Polish games firm CD Projekt missed its forecast for net profit for the quarter ending March 31st, 2021.
Per its report for the period, the company brought in zł32.5 million ($8.87 million) in profit for the period, 59 per cent less than the zł80 million ($21.8 million) that it had anticipated.
This is due to the extra work that CD Projekt is having to do to fix Cyberpunk 2077, which launched in December of last in a rather troubled state. The fact that the game is also still not available again on Sony's PlayStation Store is likely a factor, too, while the firm also said that it has started R&D work on future titles.
CD Projekt reported zł198 million ($54 million) in revenue for the quarter, with execs telling investors that 60 per cent of the zł148.5 million ($40.5 million) generated by its CD Projekt Red division – zł91.9 million ($25 million) – came from sales of Cyberpunk 2077.
"Lower than usual net profitability is mainly due to continuing depreciation of Cyberpunk 2077 development expenditures, work on updating the game, and R&D activities related to future projects," CFO and VP Piotr Nielubowicz said.
"These expenses are recognized as current-period costs and are not subject to capitalisation."
CD Projekt president and joint CEO Adam Kiciński added: "We intend to live up to what we promised our gamers in January. While we already see major improvements, a large part of the team continues to work on making sure that Cyberpunk provides even better entertainment to gamers. At the same time, we’re rolling out initial changes related to the internal transformation of our studio. This is a long-term project, but we regard it as essential if we are to efficiently develop two large AAA projects in parallel."
