunk 2077's catastrophic 2020 launch — and may never win back everyone it lost. Speaking to Edge magazine's Knowledge newsletter at DevGAMM Gdańsk, Nowakowski was blunt: "I'm not 100 percent convinced we went through the full redemption arc. I'm convinced that we lost the faith of some people indefinitely, and that's a fair thing. But I do hope we will be able to make it back — if not with The Witcher 4, then with whatever comes next."

The launch was genuinely unprecedented in its fallout. Sony pulled Cyberpunk 2077 from the PlayStation Store entirely, offered refunds beyond the standard two-hour limit, and investors considered suing CDPR for "materially misleading information." The studio's share price collapsed and its reputation — which Nowakowski calls its "biggest asset" — took a serious hit. The turnaround came slowly: the 2.0 patch and Phantom Liberty expansion eventually pushed the game to a 95% positive rating across 7,000+ Steam reviews, a milestone associate game director Paweł Sasko said he "always believed" in but "never thought he would actually see."

Nowakowski says the ordeal did leave CDPR with something valuable: "seasoned, battle-hardened veterans; leaders who were able to carry a different kind of challenge on their shoulders." That experience is part of what allowed the studio to expand into a multi-project operation, with The Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk 2 both in production alongside the mysterious Project Hadar. Still, Nowakowski is clear the goal isn't volume — CDPR has a rough ten-year rolling plan but has no intention of flooding the market. "We never want to turn into the studio that's going to be launching a big game every year," he said.

The Witcher 4 remains undated, with late 2027 the earliest realistic window and 2028 looking more likely to many observers. Cyberpunk 2 may not arrive until 2030. In the meantime, The Witcher 3 is getting a third expansion — Songs of the Past, developed by The Thaumaturge studio Fool's Theory — due next year and reportedly comparable in scope to Blood & Wine. Whether The Witcher 4's launch is the moment CDPR finally closes the loop on its redemption arc remains the big open question.