Cyberpunk 2077 Developer's Stock Is Taking A Beating In Poland

CD Projekt Red became one of the biggest names in video game development thanks to the success of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt back in 2015, but it looks Cyberpunk 2077's release is having a negate impact on its parent company. Though the open-world game beat Steam's concurrent player record for a single-player game, its messy launch has caused CD Projekt's stock to slip more than 33% since its early December high in Polish markets.

The downturn has caused some in the industry to question CD Projekt's strategy. Daniel Ahmad, a senior analyst at Niko Partners who often tweets about industry happenings, said that this reflects an "overreliance on one large game release every few years...Any sort of uncertainty/issues will lead to this. Ultimately the decline isn't because the game isn't selling well, but because of future prospects / current known issues."

Others have downplayed the stock price, calling it merely a bump in the road for one of the world's biggest video game developers. For example, reporter and consultant Mike Futter noted that CD Projekt's stock price is still ahead of where it was a year ago.

To be clear, stock prices are a fickle beast, and they reflect dozens of factors that are bigger than the release of just one game, even a blockbuster like Cyberpunk 2077. That said, the roiling controversy surrounding the game--and particularly its last-gen console versions, which are so buggy and broken that Sony and Microsoft have begun offering refunds--has overshadowed its positive review scores and impressive sales numbers.

CD Projekt issued a statement on Monday acknowledging the technical issues on PS4 and Xbox One and urging those who are unsatisfied with the experience to seek refunds. They also said that an update is planned within the next seven days that will hopefully alleviate some of those shortcomings. For more on the game, be sure to check out our full Cyberpunk 2077 review. This isn't the first time the game has shown issues in need of fixing--the latest patch, version 1.04, addressed seizure-inducing scenes affecting those with epilepsy, music copyright issues for content creators, and a number of other problems.