What you need to know
- Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty is an expansion that launched back in September 2023.
- As part of the company’s Q3 2023 results, CD Projekt shared that Phantom Liberty reached 4.3 million copies sold.
- Developer CD Projekt RED is now allocating the majority of its developers to work on the next Witcher game, which is meant to kick off a trilogy.
- Across internal development teams and external partners, CD Projekt RED is also working on a remake of the first Witcher game and a stylized Witcher spinoff.
The resurgence of Cyberpunk 2077 continues.
CD Projekt shared its Q3 2023 financial results on Tuesday, revealing that Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty has sold 4.3 million copies so far, which helped contribute to the best Q3 period in the company’s history. This is up from 3 million copies sold, which was the milestone the expansion reached just days after launch.
The publisher says this is a 20% attach rate, math that seems to check out when accounting for the fact that the expansion isn’t available on the Xbox One or PlayStation 4 versions of Cyberpunk 2077. Additionally, CD Projekt RED reported profitability of 51.1% for the quarter.
In my review of Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, I wrote “The storyline is gripping from the beginning, and integrates naturally into the main path of the base game. Protagonist V is drawn into cloak-and-dagger wetwork with a compelling cast of characters, all of which have their own agendas. This synergizes with the free 2.0 update, which brings a heavy rework to the perks, improved police chases, a new system for Cyberware, and more.”
What’s next for CD Projekt RED?
With Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty available now on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PS5, CD Projekt RED is working on shipping an ultimate physical edition of the game. Outside of that, the largest team at the company is now working on the next Witcher game, codenamed Polaris. Not much is known about the title, but it’s being developed with Unreal Engine 5 and is meant to be the first game in a new trilogy.
At internal studio The Molasses Flood, work is continuing on another spinoff in the Witcher franchise, though the team restarted development after being hit with layoffs earlier in the year. CD Projekt RED has also partnered with an external developer, Fool’s Theory, to create a remake of the first Witcher game using Unreal Engine 5.
Analysis: Going dark for a bit
Outside of continued sales milestones for already-released games, I expect it’ll be a little while before we hear anything from CD Projekt RED about the next Witcher game, though I do expect it’ll be the next project we hear about, considering how work on the remake seems to be extremely early and the spinoff from The Molasses Flood was recently rebooted.
For Cyberpunk 2077, its comeback now seems drawn in iron, and sales from Phantom Liberty and the Ultimate Edition of the game should help keep the company steady over the next year or so.
