Despite what many could say was a flawed launch, with “so-so” reviews and more bugs than a roadside gas station toilet seat, CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 not only turned a profit on day one, but also had the biggest opening for a PC game ever. In fact, the game apparently earned back its development and in-house marketing costs from preorders alone.
As detailed on CD Projekt Red’s website for investors, the “Current report no. 65/2020” states that “the estimated licensing royalties receivable by [CD Projekt Red] in association with pre-order sales of Cyberpunk 2077 across all of its digital distribution channels have exceeded the sum of the following:
- total development expenditures related to the game, and
- the game’s marketing and promotional costs borne by the Company – either already incurred or anticipated for the remainder of 2020.”
As for the biggest PC game launch in history, Cyberpunk 2077 managed a total of 8 million pre-orders across all platforms, with (approximately) 4.72 million of those copies being on PC. That beats out former record holder, World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, which sold 3.7 million copies, and had held the record for literally a week.
But the real question is, just how much did Cyberpunk 2077 cost? CD Projekt Red hasn’t stated what the development costs were, but its Q3 2020 earnings presentation stated “development expenditures” from the start of 2018 of about $111 million, so you can take a guess from that.
Cyberpunk 2077 is available now on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with the PS5 and Xbox Series getting their upgraded versions in the new year.