Cyberpunk 2077 wasn't a total flop, but it certainly took a toll on CD Projekt's momentum, forcing the company to delay the Cyberpunk DLC in favor of fixes and taking a hit to its stock price. However, we learned last week that the atonement for this year's Cyberpunk launch is not part of a long-term downsizing. If anything, CD Projekt's ambitions are doubling down: the company says it will produce a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077, release three new Witcher RPGs in just six years, produce a new game set in a new world, and more.

At the same time, the company announced that co-CEO Marcin Iwiński would be stepping down and taking on a new role on CD Projekt's supervisory board. These announcements inevitably led to speculation that CD Projekt might be a takeover target. One theory is that its ultra-bold roadmap is either an attempt to attract large investors or a way to deter takeovers by raising its stock price.

With big companies like Microsoft buying up game studios, anything seems possible, but industry analyst Reese Elliott, who works for gaming research firm Newzoo (opens in new tab), said that CD Projekt's bold roadmap is not a good idea, as its current or He does not believe it draws any immediate conclusions about its current or future ownership.

"The expansive roadmap is not a clear indication of a company that expects to be acquired, and we don't want to speculate about the possibility of CD Projekt being acquired," Elliott told PC Gamer.

According to Elliott, it is common for mid-sized developers to have ambitious internal roadmaps for revenue projections and deadline setting. What is less typical is for them to release those roadmaps to the public, as CD Projekt does, and Elliott noticed that CD Projekt's success with "Cyberpunk: Edge Runners" on Netflix has improved the company's standing, He believes that he wanted to capture that moment.

"Had [CD Projekt] revealed this roadmap before fixing the status of 'Cyberpunk 2077,' there would have been a public and investor backlash and more negative sentiment towards the company," Elliott said. CD Projekt hopes to capitalize on this sentiment and turn the negative narrative completely on its head." The stock market also reacted positively to the announcement.

CD Projekt's stock price has risen about 28% in the past month, and Elliott said that, similar to the news earlier this year that CD Projekt would be switching to Unreal Engine 5, unlike the games from Cyberpunk and Witcher He believes that investors particularly appreciated the announcement of a non-licensed game that is wholly owned by CD Projekt.

"The company wants everyone to know that it has learned from its mistakes and is furthering its most successful strategies and has many projects underway," Elliott said. This is music to the investor's ears."

Another analyst, David Cole of DFC Intelligence (open in new tab), had a similar outlook.

"From my perspective, the announcement seems to have been made to give current and potential investors confidence that a lot of exciting things are on the way," Cole said.

However, it is possible that one of those potential investors is after the company's controlling interest," Elliott said, noting that both Tencent and Savvy Games Group have said they want to make major acquisitions in Europe.

Saudi-backed Savvy Games Group has specifically said it is interested in spending $13 billion on a "major game publisher."[23] CD Projekt would not do $13 billion, but the fund may be planning multiple acquisitions. CD It is not hard to imagine Projekt becoming part of Xbox, or having an Embracer-like experience, or becoming a Sony studio, but none of these scenarios are even rumors we are hearing. In fact, the only thing we have heard on the subject recently is what Adam Kisinski, the other co-CEO, said in an interview in 2021 (opens in new tab): "We have reiterated for years that we intend to remain independent and not become part of a larger organization. (Machine translation from Polish by Google.)

We didn't see Microsoft's acquisition of Bethesda or Activision Blizzard coming, so we don't deny anything, but analysts don't think a bunch of game announcements are enough. More cause for speculation is that CD Projekt's stock price has been stagnant (up in the short term, but down since 2020) and that a lot of game companies have been acquired recently.

Currently, CD Projekt's largest shareholder is outgoing co-CEO Marcin Iwiński, with a 12.78% stake. Adam Kiciński, the other CEO, owns 4.02%. The other major individual shareholders are Michał Kiciński and Piotr Nierubowicz. The remaining 66.04% of shares are publicly traded.