Despite a fall in profits, CDProjekt has announced it is hoping to expand development studio CD Projekt Red and its online retail business, GOG, with 250 new positions.
During the company’s annual financial report (thanks, GI.biz), CFO Piotr Nielubowicz confirmed the firm has plans to develop new offices on a recently-acquired 3,000 square-meter plot.
“That’s likely less than half the current seating of our company,” Nielubowicz said, “so we will probably be able to provide 250 new jobs for CD Projekt Red and GOG.
“Over the past year we greatly expanded our creative potential, both in Warsaw and at the Kraków studio,” Nielubowicz added. “We were also joined by a highly talented team from Wrocław, as well as by developers from Spokko – a newly established company currently working on a yet unannounced project targeting mobile devices.”
The expansion plans come despite CD Projekt reporting a revenue drop from €109.1 million to €85 million year-over-year. Profit has also declined, falling from €47.1 million to €25.6 million. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – CD Projekt’s most profitable IP – generated over €25 million revenue, 80 per cent of which was through digital sales (by comparison, in 2015 in just 29 per cent was generated via digital sales). Interestingly, the company also confirmed it has spent €56.4 million on research and development projects.
After disputing a demand for 60 million Polish zloty (£12m) last year, CD Projekt Red has now reached a settlement with Andrzej Sapkowski, author of the Witcher series.
Sapkowski sold the rights to the book series to CD Projekt back in 1997, and turned down a profit-sharing agreement in order to secure a fixed sum of 35,000 PLN (approximately $9,350). Following the success of the video games series, however, Sapkowski is now seeking additional compensation.
CD Projekt received a demand for additional royalties from the author of the Witcher series amounting to 60 million Polish zloty (£12.4m) last October. Sapkowski’s representatives said the figure of 60 million zloty was reached by factoring about six per cent of CD Projekt’s profits as a “conservative” payment, and the letter stated the amount of money Sapkowski has so far received for the Witcher’s copyright as “too low”.
