CD Projekt Spent Roughly $125 Million Turning Cyberpunk 2077 Around Post-Launch
CD Projekt spent $125 million on Cyberpunk 2077 post-launch, repairing the game's reputation with the Edgerunners and Update 2.0 patches alongside the well-received Phantom Liberty expansion.
CD Projekt announced on October 5 that the expansion starring Idris Elba cost a hefty 275 million Polish Zloty (around $62.7 million) to develop and approximately 95 million Polish Zloty (around $21.6 million) to market.
Chief financial officer Piotr Nielubowicz also said during the CD Projekt Investor Day presentation that bringing Cyberpunk up to next-gen console standards, presumably including the game-changing Update 2.0, cost 178 million Polish Zloty (around $40.9 million).
The three figures together, combining the cost of Phantom Liberty with the amount spent bringing Cyberpunk 2077 back from its poor state at launch, total 546 million Polish Zloty, so around $125.9 million.
Cyberpunk 2077 itself cost 1.2 billion Polish Zloty, or around $316 million at the time. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt comparatively cost 306 million Polish Zloty, around $81 million at the time, though with inflation comes closer to $105 million.
Comparisons from beyond CD Projekt come from the Xbox versus Federal Trade Commission trial in June 2023, where poorly redacted documents revealed The Last of Us Part 2 cost $200 million to make while Horizon: Forbidden West cost $212.
Despite the hefty cost of turning things around, CD Projekt has arguably pulled off one of the biggest turnaround stories in video game history with Cyberpunk 2077. Launching in such a poor state the game was delisted from the PlayStation Store, Cyberpunk now has a "Very Positive" rating on PC platform Steam with 87% of users recommending it.
CD Projekt's Investor Day also saw the announcement
Read more on ign.com
