How much did Cyberpunk 2077 really cost to develop?
As a passionate gamer and industry commentator, I‘ve followed Cyberpunk 2077‘s turbulent development journey closely right from its first teaser trailer all the way back in 2013.
Now finally released after multiple delays, Cyberpunk 2077 comes with an official price tag of $316 million – making it one of the most expensive entertainment products ever created.
But what does it really take to build the self-labeled "next generation open world RPG" in terms of money, manpower and other resources? Let‘s break it down:
The Cyberpunk 2077 brain trust: up to 500 developers across 4 studios
CD Projekt Red built up development manpower gradually over the 8 year project lifespan. Starting with an approximate team of 50 in pre-production back in 2012, this expanded to between 400-500 at peak – though precise numbers were not publicly shared.
Across programming, art and design disciplines, the army of developers was spread primarily across these studios:
- CDPR HQ in Warsaw, Poland
- Wrocław, Poland satellite office
- External partners Digital Scapes & QLOC
There was also collaboration with elite graphics programmers at Nvidia, animation firm Jali Research and celebrity likeness experts at Cubic Motion.
To put the team scale into perspective, Rockstar‘s Red Dead Redemption 2 development staff peaked at around 2000. Cyberpunk‘s bigger-than-typical AAA team reflects both engine architecture complexity and the ambition driving this boundary-pushing project.
Average annual salary data suggests a total wage bill somewhere in the ~$200-250 million range – the single biggest line item. This covers 8 full years of work for an increasingly large, world-class development group.
The long and winding road: Ambitions collide with realities
Cyberpunk 2077‘s development timeline paints an almost tragic picture of vision clashing with circumstance:
May 2012 – Witcher franchise development finishes; small CDPR concept team begins working on Cyberpunk
June 2016 – Engineers switch from proprietary REDengine 3 to new REDengine 4
August 2019 – Actor Keanu Reeves announced as Johnny Silverhand character
April 2020 – The "last big delay" announced from April to Sep 2020 release
September 2020 – Delayed another 21 days to December 10 2020
What went wrong? It‘s now clear Cyberpunk‘s genre-defining goals proved impossible to achieve within initial timeframes.
Engine architecture transitions, the desire for top celebrity likeness capture, next-gen console launches – all extended an already complex, multi-threaded dialogue and missions system.
Ultimate lesson: Even with strong vision and adequate funding, major "innovative open world" games now realistically take ~7-10 years. Anything less tends to end in crunch or quality issues.
Post-launch woes amplify financial damage
Despite the hydrocarbon-fuelled hype train preceding launch, buyers quickly experienced a game riddled with bugs, performance issues and visible last minute cuts on base consoles.
Despite passing 13 million sales in under 2 weeks, the launch disaster led to:
- Blanket refunds offered by CDPR and Sony
- Class action investor lawsuit and board resignations
- >75% share price drop, cutting market cap by ~$6 billion
Conservative estimates suggest total sales may have hit 20-25 million at full price if the launch debacle was averted through more polish time or next-gen exclusivity.
Instead, financial damage has been substantial:
- Refunds in the <$100 million range>
- Settlement costs from lawsuits possibly exceeding <$50 million>
- Multi-billion dollar loss in projected market cap
The exact costs may never be public – but it‘s safe to say Cyberpunk‘s road to redemption will be long, and paved with lessons for the entire industry.
