projekt s.a. type public traded as wse cdr isin plopttc00011 industry computer and video games founded 1994 ; 22 years ago 1994 founders marcin iwi ski micha kici ski headquarters warsaw poland area served worldwide key people adam kici ski president ceo marcin iwi ski ceo products video games digital distribution services revenue pln 798 million 2015 1 profit pln 342.4 million 2015 1 total equity pln 513.6 million 2015 1 number of employees 370 2 divisions cd projekt red subsidiaries gog.com website www.cdprojekt.com en cd projekt s.a. polish pronunciation ce de pr j kt formerly cd projekt sp . z.o.o. is a polish video game developer publisher and distributor based in warsaw which was founded in 1994 by marcin iwi ski and micha kici ski . iwi ski and kici ski were video game retailers before they founded the company . cd projekt is best known for their the witcher series of video games and their digital distribution service gog.com . the company began translating major western video game releases into polish collaborating with interplay entertainment for two baldur s gate games . cd projekt was working on the pc version of baldur s gate dark alliance when interplay experienced financial difficulties . the game was cancelled and the company decided to reuse the code for their own video game . it became the witcher a video game based on the works of andrzej sapkowski . after the release of the witcher cd projekt worked on a console port called the witcher white wolf ; but development issues and increasing costs almost led the company to the brink of bankruptcy . cd projekt later released the witcher 2 assassins of kings and the witcher 3 wild hunt which received positive critical reviews . the company s upcoming project is cyberpunk 2077 an open world role playing game based on the cyberpunk 2020 tabletop system . a video game distribution service gog.com was established by cd projekt to help players find old games . its mission is to offer games free of digital rights management drm to players and its service was expanded to cover new aaa and independent games . the company opposes drm in video games and hopes that free downloadable content becomes an industry standard . cd projekt considers maintaining their independence one of their most important strategies . the company currently focuses on the international market particularly europe and north america and spun off its polish business cdp.pl in 2014 . 3 contents 1 history 1.1 founding 1.2 localization 1.3 game development 1.4 game distribution 1.5 future 2 games developed 3 company philosophy 4 references 5 external links history edit founding edit cd projekt co founder marcin iwi ski cd projekt was founded in 1994 by marcin iwi ski and michal kici ski . according to iwi ski although he enjoyed playing video games as a child they were scarce in poland which was in the soviet union s sphere of influence at the time . polish copyright law did not exist 4 and iwi ski in high school sold cracked copies of western video games at a warsaw marketplace . 5 in high school iwi ski met kici ski who became his business partner ; at that time kici ski also sold video games . 4 wanting to conduct business legitimately iwi ski and kici ski began importing games from us retailers and were the first importers of cd rom games . 6 after poland s transition to a primarily market based economy in the early 90s they founded their own company . iwi ski and kici ski founded cd projekt in the second quarter of 1994 . with only 2 000 they used a friend s flat as a rent free office . 5 4 localization edit when cd projekt was founded their biggest challenge was overcoming video game piracy . the company was one of the first in poland to localize games ; according to iwi ski most of their products were sold to mom and pop shops . cd projekt began partial localization for developers such as seven stars and leryx longsoft in 1996 and full scale localization a year later . 7 to sell their games they approached bioware and interplay entertainment for the polish localization of baldur s gate . they expected the title to become popular in poland and no retailer would be able to translate the text from english version to polish . to increase the title s popularity in poland cd projekt added items to the game s packaging and hired well known polish actors to voice its characters . their first attempt was successful with 18 000 units shipped on the game s release day higher than the average shipments of other games at the time . 5 4 the company continued to work with interplay after the release of baldur s gate collaborating on a pc port for the sequel baldur s gate dark alliance . to develop the port cd projekt hired sebastian zieli ski who had developed mortyr 2093 1944 and adam badowski who became head of the company s game development division cd projekt red . six months after development began interplay experienced financial problems and cancelled the pc version . cd projekt continued to localize other games after dark alliance s cancellation and received business gazelle awards in 2003 and 2004 . 8 game development edit enthusiasm for game distribution ebbed and cd projekt s founders wondered if the company should continue as a distributor or a game developer after dark alliance s cancellation . with the game cancelled and its code owned by cd projekt the company planned to use them to develop their first original game . 5 4 they intended to develop a game series based on andrzej sapkowski s wied min books which were popular in poland and the author accepted the company s development proposal . the franchise rights had been sold to a polish mobile game studio but the studio had not worked on anything related to the franchise and cd projekt acquired the rights to the wied min franchise . according to iwi ski he and kici ski had no idea how to develop a video game at that time . 4 after two weeks of meetings we get two emails saying in a very nice british way it s not so good . so pretty much boys go home . we were shattered . we were like oh my god we suck . cd projekt co founder marcin iwi ski on publisher rejection of the witcher demo 4 to develop the game the company formed a video game development studio cd projekt red headed by sebastian zieli ski in d in 2002 . the studio made a demonstration game which adam badowski called a piece of crap in retrospect . the demo was a role playing game with a top down perspective similar to dark alliance and diablo and used the game engine which powered mortyr . 9 iwi ski and kici ski pitched the demo to a number of publishers without success . the d office closed and the staff except for zieli ski moved to the warsaw headquarters . 4 zieli ski left the company and kici ski headed the project . although the game s development continued the demo was abandoned . according to cd projekt the development team had different ideas for the game and lacked overall direction ; as a result it was returned to the drawing board in 2003 . 10 11 the team unfamiliar with video game development spent nearly two years organising production . 6 they received assistance from bioware who helped promote the game at the 2004 electronic entertainment expo by offering cd projekt space in their booth next to jade empire . bioware also licensed their aurora game engine to the company . 12 the game s budget exceeded expectations . the original 15 person development team expanded to about 100 at a cost of 20 million z oty . according to iwi ski content was removed from the game for budgetary reasons but the characters personalities were retained ; however there was difficulty in translating the game s polish text into english . 13 atari agreed to publish the game . 14 after five years of development 6 the game would bring wied min to an international audience and so the company came up with an english name the witcher . the witcher was released in 2007 to generally positive reviews . 15 sales were satisfactory and the development of sequels began almost immediately after the witcher s release . the team began the design work for the witcher 2 and experimented with consoles to develop a new engine for the witcher 3 . their development was halted when the team began work on the witcher white wolf a console version of the witcher . 4 although they collaborated with french studio widescreen games for the console port it entered development limbo . widescreen demanded more manpower money and time to develop the title complaining that they were not being paid ; 16 according to iwi ski cd projekt paid them more than their own staff members . the team cancelled the project suspending its development . 17 unhappy with the decision atari demanded that cd projekt repay them for funding the console port development and iwi ski agreed that atari would be the north american publisher of the sequel of the witcher 2 . 4 cd projekt acquired metropolis software in 2008 . 18 the dispute over white wolf was costly ; the company faced bankruptcy 19 with the financial crisis of 2007 08 a contributing factor . 4 to stay afloat the team decided to focus on the witcher 2 with the witcher 3 engine . when the engine known as redengine was finished the game could be ported to other consoles . 20 to develop the witcher 2 the company suspended development of metropolis first person shooter they . 21 after three and a half years of development the witcher 2 assassins of kings was released in 2011 to critical praise 4 and sales of more than 1.7 million copies . 22 after the witcher 2 cd projekt wanted to develop an open world game of a quality similar to their other games and the company wanted to add features to avoid criticism that it was witcher 2.5 . they wanted to push the game s graphics boundaries releasing it only for the pc and eighth generation consoles . this triggered debate on the team some of whom wanted to release the game for older consoles to maximise profit . 4 the witcher 3 wild hunt took three and a half years to develop 6 and cost over 81 million . 4 23 after multiple delays it was released in may 2015 to critical praise . 24 wild hunt was commercially successful selling six million copies in its first six weeks and giving the studio a profit of 236 million z oty 62.5 million in the first half of 2015 . 25 26 the team released 15 content downloads and two expansions hearts of stone and blood and wine . 27 cd projekt released two other the witcher games the witcher adventure a board game for pc ios and android 28 and the witcher battle arena a multiplayer online battle arena game for ios and android . 29 at e3 2016 the company announced gwent the witcher card game based on the popular card mini game gwent from the witcher 3 . 30 in december 2015 cd projekt red won the developer of the year award at the game awards 2015 . 31 in march 2016 the company announced that they had another role playing game in development and that the title is scheduled to be released in the period 2017 to 2021 . they also announced plans for