Mobile game The Witcher: Monster Slayer is being shut down after lack of success

CD Projekt RED (CDPR) has announced that its augmented reality RPG, The Witcher: Monster Slayer, will be removed from mobile storefronts following poor performance metrics.

The details:

• It was confirmed on Tuesday, December 6 that the game will be delisted from the App Store and Google Play on January 31, 2023, with access being revoked for all players later that year on June 30.
• Developed by CDPR studio Spokko, and released in July 2021, The Witcher: Monster Slayer performed well in the first month of its launch. Despite a severe lack of marketing, the game generated $600,000+ in revenue and surpassed 1.1 million downloads.
• Only four months after release, however, in November 2021, the game generated just $30,000 with an underwhelming 18,000 downloads. These figures have continued to decline despite a large content update arriving in June 2022.
• The studio behind the game, Spokko, will be merged into the main CDPR studio, with some layoffs expected. In an FAQ blog post, the developer confirmed this with the following statement: “Moving forward, we plan to roll Spokko into CD Projekt, with a part of its staff given the opportunity to join core CD Projekt Red development projects. During this transition, there will be some staff members who will, unfortunately, be let go. However, we will do our best to support all of our employees affected by this situation and ensure the transition to the next step in their careers is as easy and safe as possible.”

What’s going on at CDPR?

• CDPR revealed in October that it’ll be focusing on a new Witcher trilogy (and spin-off titles), a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077, and an all-new IP. The projects are all in varying stages of development with no official release dates yet.
• One of the titles will be a remake of the original Witcher game — developed by the studio Fool’s Theory. It’s confirmed to be in an open-world setting.
• In another announcement this week, CDPR confirmed that the Witcher card game, Gwent, will be receiving its final 72 cards throughout 2023, with direct support coming to an end in 2024. Unlike Monster Slayer, the game will still be playable after this date, with any future balancing changes being decided by community votes.