Comprehensive Overview of CDPR Q1 Financial Results for 2018

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Comprehensive Overview of CDPR Q1 Financial Results for 2018

Hi all,

I went through the trouble of reading through the entire transcript for Q1 Financial Results for the teleconference that took place during 24th of May - and made a condensed version of main points discussed there.

For those who might not want to read the wall of text I've made a video summarising all the points as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhMk87RdwNI
General Financial Situation
  • CD Projekt Group’s sales remain strong.
    • 2/3 of the sales is attributed to CD Projekt Red, 1/3 to GOG.com
  • Operating costs have remained same when looking at all three quarterly periods – mounting to 22 million PLN / 5,9 million USD / 4,4 Million GBP
    • Even though they are still in process of ramping up the video game development and continue to recruit people. This is good.
  • Gwent sales revenue compared to final quarter of 2017 has seen an increase. However weak US dollar has had negative impact.
  • Most important current projects are Cyberpunk, Gwent and Thronebreaker
  • Most important investment activity is the ongoing R&D work – development of new video games, including Cyberpunk, GWENT and Thronebreaker, as well as new technologies.
Gwent
  • Intention is to couple Homecoming with the simultaneous release of Thronebreaker.
  • The CEO said that Homecoming communication will begin after E3, it will begin sometime in early July and Homecoming has nothing to do with E3
  • When asked if CDPR is working on another RPG, the answer was yes – Thronebreaker, which has evolved into a fairly sizeable RPG, providing several dozen hours of gameplay.
  • Homecoming and Thronebreaker is scheduled to be released in Q4 of 2018, this was reaffirmed multiple times, keyword being scheduled, this is more down to nature of the business rather than uncertainty.
Cyberpunk
  • Wroclaw studio - Strange New Things - will collaborate with Cyberpunk’s development.
    • CDPR does not plan to acquire any further studios, the acquisition of Strange New Things studio in Wroclaw was simply viewed as an excellent match for CDPR’s vision and enabled them to inject significant new experience into their own development process
    • They have been working on their projects for several months now.
  • They are expecting the development costs for Cyberpunk to increase when the game nears the completion, however this is fairly standard for any game development and costs will be offset with sales revenue and what not.
  • The Cyberpunk development team is slightly over 300 strong.
    • The Cyberpunk development team is approximately three times larger than the GWENT and Thronebreaker development teams put together.
  • Cyberpunk 2077 campaign will not be short. CDPR needs to, or rather wants to tell players a great deal about Cyberpunk universe. It’s a new release, a new world, and they want to share our vision for Cyberpunk.
  • Q: CDPR stated that they considers 5 month campaign between the announcement and the release to be a short campaign. You should take this more in lines of that campaign will be more than likely 6+ months long rather than 6 months exactly.
  • Q: Are there any preferences regarding the amount of resources committed to this campaign in relation to the cost of the game itself? I mean, have you settled on an amount – for example, 10% or 20% of the development budget? AK: No, We have no such arrangements in place,
  • CDPR understands that developing and promoting the game will cost more than in the case of The Witcher 3, but it’s too early to speculate about the details.
  • The closer CDPR will get to release the more accurate their sales forecasts will be, giving them a better idea of how much to allocate for marketing. That’s how CDPR has always operated, and it can even be called an industry standard, as many other companies operate in a similar way.
  • When asked directly whether Cyberpunk will be at Expo – they declined to answer
  • When asked whether CDPR will participate at Microsoft conference preceding E3 – again – they said they cannot comment.
  • In both cases, PR team was shaking their head notifying Adam Kacinski that he cannot answer that question

I hope you will find this useful!
 
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Gizmo0;n10960097 said:
They have been working on their projects for several months now.

You mean for Cyberpunk? Or they plan, now or in future, to continue that secret game?
 
Gizmo0;n10960097 said:
Hi all,
[*]Cyberpunk 2077 campaign will not be short. CDPR needs to, or rather wants to tell players a great deal about Cyberpunk universe. It’s a new release, a new world, and they want to share our vision for Cyberpunk.
Yay !

Meccanical;n10960196 said:
Thanks for the hard work.
Interestingly enough, one of the game designers at Strange New Things, Jacek Brzezinki, was one of the initial Polish translators for the original Cyberpunk 2020 PnP game.
Interesting.
 
"Q: CDPR stated that they considers 5 month campaign between the announcement and the release to be a short campaign. You should take this more in lines of that campaign will be more than likely 6+ months long rather than 6 months exactly."

Not sure I'm understanding it. Are they saying when they show the game off they intend to release it in 6'ish months time after that?
 
BaalNergal;n10960391 said:
Perhaps a year and a half length for campaign time, with an announcement right at the end of June?

Unlikely a year and a half. Most games are around 10 months, even with delays. 12 is the average maximum. In my opinion, there's a 0% chance CDPR actively decides to show their game off and start an 18-month-long marketing campaign. That would be an absolute joke.

My guess is 8-10 months, since it won't be a "flash" campaign, and it won't be just a tiny bit longer than a flash campaign. So, not 5 months and not 6 months - that's off the table, seemingly. Add another extra 2 months for a generous minimum, and another 2 on top of that for a maximum... Seems reasonable.
 
Gizmo0;n10960097 said:
I went through the trouble of reading through the entire transcript for Q1 Financial Results for the teleconference that took place during 24th of May - and made a condensed version of main points discussed there.
:hatsoff:
 
Snowflakez;n10960952 said:
Unlikely a year and a half. Most games are around 10 months, even with delays. 12 is the average maximum. In my opinion, there's a 0% chance CDPR actively decides to show their game off and start an 18-month-long marketing campaign. That would be an absolute joke.

My guess is 8-10 months, since it won't be a "flash" campaign, and it won't be just a tiny bit longer than a flash campaign. So, not 5 months and not 6 months - that's off the table, seemingly. Add another extra 2 months for a generous minimum, and another 2 on top of that for a maximum... Seems reasonable.

But that wouldn't be 2020 :p
 
There's a good chance it will be 2020. Consider how ambitious this game is, when they actually got the full team on it (mid 2016) and their history of delaying games. I think all three Witcher games were delayed. Also consider they're developing MP this time which could mean an enormous new venture for them. The scope of this game is likely to dwarf TW3. And that means a lot of dev time.
 
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Garrison72;n10961138 said:
There's a good chance it will be 2020. Consider how ambitious this game is, when they actually got the full team on it (mid 2016) and their history of delaying games. I think all three Witcher games were delayed. Also consider they're developing MP this time which could mean an enormous new venture for them. The scope of this game is likely to dwarf TW3. And that means a lot of dev time.

MP isn't coming in release.
 
Snowflakez;n10961144 said:
MP isn't coming in release.

Has that been confirmed officially? I do recall a statement about single player being the higher priority (i.e. the majority of resources will be spent on that, which is unsurprising), but not sure about an outright confirmation that multiplayer will not be in the game at all on release. With the government funding received for the feature and employees apparently having been hired to work on it since years ago, I would have thought multiplayer might at least be more important than something that is patched in post-release. Although it is possible that it would be in an expansion or other major addition.
 
sv3672;n10961147 said:
Has that been confirmed officially? I do recall a statement about single player being the higher priority (i.e. the majority of resources will be spent on that, which is unsurprising), but not sure about an outright confirmation that multiplayer will not be in the game at all on release.

No it's not official.

There have been very few official statements. It is focussed on Single Player, that is official. They avoid any MP questions or shoot them down though, so take that as you like.

Like all things CDPR any funding they receive - from shareholders or government - will not constrain their choices. They do say that - game quality first not business - straight out in the conference this February,.
 
It's plausible that multiplayer could follow after the release of the game, that way they can get a good beta from the community before the final release.
 
Just for the record, me saying I don't think multiplayer will arrive on release is not the equivalent of me saying "F*** you multiplayer fans, SP 4 LYFE!111!?!1"

I'm all for MP now, but surely it'd be nice for it to get their full resources and full attention? If they develop it alongside the SP game, their attention is split, which will inevitably lead to compromises for both sides.

If they release the game, and package MP into the first major DLC, that would be fantastic for both. The entire team can work on said DLC and make MP as good as it can possibly be, and SP can get a game that's also as good as it can possibly be. Win/win.

Anyway, to the topic, some nice tidbits of information at the conference. Madqueen did a video on the matter with a few direct quotes from the CEO that I found quite interesting. https://youtu.be/6XMy3NIx9Q8?t=524

The video starts right when she begins talking about the conference. I recommend watching it. The quotes offer a bit more context than Gizmo0's (helpful) summary.
 
Snowflakez;n10961210 said:
Just for the record, me saying I don't think multiplayer will arrive on release is not the equivalent of me saying "F*** you multiplayer fans, SP 4 LYFE!111!?!1"y.

MP 4 LYFE BRO!!! OWCS DAWGS REPRESENT!!

Although I seriously had a CS addiction back in the day and had to cold turkey away from it. But yeah - if MP is in, it will be gameplay, not financial that dictates it.
 
Meccanical;n10961192 said:
It's plausible that multiplayer could follow after the release of the game, that way they can get a good beta from the community before the final release.

This is my guess as well. It could be a ways after SP release. I mean we all know that a story driven campaign is their bread and butter but their hiring still lists positions for MP design.
 
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