[ENG SUBS] Adam Kiciński, CEO CD Projekt o: Wiedźmin (Witcher), Gwint (GWENT) i CyberPunk 2077

We are interested in Cyberpunk being commercially even more significant. Because The Witcher 3 was and still is an unquestionably very good game, a great commercial success. We are very happy but it's still far from the world records. Individual games can sell much, much better. With this in mind, creating the phenomenal Cyberpunk we hope to do even better with this title than we already did with The Witcher 3.

That depends when. A long time ago certainly not, but then again we did not think about such a distant future when we were going public. Recently we present quite good results.

We are not a large publisher, which publishes a number of titles each year. We don't annualise titles, how it's often put. We do relatively little. We want to do it better than anyone else. And I don't want to say that there are no such companies on the stock exchange, but there are only a few. Whereas, most large companies publish very large numbers of titles each year, and we are not a conglomerate like that. We want to remain a project focused company. Of course we want to do constantly more, but we also want all of the things that we do to be absolutely the best.

We operate in a trade where a large buffer is recommended, and this constitutes an advantage for any bad, good, or unexpected situations. Because it can go both ways. We need resources to develop our games and promote them. Because, if only in the case of The Witcher 3, most promotion resources came from the distributors. These were later deducted from our royalties. De facto, we've paid for it, but with the distributors' money. When we can afford it, we can spend more money on marketing and slightly improve our financial parameters. So in our trade it's good to have a lot of resources, for various reasons. We assume that the pillow possessed by us is very satisfying. For us, the biggest risk is delivering a game which will not be outstanding. That's our biggest risk. We believe that the entire business, and everything else, is already achieved when we have an outstanding game. And the risk of developing a game which is not outstanding is related to not putting proper talent and effort into that process. So everything that distracts that talent and reduces effort, increases the risk.

Everything. Every time we make a game we want to make one better than before. We want to experiment in new fields, such which were not yet explored in The Witcher. I can't say much about Cyberpunk. Although, our ambitions are set really high because that is our style of work. We want to go even higher, and especially seeing how we're having a business chat, we're interested in Cyberpunk being commercially even more significant. Because The Witcher is an unquestionably very good game – a great success in commercial terms. We are very happy but it's still far from the world records. Individual games can sell much, much better. With this in mind, creating the phenomenal Cyberpunk we hope to do even better with this title than we already did with The Witcher 3. Of course everything is ahead of us. It's no forecast, these are just our dreams. Investments in Cyberpunk will of course be much bigger than those in The Witcher. We don't reveal the budget, but our sales goals are much bigger. With such games, in the end investments play a secondary role in terms of P&L. Of course we have to care for the costs. That's a fundamental principle. Although, in case of The Witcher 3 our investments returned multiple times. Due to this fact, whether the budget is 10, 20, or 30% larger or smaller in the end, in terms of P&L, it plays a tertiary role. But I will emphasize it once more, we care for the costs. We've always did. It's in our DNA. We grew from a small private company, in which we had to care for the costs, and we cherish that tradition.

Yes. Online is necessary or very recommended if you wish to achieve a long-term success. At some point we have mentioned that there will be a certain online element related to Cyberpunk. Unfortunately at this point I have to stop talking about Cyberpunk because we haven't started our narration yet. That story is still ahead of us. Then we will gradually reveal all of the elements or facts related to this big game. What we can already see - the game as it is today - it makes us very happy. With each month we believe in it even more. We are super excited. We can't wait to start talking about Cyber, because we are holding it all inside. I would really like to say everything about Cyber, but I can't.

A good and difficult question. That stage of full maturity is not there and it's difficult to imagine it. Games of such type constantly develop. However, a stage of an initial maturity is definitely in front of us. We are still closer to the beginning than the finish line. Definitely. That is because since we've launched the game in a closed beta almost a year ago, it underwent a number of transformations, but they concerned the very core of the game, the sole gameplay. We've focused on balancing the game and not making it a service which makes a profit. It of course makes a profit. It had its moments when players threw themselves on the cards, but it has not yet reached a stage at which it is supposed to attract players to do stuff in it each day, week, or month. So far, players play to win with others, so the game is attractive for those who are focused on rivalry. The game is not yet a service which attracts people who monetize this project. That's why we basically don't do any marketing actions. We act mainly in terms of PR. So the commercial life of Gwent is still ahead of us, and not in this year. We're starting next year. This game will start to turn into a service next year. Gwent will not change. It will develop, it is a tactical and complex game. But it's all about for someone who does not play such games to reach a moment of understanding how to play Gwent and know how to win, with the game taking that person by the hand in an unnoticed manner, attracting, and at a certain point that person is going to understand that he or she is already quite skilled, and will continue to play. Also, it is important for the game to regularly, very often, invite players to play for some reason. All sorts of organized events - it's all ahead of us. So as for now we have only the central part, which by the way is very well prepared. For a year we've worked on the balance. We are supper happy. At the end of August, after the last big patch, stats have shown that the game is very well balanced.

Gwent constitutes a strategic project for a number of reasons. Of course we want to make it big on the market of online games. We want to learn how to do it. So for us it is a great lesson on learning how to make and handle such games. We want to reach an even greater synergy with GOG - the galaxy technology which is a technological backend, or a technological base. And so far, we are very successful in this. GOG, let us not forget, handles all platforms, so players playing on an Xbox, Playstation, or any future platforms are handled by GOG's servers. We see how they play. We set and observe these matches. Gwent is our first service game, the first big free-to-play game, so with Gwent, developing Gwent, and publishing Gwent, we are basically learning everything. Everything related to Gwent is to a certain degree new for us, perhaps apart from the very core of the universe - it's the Witcher universe and we have a lot of experience here.

Because multiplayer is strategically important, playing online is strategically important. Because we want to have a following commercial leg for service type games, games which generate stable income, period to period, which are built. Of course, every game ends after a number of years, some service type games function even after 10 years. But outside of our main source of income, meaning big games, it's building a stable source of income. And in the future one can imagine a lot of connections between big games and service type games. One has to acknowledge that - it is obvious. Everyone who installs Gwent on their PC automatically possesses GOG Galaxy which constitutes its base. GOG Galaxy includes the entire GOG catalogue. We don't pressure or force anything. Although, having a lot of Gwent users in the future, we can offer them many things from GOG. It's already there, meaning on the computer. And vice versa. We can offer stuff in Gwent to those who purchase with GOG. Having more games like Gwent, someday in many years, because that is our dream, we can have a service with many online products and offer players various types of games as well as actions combining these universes or offered products.

I believe that next year will be the year when Gwent is going to be thrown to the deep end. When we will start to promote it on a mass scale. And on a large scale invite players who are not that familiar with card games. Players who won't reach for Gwent to be better than others, but to have a good time, to play for a while, half an hour, an hour, every day, every second day, every week. Those are not casual players, because it is not a strictly casual game. It's really a game in which one has to think, and that's what it is all about. Whereas, it should also be fun for those who are not interested in going so deep into gaming, and exploring everything within it. The game has to include those elements which will invite such players.

Each Witcher game was a breakthrough project for us. The first Witcher was a breakthrough project, so was the second and one, and the latest third and of course biggest one, was a breakthrough as well. But it's not that only The Witcher 3 was a real milestone. Each Witcher was. Have we expected such a success? We really have quite an imagination and our dreams reach very far. But the thing is: it's one thing to dream, and something completely different to calculate with Excel what the future may look like. And when we calculate we prefer to be conservative and careful. That does not mean pessimistic, but careful. That is because, it has to be remembered, in case of such games one has to first spend money to earn it later. There won't be a Witcher 4 as part of a story because the story is closed.

Yes. We've bought the rights. So it's difficult to imagine that we've invested 15 years of our lives, and who knows how many tens of millions of dollars on promoting The Witcher and then we just forget about it. The fans would never forgive us, the investors would never forgive us, but of course we have to come up with something cool.

In a place far from where it is today, as far as today is from where we were in 2007. So the plans are ambitious…

Well, yes.

Thanks.