Cyberpunk 2077 has had a rocky launch on PS4 and Xbox One consoles, with reports of hard crashes, bugs and poor performance plaguing the game’s release, with the result that developer CD Projekt Red apologizes and even refunds players.
The developer admitted at a conference that the launch of Cyberpunk 2077 has caused “the loss of gamers’ trust and reputation,” but according to a new report, these issues have also had a financial impact on the developer’s parent company, CD Projekt. .
According to a report by Bloomberg, CD Projekt founders have seen more than $ 1 billion cut off their collective assets, with the company’s stock falling by a third in the past six days (Cyberpunk 2077 released Nov. 10).
The cost of bugs
Bloomberg reports that the value of the 34% stake held by the original four founders has decreased to $ 3 billion. The founders of CD Projekt are currently CEOs Adam Kiciński and Marcin Iwiński, CFO Piotr Nielubowicz and former CEO Michał Kiciński.
As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, CD Projekt’s stock price has been falling since December 4, as the game neared release, with the stock price dropping 29% from PLN 443 per share to PLN 310.6. After the game’s release, this price dropped another 21% from PLN 395.8 to PNL 296.
While this is a significant drop for the company and directly attributed to reports of widespread bugs on previous-generation consoles, stock prices are up 5% again following CD Projekt’s apology and refund offer.
Bloomberg analysts have estimated that how quickly CD Projekt Red fixes these bugs will play a role in the long-term impact of the Cyberpunk 2077 release on the business.
During the conference call earlier this week, CD Projekt confirmed that it plans to “fix the game,” although a timeline as to when we will see some major changes remains unclear.
“Unfortunately, I cannot share the cost of additional work, but the cost of patching the game is irrelevant to what we have already spent,” said CFO Piotr Nielubowicz. “So there’s no question – we absolutely want to fix the game; we’ve made a promise to gamers and we will do everything we can to keep it.”