Poland's CD Projekt sells over 3 million copies of 'Phantom Liberty'

By Adrianna Ebert

GDANSK (Reuters) -Poland's biggest video game maker CD Projekt said on Thursday it had sold more than 3 million copies of "Phantom Liberty", its long-awaited expansion to flagship game "Cyberpunk 2077", by Oct 3.

"Phantom Liberty" was released just over a week ago and has been highly rated by players. It offers a spy-thriller adventure, featuring two film stars - Keanu Reeves and Idris Elba.

"Phantom Liberty" is CD Projekt's first major game premiere since the bug-ridden launch of "Cyberpunk 2077" in December 2020, which has now sold 25 million copies.

While the release is seen boosting CD Projekt's earnings this year, it has no other major new games planned for the next couple of years as it is works on new projects.

The market consensus is for CD Projekt to this year sell 3 million to 4.5 million copies of "Phantom Liberty", which was released on PC and current-generation consoles at a price of $29.99.

CD Projekt estimates total expenditure on the production of "Phantom Liberty" of around 275 million zlotys ($62.81 million).

On Steam platform, which sells digital copies of games for PCs, "Phantom Liberty" is rated "very positive" with 88% of 6,353 user reviews positive.

"Phantom Liberty" is the last project developed on CD Projekt's own technology RED Engine, with the company switching to the external Unreal Engine for upcoming developments, that include a Cyberpunk sequel.

Pointing to the successful release of "Phantom Liberty", CD Projekt CEO Adam Kicinski said he had the peace of mind to plan his next professional step.

From Jan. 1, Kicinski will act as Chief Strategy Officer, while Adam Badowski and Michal Nowakowski will jointly takeover the CEO role. Kicinski also plans to resign from his position on the company's management board at end of 2024 and run for the supervisory board in 2025.

The weekend after "Phantom Liberty" was released the number of players simultaneously playing "Cyberpunk 2077" reached 274,526 on Steam, the highest since the game's release.

($1 = 4.3784 zlotys)

(Reporting by Adrianna Ebert; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)