So it seems like the big new RPG has smashed some sales expectations. CD Projekt Red has spent approximately $135 million making the game, and they’re very likely to make a rather large mint off of it. Even cutting the profit figures in half, there’s still $240 million to be made from just the raw pre-orders at $60 a pop giving $30 in profit. That’s wild.
Retail sales made up roughly 25% of the sales of pre-orders, so the margins are lower there, but digital storefronts accounted for massive profits. Even with around half of all pre-orders supplying $35 a copy, the game still made its raw development budget back already. There are marketing and other costs to think about as well, but the game is going to be a huge success no matter what way you slice the pie.
— CD PROJEKT IR (@CDPROJEKTRED_IR) December 10, 2020
Most of the profits from this massive sales boom will go to the developers, CDPR. For example, the Epic version would get 88% profit. while Steam starts at 70% and increases a further 10% after $50 million has been made on the game. Just crazy to think about. Of course, it would be rather remiss of me not to mention the troubled development and mandatory crunch the studio heads forced on employees. That impact was likely felt for months on end, and really needs to end.
Throw on top of the pile of woe that pre-order culture is kind of nightmarish and you have a toxic mixture. The games industry has become increasingly reliant on this trend to ship games in buggy states, relying on dangerous crunch and day one patch rushes to fix issues that would normally be fixed with longer development cycles. And with CDPR totally insisting that crunch is not that bad, we should totally believe them when this much money is on the line.
But of course, consumers just want their game, costs be damned apparently. And the inexorable tide of the nonsense of the video game industry rolls on.
PC pre-orders accounted for 59% of those 8 million sold, with consoles packing in the rest. According to Gamesindustry.biz, this makes Cyberpunk 2077 the fastest-selling PC game since World of Warcraft’s Shadowlands expansion released. That’s just crazy, and it’s kind of soul-crushing how quickly people seemed not to care about the hell the team went through to make this game.
