Cyberpunk2077 Made Its Polish Cofounders Billionaires … But The Game Failed To Live Up…

The December 10 release of Cyberpunk2077–arguably the biggest new video game of the year–has been nothing short of an unmitigated disaster for its Polish producer CD Projekt. After 8-years of hype fueled by CD Projekt’s relentless marketing machine, disappointed shareholders and angry fans are now left to ponder what could have been. 

Cyberpunk2077–currently emblazoned on the side of London buses–is the first game in five-years from CD Projekt, a much-loved Warsaw-based studio best known for its Witcher series, based on the rich lore of Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski’s fantasy novels (think Slavic Tolkien). CD Projekt scored popular if enigmatic Hollywood A-lister Keanu Reeves as the motion-captured frontman for Cyberpunk2077, and some analysts projected revenues for the game to hit $1 billion or more.

The hype drove up the share price of Warsaw-listed CD Projekt by more than 50% between January and December 4. That made company cofounders Michał Kiciński (who left in 2013) and Marcin Iwinski both billionaires—one of just a small handful of video game billionaires globally.

But Cyberpunk2077 has so far been a huge disappointment—particularly for players with older gaming consoles not using a $2,000 gaming PC, or an impossible-to-find next-generation Playstation or Xbox (a group of around 160 million gamers, according to one analyst).

Over the weekend the hashtag #cyberbug2077 emerged on Twitter, encapsulating the Cyberpunk2077 experience for many users showing stuttering frame rates (the game’s on-screen smoothness), floating cigarettes and chopsticks, while random citizens fall from buildings for no apparent reason. 

As the online conversation around Cyberpunk2077 changed from positive to negative, the CD Projekt share price began to drop a few days before the game’s release. From December 5 through December 11, CD Projekt shares tumbled 28%, wiping a combined $700 million from the fortunes of the cofounders.

As of the end of Friday December 11, Kiciński, who owns just under 10% of CD Projekt, was worth slightly less than $900 million. Iwinski, who owns just under 13% is worth $1.1 billion, down from nearly $1.5 billion on December 4.  Kicinski didn’t comment on CD Projekt’s share price, nor did a spokesperson for Iwinski.

Analysts say the decision to release a game so lackluster for the set of users it was originally intended for, represents a major misjudgement by the studio’s leadership team. Playing Cyberpunk2077 on the Playstation 4 and Xbox is “[Like watching] Netflix on a dial up modem,” says Ken Rumph, equity analyst at Jefferies, suggesting that CD Projekt could just give up on those using last generation kit, describing the release as a “console car crash.”

CD Projekt is expected to at least try to release online updates that get the game into playable shape in the months to come. Matti Littunen, equity analyst at AllianceBernstein, isn’t convinced. “On the 2013 base models of PS4 and Xbox … the hardware is just not enough to run a game like this,” Littunen says, adding that although the game is a success on high-end systems, investors were expecting “immaculate” in all aspects, and this simply hasn’t happened.

The worst may not be over. With Sony under pressure to issue refunds for Cyberpunk2077 on the Playstation 4, some of the eight million pre-order sales that CD Projekt boasted about, could well be on their way back to CD Projekt. Shareholders will have to watch and wait as to how much money CD Projekt has to pull out of the till and hand back to console gamers in the months to come.