Poland's CD Projekt full-year net profit rises 39%

FILE PHOTO: Karolina Kaluzynska, 28, plays CD Projekt’s game Cyberpunk 2077 in Warsaw, Poland, December 14, 2020. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/File Photo

By Adrianna Ebert

GDANSK (Reuters) -CD Projekt, Poland’s biggest games developer, posted a 39% rise in full-year net profit on Thursday, driven by strong sales of its flagship game Cyberpunk 2077 and the Phantom Liberty expansion.

Net profit reached 481.1 million zlotys ($120.66 million), beating analysts’ expectations of 428 million zlotys. Revenue for the year was up 29% to 1.23 billion zlotys.

“Update 2.0 and the Phantom Liberty expansion for Cyberpunk 2077 were released in September and met with enthusiastic reception on the part of gamers and gaming media alike. This resulted in strong sales of both titles,” Chief Financial Officer Piotr Nielubowicz said in a statement.

“In just over three years our cumulative revenues from sales of games which comprise the Cyberpunk franchise exceeded 3 billion zlotys, further attesting to the strength of this IP,” he added.

The results for 2023 are the second best in the group’s history.

However, CD Projekt now faces a couple of years without game releases, and revenue for the upcoming quarters will be based mainly on sales of existing games.

CD Projekt’s management board has recommended a dividend for 2023 of 1 zloty per share.

As of Feb. 29, 627 developers were working on company’s projects. Project Polaris, the first instalment of the new Witcher trilogy, is the furthest along in development, with over 400 people involved in it.

(Reporting by Adrianna Ebert; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Leslie Adler)