CD Projekt's joint CEO acknowledges it is "fair" to say the company "lost the faith" of certain members of its audience following the launch of Cyberpunk 2077

Michał Nowakowski, a joint-CEO at CD Projekt in Poland, acknowledged that the problematic launch of Cyberpunk 2077 led to a loss of trust among some of the company's audience.

During Knowledge's Edge in Person, Nowakowski described the release of the sci-fi role-playing game as a particularly difficult time, though the company has since made progress. Despite these improvements, he feels CD Projekt still has much to prove to its fans.

"I'm not entirely convinced we've completed our path to redemption," he remarked.

"It's clear we lost some people's trust permanently, and that's justified. Nonetheless, I hope we can regain it—perhaps with The Witcher 4 or whatever our next project may be."

Addressing the challenges with Cyberpunk 2077 ultimately made the studio stronger, according to Nowakowski.

"We emerged with experienced, resilient leaders," he noted.

Nowakowski also elaborated on CD Projekt's transition from their own Red Engine technology to using Unreal Engine 5 for the forthcoming The Witcher 4. He described the onboarding process for their previous technology as "insane," taking "six to nine months."

"Epic granted us access to the internals of Unreal Engine—something unique outside of Epic itself—so we could help develop one of the largest technologies available," Nowakowski explained.

"The decision aimed to enable us to create more stories without concerning ourselves about the engine's core. Epic provides us with that stability, allowing us to innovate and set ourselves apart."

Cyberpunk 2077, which debuted at the end of 2020, initially faced a poor reception. However, CD Projekt addressed the significant issues, and the game has now achieved sales exceeding 35 million copies.