Post
The Polish studio that turned a national epic into a global RPG empire, then learned the cost of overpromising.
Founded in 2002 as a development arm of Polish CD distributor CD Projekt, CDPR adapted Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher novels into the 2007 game and built a global following with The Witcher 2 (2011) and especially The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015) — 50M+ copies sold and one of the most-awarded RPGs ever made. Cyberpunk 2077 (2020) launched in catastrophic condition on last-gen consoles, triggering refunds, lawsuits, and a 3-year recovery campaign. The Phantom Liberty expansion (2023) and 2.0 patch restored the franchise's reputation. Now pivoting from REDengine to Unreal Engine 5 for The Witcher 4.
Example
Cyberpunk 2077's launch was so broken on PS4 that Sony pulled the game from the PlayStation Store for six months — a near-unprecedented action against a major publisher. CDPR's stock dropped ~75% from peak.
Why it matters
CDPR is the cautionary case study for AAA marketing-vs-development misalignment, and the redemption case study for sustained post-launch commitment. The full arc — Witcher 3 hype, Cyberpunk catastrophe, Phantom Liberty redemption — is the most-cited modern example of how reputation in gaming is gained and lost.
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