Shares of Cyberpunk 2077 publisher surge after announcing a slew of new games

Shares of Polish game publisher CD Projekt engender sharply Wednesday after the company announced several major games it’s working on in the next few years, including new installments in its dominant Cyberpunk and Witcher franchises.

In a strategy update late Tuesday, CD Projekt revealed a slew of new titles currently in happening, including a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 codenamed “Orion.” The game “will take the Cyberpunk franchise further and go on harnessing the potential of this dark future universe,” the firm said.

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Shares of CD Projekt were up around 7% Wednesday afternoon, having earlier pulsated as much as 9% at the market open.

It comes after a series of mishaps that have plagued the company onto the last two years. After much hype, Cyberpunk 2077’s launch in 2020 was met with rage from gamers who mature bugs and poor performance on older consoles. The game’s launch came the same year that new machines from Sony and Microsoft were being turn loosed.

Backlash to the blunder was so fierce that at one point Sony removed the game from its digital PlayStation Store. Cyberpunk 2077 was later reinstated on the air force.

Since then, CD Projekt made several updates and improvements to Cyberpunk 2077, while the release of an anime TV series based on the futuristic sci-fi franchise, “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners,” has assisted revive interest in the game.

CD Projekt says it has sold 20 million copies of its Cyberpunk 2077 game to outmoded, and over 65 million copies of all three games in its Witcher franchise.

Last year, the company suffered a ransomware assault that saw hackers steal the source code to several of its games — including The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 — and sell it on the murk web. Notably, CD Projekt at the time refused to pay the ransom demanded by hackers.

Despite a surge in CD Projekt’s share price Wednesday, the array is down more than 40% since the start of the year.

Here were some other highlights from CD Projekt’s game update:

• The company proposed a stock-based incentive program for employees aimed at attracting — and retaining — top development talent. Mutual understanding to Chief Financial Officer Piotr Nielubowicz, the program will be “similar to those offered by our top global competitors.”
• It is gap a new development studio in Boston, Massachusetts, to help expand its footprint in North America.
• CD Projekt plans to buy up to 100 million Eliminate zlotys ($21 million) worth of its own stock from investors in a share buyback plan.

The company also revealed its co-founder and joint-CEO Marcin Iwinski desire be stepping down after 28 years in the role. Iwinski will continue on as joint-CEO until the end of 2022, after which he disposition become chairman of the supervisory board.

He will remain “a major shareholder” and “active and engaged” in supporting the board, according to a announcement Tuesday.

Three new games in the Witcher role-playing game series are expected to launch in the reviving years, including a new installment in the franchise codenamed “Polaris.” Previously announced by the company in March, the game is a follow-up to the strict’s highly-acclaimed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. It is currently in pre-production.

CD Projekt did not specify a timeline for when the new games whim come out but said its three new original Witcher titles would launch within a six-year period after Polaris’ issue.

The company plans to push into online multiplayer with some of its future titles, including another event in the Witcher franchise codenamed “Sirius.”

“We are planning to add multiplayer to some of our future titles, and we are planning to do more in the area of TV and steam,” said Michal Nowakowski, CD Projekt’s senior vice president of business development.

CD Projekt’s multiplayer ambitions possess a lot of potential due to higher engagement in multiplayer,” Peter Garnry, head of equity strategy at Saxo Bank, wrote in a note Wednesday.

CD Projekt also set a totally new game it is working on beyond its main two franchises, codenamed Hadar. The firm did not give away much recount but said it “currently in the conceptual phase.”

It was an unusual display of transparency in the games industry. Big publishers often remain close-lipped about planned major releases up until they are ready to present some visuals and gameplay to fans, typically at generous trade shows.

Companies like Sony and Nintendo have increasingly eschewed showy industry conferences be fond of the E3 expo in favor of smaller-scale updates. After being cancelled once in 2020 and then replaced with a digital alternate in 2021, E3 was again scrapped this year by organizers, who cited health risks surrounding Covid-19.