The Cyberpunk 2077 - CD Projekt bets on a longtail classic

Cyberpunk 2077 drops you into Night City with neon light bleeding across wet asphalt, holograms flickering above food stalls, and bass rolling through the controller as your bike engine growls under your hands. CD Projekt puts you in the boots of V, a mercenary whose brain is haunted by rocker-legend Johnny Silverhand, played by Keanu Reeves. The game is no longer just a launch headline but a long-selling core product in CD Projekt’s portfolio.

Open-world RPG that kept changing

At its core, Cyberpunk 2077 is a single-player, first-person open-world role-playing game built on CD Projekt’s in-house REDengine 4. Players pick from three lifepaths, invest attribute points, and customize skills across hacking, combat and stealth, steering the story through branching dialogue. The main campaign follows V’s fight to survive a malfunctioning biochip while navigating megacorp Arasaka, gangs and fixers across six dense districts of Night City.

On PC, Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5, Cyberpunk 2077 now supports ray-traced lighting modes, improved crowd AI and quicker loading compared with its launch state. CD Projekt’s quest director Pawe? Sasko has repeatedly said the team kept tuning quest logic, enemy balance and police response systems based on player feedback gathered after release. The studio also added a comprehensive “Metro” fast-travel view and UI refinements to make exploring Night City less overwhelming for new players.

Sales milestones and editions

Cyberpunk 2077 launched globally in December 2020 on PC, PlayStation and Xbox consoles after roughly eight years of development. By October 2023, CD Projekt reported over 25 million copies sold worldwide, putting the game among the most commercially successful single-player RPGs of its generation. In the same period, expansion Phantom Liberty sold around 4.3 million copies, showing continued appetite despite the rocky launch.

CD Projekt now sells Cyberpunk 2077 in several bundles, including the “Ultimate Edition” that combines the base game and the Phantom Liberty expansion on disc for consoles and as a digital set on PC. Discount campaigns on PC platforms such as Steam and GOG regularly push the game into the global top sellers chart, especially when patches or expansions arrive. For the publisher, the back catalog revenue from Cyberpunk 2077 helps smooth earnings between major new releases.

From troubled launch to technical redemption

When Cyberpunk 2077 arrived, last-generation console versions on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One were heavily criticized for bugs and performance issues. Sony temporarily removed the game from the PlayStation Store and offered refunds, an unusual step for a high-profile AAA launch. CD Projekt CEO Adam Kici?ski publicly apologized and committed to a long patch roadmap to stabilize the experience.

Over the following years, large updates such as patch 1.5 and the “2.0” overhaul reworked systems like perks, police AI and vehicle combat. Reviewers who revisited the game on current-gen consoles and PC reported noticeably better performance and a much more coherent buildcrafting and combat loop than at launch. This slow technical redemption helped rebuild the brand and extended the game’s commercial life far beyond the first release window.

Phantom Liberty and the end of major support

The Phantom Liberty expansion, released in September 2023, adds a spy-thriller storyline in the new Dogtown district and introduces Idris Elba as FIA agent Solomon Reed. The expansion also ships with the 2.0 system overhaul for all owners, even those who do not buy the DLC, changing how attributes, perks and cyberware capacity work. Critics highlighted the tighter mission design and more grounded tone compared with some of the base game’s main quests.

CD Projekt has stated that Phantom Liberty is the only expansion planned for Cyberpunk 2077, with the team moving to a sequel codenamed “Project Orion” using Unreal Engine 5 rather than REDengine. Quest director Pawe? Sasko and narrative director Philipp Weber have both shifted to work on the sequel, while a live-ops style content roadmap for the current game is not planned beyond bug fixes. For players, this means Cyberpunk 2077 is now a largely “complete” package rather than a live-service platform.

Platforms, price points and availability

Cyberpunk 2077 is available digitally on PC (GOG, Steam, Epic Games Store), PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S, as well as in retail disc form for consoles in major markets. Street prices vary widely: during promotions the base game often drops below 30 euros on PC and console storefronts in Europe, while the Ultimate Edition with Phantom Liberty tends to sit higher. In Poland, the home market, the PC version is sold via CD Projekt’s own GOG platform, which keeps the revenue inside the corporate group.

Ray tracing and higher-fidelity modes are only supported on powerful PCs and current-gen consoles, while last-gen consoles run at reduced resolution and visual settings. Cross-save features allow players moving from PlayStation 4 or Xbox One to carry progress to current-gen within the same console family, but there is no full cross-progression between PC and console ecosystems. Modding on PC, meanwhile, has grown into its own niche ecosystem, with visual, gameplay and quality-of-life mods extending the game’s replay value for dedicated players.

How Cyberpunk 2077 fits into CD Projekt’s business

CD Projekt now frames its strategy around two main brands: The Witcher and Cyberpunk. In recent presentations, management described Cyberpunk 2077 and Phantom Liberty as the first phase of a longer Cyberpunk franchise plan, with the upcoming Project Orion sequel as the next step. The company also licenses Cyberpunk 2077 into other media, from anime series to merchandise, building out a transmedia presence around Night City.

For investors, Cyberpunk 2077 functions as a longtail asset that keeps contributing to revenue through discounts, new editions and DLC even as new projects absorb development spending. On the Warsaw Stock Exchange, the CD Projekt S.A. share (ISIN PLOPTCD00011) reflects investor expectations for how well the company can leverage both the Cyberpunk and The Witcher brands over the coming years.