CD Projekt Red Announces 2022 Road Map Following Optimistic Software Sales Figures

Going from heading one of the most anticipated games in the industry to becoming the most detested of the bunch after Cyberpunk 2077's maligned release has made CD Projekt Red something of an afterthought in the space. While the aforementioned video game has somewhat rekindled its lost flame following ample patches and a next-gen upgrade, it still has yet to diminish the poor taste in fans' mouths as CDPR continues to dig holes for itself.

On Thursday, Apr. 14, the Polish company announced an extended road map for development processes under 2022 on Twitter. Its so-called "Production Plans for 2022" consists of the main developments fans have been long waiting for, specifically its forthcoming Cyberpunk 2077 expansion and the next-gen Witcher 3: Wild Hunt upgrade, both of which have seemingly now been pushed to 2023.

Not 24 hours prior, CDPR voiced the impending push of its free Witcher 3 next-gen version indefinitely, as the work was cordoned to the Russia-based Saber Interactive arm. While the company didn't specify exactly why it was taking over for Saber, early reports suggest it might be due largely to the still-ongoing campaign against Ukraine headed by Russian forces. To be clear, Saber Interactive has offices located all across the world, and when questioned about the potential reasoning behind this delay via Kotaku, CDPR merely declined to comment.

Given this newfound strain on the entire CDPR development team, who has been reworking Cyberpunk and building out its forthcoming DLC, everything on the docket now seemingly must get pushed back by a lot. On top of Cyberpunk updates and its Witcher 3 next-gen upgrade, CDPR also has its highly anticipated next forway into the Witcher series now being developed within Unreal Engine 5 - a completely new program the team must learn and grow accustomed to heading into the future of the dev's life cycle.

The company's remaining plans for 2022 include some interesting additions, like production work on "an unannounced project based on one of our franchises" via The Molasses Flood, among CDPR's outer arm studios. It will also be launching an as of yet unnamed spin-off of 2016's Gwent: The Witcher Card Game, also known as Project Golden Nekkar, which may still debut sometime this year.

Beyond this, CDPR will continue to support Gwent and its Pokémon GO lookalike The Witcher: Monster Slayer, as well as provide "conceptual and research work on unannounced projects." Although it may not be the best news for fans itching to get their hands on more Cyberpunk and Witcher content, CDPR is clearly working toward being more honest, communicative, and realistic with its claims going forward.

However it's not all doom and gloom for the company, as Bloomberg notes a definitive bright spot following the release of Cyberpunk 2077's overall sales figures. The highly detested release of Cyberpunk may have marred the game and its developer, but it didn't slow product sales in the least bit, as CDPR boasts over 18 million copies of Cyberpunk 2077 out in the wild, marking it as among the best-selling RPGs to date.

For a game that cost the company a total of 1.2 billion Polish zloty (around $280 million) on top of a plethora of bad press, that's certainly a modest outcome. Bloomberg also noted that the company took home a following 1.15 billion zloty in net income after the release of Cyberpunk in 2020, proving that, if anything else, the company will still maintain positive margins despite poor releases.

Hopefully, as expressed in its recent Twitter post, its intended future can lift the company up even further to grander heights. While Cyberpunk may not have been the best game from the outset, it has garnered fanfare since its maligned release and, though annoying to some, the wait for Witcher 3's free next-gen upgrade will hopefully be worth it in the long run.