CD Projekt Red is a developer and publisher that has been through a lot over the last couple of years. It’s the studio that created the critically acclaimed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, before then going on to launch the much-anticipated Cyberpunk 2077 in 2020. However, the poor performance of the game at launch was nothing short of a disaster for the studio. Thankfully, time tends to heal wounds, and despite having a rough launch Cyberpunk 2077 has recently become as popular as it ever has been. This is likely attributed to the success of the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners anime series on Netflix. As a result, CD Projekt is now planning further projects in media outside of games.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners has been met with a positive reception. The animated series created by the Japanese anime company, Studio Trigger, was consistently in the top 10 of most viewed shows on Netflix for the first four weeks of its release. Its popularity also saw a huge surge in players hopping into Cyberpunk 2077, leading to what the studio has claimed is a record-breaking financial quarter.
During the company’s third-quarter earnings call, it spoke about Edgerunners, as well as what it has planned for the future of transmedia projects. According to Video Games Chronicle, Piotr Nielubowic, chief financial officer at the company, said that the popularity of Edgerunnera as well as the latest update for Cyberpunk 2077 “visibly affected unit sales of Cyberpunk.”
Michał Nowakowski, CD Projekt’s SVP of business development, said that there are no specific plans for another season of Edgerunners. However, he went on to say that the studio has “an appetite to do more in the transmedia [space], so in linear visual animation or live action.” He reconfirmed that “those plans have not changed, so when we are ready you may expect to see more announcements in that regard coming from us.”
Transmedia projects are nothing new for CD Projekt Red. The studio previously helped greenlight The Witcher live-action series on Netflix, as well as the animated film, The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf. As a result, we would not be surprised to see future transmedia projects from the Cyberpunk franchise, even if Edgerunners itself will not see a second season.
CD Projekt Red isn’t resting when it comes to video game development either. The studio has already confirmed that Cyberpunk’s first paid expansion, Phantom Liberty, is on the way. There will also be a new Cyberpunk game in development in the future.
Cyberpunk 2077 is currently available on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5. The next-gen update for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is due to be released on December 14.
