CD Projekt Red still has work to do if it wants to fully escape the shadow of Cyberpunk 2077’s launch, but the Polish studio is no longer pretending otherwise. After years of apology tours, fixes, and player goodwill slowly rebuilding, the company now says the real test is whether The Witcher 4 can win back the people who never came back.
The problem is simple: Cyberpunk 2077 eventually became a much better game, yet its broken December 2020 debut left a stain that patches could not completely erase. That kind of reputational hit is familiar in games – and in tech generally – because a bad first impression tends to outlive a good redemption arc. Ask any company that shipped a messy flagship product and then spent years trying to talk people into remembering the sequel instead.
The Cyberpunk 2077 launch still lingers
In an interview with Edge’s Knowledge, co-CEO Michał Nowakowski said the studio may never regain everyone it lost after Cyberpunk 2077’s disastrous launch. He called that launch ”heartbreaking” for the team, and said reputation was one of CD Projekt Red’s biggest assets before it took the hit.
That admission matters because it cuts through the usual studio spin. Cyberpunk 2077 was eventually dragged back into favor by updates, expansions, and a long tail of player forgiveness, but CD Projekt Red’s own leadership is now saying some damage is permanent. That is a more honest read than pretending a successful comeback automatically wipes the slate clean.
The Witcher 4 is the redemption bet
Nowakowski is still hopeful, though. He said the company wants to win back lost fans through The Witcher 4, or through whatever comes after it, even if some players are gone for good. In other words: one great release may not be enough, but it is the only real way out.
That strategy makes sense, and it also raises the pressure. CD Projekt Red is planning its next chance to change the conversation no earlier than 2027, when The Witcher 4 is expected to arrive. The game is already in active development, with 513 of CDPR’s 975 employees assigned to the project, so this is not a vague promise – it is the company’s main act.
- Cyberpunk 2077 launched in December 2020 and was widely criticised for technical problems, especially on consoles.
- The game was temporarily removed from PS Store, and refunds were promised to unhappy buyers.
- CD Projekt Red says some former fans may never return, but The Witcher 4 is its best shot at changing that.
A stronger game can fix a lot, not everything
The gaming industry has seen this pattern before: a studio ships something messy, then spends years proving it can still execute. Sometimes the sequel repairs the brand. Sometimes it just proves the original lucked out once. CD Projekt Red now has to show that Cyberpunk 2077 was a catastrophic exception, not a warning label.
The open question is whether The Witcher 4 will be judged as a fresh start or as a referendum on the studio’s memory. If it lands cleanly, the redemption story gets another chapter. If it stumbles, the market will not be nearly as forgiving the second time around.