CD Projekt recently revealed its product pipeline as part of its FY 2023 earnings report. The report showed that the company currently has five games in either the concept or the pre-production stage. A day after sharing its financial results, CD Projekt’s chief financial officer Piotr Nielubowicz disclosed in an investor chat that microtransaction was not part of the company’s revenue strategy, especially in single-player games.
During the chat hosted by Stock Watch, the CD Projekt guests comprising Nielubowicz and VP for investor relations Karolina Gnaś were asked if “microtransactions [will] be added to future games?”
In response to that question, Nielubowicz said, “We do not see a place for microtransactions in the case of single-player games, but we do not rule out that we will use this solution in the future in the case of multiplayer projects”.
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Microtransactions in games have been a tricky topic to talk about. While the price of AAA games has risen (and may rise further), some games still use microtransactions to further milk players. Just last week, Dragon’s Dogma 2 was harshly criticized by players (particularly Steam players) when they discovered that the game had 21 day-one purchasable DLCs.
In the gaming industry today, everything from cosmetics to season passes and special abilities can be hidden behind a paywall. Further compelling players to spend is the predatory pay-to-win mechanics that are often incorporated into some of these games.
The use of microtransactions in live service games is understandable (and has even become a sort of standard) because the developers somehow have to cover the cost of churning out new content and features for the game. It is believed that one of the games on CD Projekt’s pipeline is a multiplayer game, and it will be interesting to see how the company approaches microtransactions in the game.
CD Projekt CFO shares more on Polaris and Sirius projects
After sharing the project pipeline and the distribution of developers on their different projects, it was no surprise that The Witcher projects drew enormous attention. Questions surrounding the three The Wither projects came up during the investor chat which lasted around 45 minutes.
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One person asked, “When is the promotion of part IV of The Witcher planned to start?”. Responding to the question Gnaś said, “The element of surprise and surprise is important in our campaigns, so let us surprise you”.
“What does the cooperation with Fool’s Theory on The Witcher Remake look like?” asked Emil who was arguably the most active participant in the investor’s chat. “Is FT also involved in the development of Polaris, since Remake is to be based on solutions created for Polaris? How many people will ultimately work on The Witcher Remake?”
Responding to the question, Nielubowicz said, “We are at the early stage of conceptual work. Yes—our assumption is that the remake will use solutions developed as part of the Polaris project”.
As a follow-up to the previous question, Emil asked, “Is the Polaris project more of an evolution or a revolution? How will it stand out from other games on the market?”
“With each of our games we want to show something fresh and new—that will be the case this time as well,” Nielubowicz said.
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A lot of those available on the investors’ chat also showed interest in the Sirius project. Emil asked if there was a chance that the project may be canceled while another participant asked if CD Projekt was satisfied with the progress of the game based on “last year’s write-offs and change in production direction”.
“We continue to work on the project and we are more and more satisfied with the results,” said Nielubowicz. “We are in the early pre-production stage of this project, where a lot of the work is iterative. We test our ideas and key mechanics.”
