CD Projekt RED Says Cyberpunk 2077 Has Not Fully Repaired Its Reputation

CD Projekt RED Joint CEO Michał Nowakowski believes the studio has not completed its redemption following the troubled launch of Cyberpunk 2077, admitting that some players may never fully restore their trust in the company. While years of updates, technical fixes, and the acclaimed Phantom Liberty expansion transformed the game into a much stronger experience, Nowakowski hopes The Witcher 4 or another future release can win back fans who remain unconvinced.

Cyberpunk 2077 launched in December 2020 with serious technical issues, particularly on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Performance problems, crashes, visual bugs, and unfinished systems damaged the reputation CD Projekt RED had built through The Witcher series. Sony temporarily removed the game from the PlayStation Store, creating one of the most visible launch controversies in modern gaming.

The studio spent the following years rebuilding the game through major updates, redesigned systems, improved artificial intelligence, new features, and extensive performance work. Update 2.0 and the Phantom Liberty expansion became the clearest turning points, helping Cyberpunk 2077 earn stronger player sentiment and renewed critical attention.

The commercial recovery has also been substantial. CD Projekt confirmed in its Q3 2025 financial results that Cyberpunk 2077 had surpassed 35 million copies sold, while Phantom Liberty had also become one of the company’s most successful expansion releases.

However, Nowakowski told the Knowledge newsletter from EDGE that sales and improved reception do not necessarily mean the studio has regained every player’s confidence.

"I'm not 100 percent convinced we went through the full redemption arc. I'm convinced that we lost the faith of some people indefinitely, and that's a fair thing. But I do hope we will be able to make it back, if not with The Witcher 4, then with whatever comes next."
— Michał Nowakowski.

The statement is unusually direct for a company executive. Rather than declaring Cyberpunk 2077 fully redeemed, Nowakowski acknowledged that trust is personal and that some players may continue to judge CD Projekt RED by the condition in which the game originally launched.

The experience did leave the company with stronger and more experienced development leadership. According to Nowakowski, the years spent repairing Cyberpunk 2077 created teams capable of handling pressure, technical setbacks, and large scale production challenges.

"We were left with seasoned, battle hardened veterans, leaders who were able to carry a different kind of challenge on their shoulders."
— Michał Nowakowski.

The Witcher 4 will become the biggest opportunity to prove those lessons have changed how CD Projekt RED develops and launches major games. The project is now the company’s largest production, with more than 500 developers assigned to it as of April 2026. The studio’s broader plan includes the new Witcher trilogy, The Witcher remake from Fool’s Theory, the multiplayer focused Project Sirius, Cyberpunk 2, and the original property known as Hadar. CD Projekt outlined many of these projects in its official long term strategy update.

Despite this ambitious pipeline, Nowakowski said the company does not want to become a publisher that releases a major game every year. CD Projekt RED operates with a rolling plan covering roughly 10 years, but its goal is to release more games without flooding the market or managing too many properties at once.

"Our dream is to be making more games, although we never want to turn into the studio that's going to be launching a big game every year. It may happen, but this is not the goal. We have a rough 10 year rolling plan, but the goal is not to flood the games market with CDPR games. We just want to make really cool games, and we don't want to have a ton of IPs either."
— Michał Nowakowski.

Before The Witcher 4 arrives, the studio will face another important test through The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt expansion Songs of the Past. The expansion is scheduled for 2027 and is being co developed with Fool’s Theory under CD Projekt RED’s creative supervision. CD Projekt RED has repaired Cyberpunk 2077 as a product, but repairing a game is not exactly the same as repairing trust. The Witcher 4 will be judged not only by its world, combat, characters, and technology, but also by how honestly the studio communicates, how stable the game is at launch, and whether its ambitions match the final experience.

Cyberpunk 2077 proved that a damaged game can become a major success through sustained development. The Witcher 4 now needs to prove that CD Projekt RED can deliver that level of quality from the beginning.

Has Cyberpunk 2077 fully restored your trust in CD Projekt RED, or does The Witcher 4 still need to prove the studio has truly changed?