The price of saving Cyberpunk 2077: CD Projekt spent more than $120 million on free updates, the Phantom Liberty expansion, and releasing full versions of the game for modern consoles

By: Anton Kratiuk | 07.10.2023, 14:39

Cyberpunk 2077 finally became the game that gamers expected: beautiful, atmospheric, dynamic, exciting, technological and, most importantly, working perfectly on different platforms.

But it cost CD Projekt Red three years of extra work and huge financial investments.

Here's What We Know

At the presentation for investors, CD Projekt executives revealed information about the costs of saving Cyberpunk 2077.

It is known that $174 million was spent on the creation of the game and another $142 million was spent on its marketing.

After the failed release, the Polish studio invested another $124 million to save the game:

  • $40 million was spent on releasing versions for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series and the free 2.0 update;
  • development and marketing of the Phantom Liberty add-on cost $84 million: $62.8 million of that was spent on expansion development and $21 million on marketing.

Was saving Cyberpunk 2077 worth such an investment? Definitely, yes, because at stake was not only the unsuccessful release of the game, on which spent many years and huge sums, but also the shaken reputation of CD Projekt, which before the release of this game was impeccable.

At the moment, both Cyberpunk 2077 and Phantom Liberty are showing great sales. Plus, the developers have big plans for this franchise, so it was vital to bring the first game to the highest possible quality, which, judging by the feedback from gamers and critics, they have managed to do.

Source: CD Projekt