CD Projekt joint-CEOs Michał Nowakowski and Adam Badowski have spoken about their lofty ambitions for the company. Speaking to Polish publication XYZ, the duo spoke about wanting to grow beyond just making the “best RPG games in the world.” Rather, they want CD Projekt to be a “global creator of pop culture and entertainment.”
“We used to dream of becoming a producer of the best RPG games in the world,” said Nowakowski (translated through Firefox). “Over time, we realized that it can only become one very short after the game was released. The previous success cannot define us, because it does not guarantee another. Realizing this dream is a constant job, so we can not lose our vigilance for a moment – otherwise we will stumble over our own legs.”
He continues to talk about wanting to use CD Projekt’s games as the central anchor around which it can grow its franchises. This includes all media, from books to movies. Nowakowski uses the critically-acclaimed anime Cyberpunk: Edgerunners as one of the examples in how it can grow the company.
“Today, our ambition goes even higher,” he explained. “We want to become a global creator of pop culture and entertainment – with games in the center, surrounded by products and events addressed to fans of our productions. It can be anything: film, series, animation, book, etc. ‘Cyberpunk: Edgerunners,’ an anime series we created with the Japanese Studio Trigger and which debuted on Netflix over two years ago, is just a foretaste of what we have in the set for years to come.”
What’s important for the company, however, is that it continues to make and release more games that the company likes. Badowski spoke about how, regardless of current market trends, CD Projekt wouldn’t abandon its projects to work on, for example, a survival game. The company wants to continue its work on RPGs, as it has in the past. Just on a larger scale this time around.
“We focus on making games we like,” Badowski said. “We will not throw everything if survival productions suddenly gain popularity. We are not going to radically change course. We wanted to create the best RPG games in the world when we employed over a dozen people, and we want to achieve the same goal today, with over a thousand employees on board.”
CD Projekt RED is currently working on its next major title—The Witcher 4. The RPG will focus on Ciri as its protagonist this time around, and is currently under development for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Check out the announcement trailer from back in December.
The decision to have Ciri as the game’s protagonist isn’t just a visual one, however. The new character will play differently from traditional series protagonist Geralt. In a recent episode of the studio’s Answered podcast, senior communications manager Pawel Burza said that Ciri will be a more “liquid” character than Geralt.
“You don’t see Geralt doing these things,” said Burza in reference to one of Ciri’s fancier killing animations. “He’s nimble, but he feels like a block in some sense. She’s like liquid compared to him.”
The Witcher 4 doesn’t yet have a release date, and will quite likely still take some time to come out since its development entered full production as recently as November 2024.
