CD PROJEKT changes the strategy. We tell you exactly how

On March 30, the Polish holding CD PROJEKT presented a new development strategy. Its key goal is to transform the game studio so that it can simultaneously develop several AAA games.

The updated strategy has three main directions:

• transformation of processes in the RED studio (in fact, creation on its RED 2.0 capacities);
• development of existing gaming brands (The Witcher and Cyberpunk) into large cross-media franchises covering mobile, media and merchandising;
• online development.

CD PROJEKT presented its own development plan for each of the directions.

1. Transformation of processes in the studio

During the transformation of RED into RED 2.0 , the company wants:

• achieve optimization of work processes;
• provide an opportunity to check the quality of the AAA content being prepared for release;
• to achieve an increase in production volumes, which will allow parallel development of several AAA games.

The main point of growth here is radical changes in work processes. They will be as follows:

• the role of the technical director will be reviewed, he will get more power;
• at the forefront will be the work on the engine as a universal tool, the features of which will be suitable for all projects of the company (therefore, the value of tech.dir will grow);
• work on the games will be conducted in an Agile format (it is assumed that due to this, development will occur in rapid iterations, and communication between personnel and teams will become better);
• numerous cross-functional teams will be involved in the development of each game (in other words, each aspect of the game will be handled by a separate universal team capable of rapid iterations within its area of responsibility);
• The company will also have a pool of experts common to all studio projects.

The company hopes that all these innovations will allow the studio to develop several games at the same time from 2022 (one in The Witcher universe, and the second in the Cyberpunk world).

In addition, CD PROJEKT promises to reconsider how it works in the public field:

• marketing and PR campaigns will be launched closer to the launch (while new projects will still be announced at early stages);
• advertising campaigns will be shorter;
• PR will focus on demonstrating not “concepts”, but “polished” footages and demos;
• the calendar plan for the company’s projects will now be calculated not for a five-year period, but exclusively for the year ahead.

A separate point in the plans is the creation of a favorable working environment, comfortable for work, personal development and organic growth of talents.

2. Development of existing brands

The company sees the development of each franchise as a work with a “flywheel effect” (we are talking about Jim Collins‘ business concept, the essence of which is that the rapid growth of a particular business is not due to a single discovery or action, but to many years of cyclical work).

CD PROJEKT sees the flywheel for itself like this: everything starts with a game title, the success of which among the audience should then be supported by working with other mediums and new game content.

In the same way, the company plans to work with Cyberpunk 2077.

And within the framework of this concept, CD PROJEKT develops existing franchises in three markets: games, media and merchandising.

Games

In the gaming market , each of the franchises has five components:

• a single-player game, a key thing for the franchise;
• version of the game for a new generation of consoles;
• extensions for single player;
• online game or franchise content;
• a mobile game based on the franchise.

CD PROJEKT management believes that the core of each of their AAA games should be a role-playing component. At the same time, they understand that a classic role-playing game cannot have a very large audience, so they consider it necessary to add action elements to their games.

Media

There are also five components within which the company wants to develop each of its franchises:

• movies/TV series with live actors;
• anime;
• music;
• books,
• comics.

Note: CD PROJEKT turns out to own the rights to comics based on The Witcher game, as well as full rights to all Cyberpunk media.

Merchandising

CD PROJEKT hardly talks about the development of franchises in this market separately.

3. Online Development

CD PROJEKT representatives noted that single-player role-playing games remain an essential part of the company’s DNA (in light of this, it was even stated that the company’s next major game would not be an online project in the Cyberpunk universe). However, the company wants each of their AAA projects to have an online component in the future. Which one exactly depends on the project.

To do this, CD PROJEKT is developing technologies that will easily integrate online components into any future game of the company. The same technologies will allow you to build up a community based on GOG GALAXY.

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The company also shared a visual table that shows how the new strategy differs from the old one.