Amidst the shock whirlwind of CD Projekt’s main bulletins in the present day got here a smaller however nonetheless very important piece of inner information. Marcin Iwiński, who co-founded the studio in 1994 and presently serves as its co-CEO, is stepping down.
“For me, this can be a enormous second. I have been at CD Projekt for nearly 30 years and I’ve seen it go from a handful of passion-driven rebels to an internationally acknowledged developer of story-driven function enjoying video games cherished by tens of millions globally,” Iwiński wrote in his farewell message. “Again when Michał Kiciński and I based the corporate, I do not assume both of us would have been in a position to think about this unimaginable journey, not even in our wildest goals.
“Once I take into consideration the way forward for CD Projekt, it’s so thrilling for me. Right now, the corporate consists of over 1,200 individuals throughout workplaces all around the world. However CD Projekt has by no means been about bodily place or scale—it is all in regards to the enormous quantity of expertise we now have, and the exhausting work and dedication of everybody who chooses to work right here.”
Whereas Iwiński is stepping down from his chief government function, he isn’t leaving the corporate. As an alternative, he will grow to be chairman of CD Projekt’s supervisory board (opens in new tab), which oversees the actions of CD Projekt Capital Group—separate from the board of administrators (opens in new tab)—and can in fact additionally stay a significant shareholder within the firm.
“In my new non-executive function I’ll stay lively and engaged dedicating my give attention to supporting your entire administration board,” he stated. “I will even stay related to the core of what makes us particular, which is making the most effective storytelling video games on the planet and doing proper by avid gamers.”
A message from Marcin Iwiński ― co-founder and Joint CEO of CD PROJEKT. pic.twitter.com/NTp7F9RcFwOctober 4, 2022
That final level, “doing proper by avid gamers,” feels notably salient given CD Projekt’s current historical past. The massively anticipated Cyberpunk 2077 was such a large number at launch that it fully derailed the studio’s plans for updates and new content material (opens in new tab), and badly broken CD Projekt’s status amongst followers. However it’s continued to work on the sport over the previous two years, bringing it to not less than some extent of respectable performance, and participant counts (opens in new tab) and gross sales (opens in new tab) have each bounced again accordingly. Cyberpunk 2077 remains to be no Witcher 3, nevertheless it’s now not a wholesale humiliation, both.
CD Projekt additionally introduced in the present day that it’s opening a brand new studio in Boston that, together with its present operation in Vancouver (opens in new tab), shall be referred to as CD Projekt Pink North America. The brand new operation shall be impartial from The Molasses Flood, the Boston-based developer of The Flame within the Flood that CD Projekt acquired in 2021 (opens in new tab), and can allow CD Projekt “to totally faucet into the North American expertise pool.”
Continued development goes to be crucial to CD Projekt’s long-term plans. The studio additionally introduced in the present day that it has plans for a brand new Witcher trilogy (opens in new tab) to be launched over a span of six years (which appears ridiculously optimistic), two extra Witcher spin-off video games (opens in new tab), a full-scale Cyberpunk 2077 sequel (opens in new tab), and a wholly unique new undertaking (opens in new tab) of some type—all of that on prime of the present work being accomplished on Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher next-gen improve, and no matter it’s that The Molasses Flood is doing. That is a hell of a slate for any studio, a lot much less one which’s traditionally struggled to complete one sport at a time.
