CD Projekt Red CEO acknowledges some fans "lost faith" following the release of Cyberpunk 2077

CD Projekt Red’s co-CEO, Michał Nowakowski, says the studio still hasn’t completed its “full redemption arc” after Cyberpunk 2077’s disastrous launch and admits it has “lost the faith of some people indefinitely” while hoping The Witcher 4 can eventually win some of them back.

The details:

• Speaking to Edge’s Knowledge newsletter, Nowakowski called the 2020 launch period “heartbreaking,” stressing that CDPR’s reputation had been its “greatest asset” and that the technical state of Cyberpunk 2077 on last‑gen consoles shattered that perception for a portion of its audience.
• Despite the game receiving a critically acclaimed DLC in Phantom Liberty as well as a 2.0 overhaul patch, Nowakowski believes that the negative impact of the launch has still not been resolved. “I’m not 100% convinced we went through the full redemption arc," he said. “I’m convinced that we lost the faith of some people indefinitely, and that’s a fair thing. But I do hope we will be able to make it back—if not with The Witcher 4, then with whatever comes next.”
• While Cyberpunk 2077 has now sold more than 35 million copies and its reputation has improved significantly, notable figures at CDPR like Nowakowski and Cyberpunk sequel director Paweł Sasko have repeatedly acknowledged that some players may never trust CDPR again, seeing that loss as “the price we have to pay for what happened.”
• CD Projekt Red is now betting that The Witcher 4, which is being built in Unreal Engine 5 and is billed as the start of a “new saga,” can be one of the key steps in rebuilding that trust, with Nowakowski saying he hopes the studio can prove it has learned its lessons “if not with The Witcher 4, then with whatever comes next.”