CD PROJEKT is a Polish video game publisher and distributor. It is best known for The Witcher franchise of video games developed by its studio division, CD PROJEKT RED.
History[]
The company was founded in May 1994 by Marcin Iwiński and Michał Kiciński. From the beginning their goal was to publish software in the Polish market on compact discs. The company became the first Polish publisher to publish software on CDs and for a long time it was the only company in Poland specializing in publishing computer and video games and educational software.
CD PROJEKT is also known in the Polish gamer community for being the first to publish fully translated international hit games, such as the Baldur's Gate saga (one of the first games fully translated into Polish, an event which became a milestone of computer gaming and publishing in Poland), Planescape: Torment (considered by many gamers as the best Polish translation of all times), both Icewind Dale games and many more. A recent major translation, widely covered by the media, was Heroes of Might and Magic V. Most of CD PROJEKT's game translations feature well known professional Polish actors and celebrities, such as Piotr Fronczewski, Bogusław Linda, Małgorzata Foremniak, Daniel Olbrychski and many others.
In 2002, CD PROJEKT expanded to the Czech Republic and Slovakia, where it began to distribute games in Czech translation.
On October 6, 2005, CD PROJEKT launched a platform called gram.pl (English: i'm playing.pl). It is a portal created for players looking to sell or buy new games, where a life-time warranty is provided with new purchases.
In February 2008, CD PROJEKT purchased the development studio Metropolis Software. On July 10, 2008, CD PROJEKT launched Good Old Games (GOG.com), a distribution platform for purchasing classic, DRM-free computer games online.
In order to smoothly enter the stock exchange, CDP Investment (the holding company of CD PROJEKT) was merged with Optimus, a public company with financial problems that were solved by acquiring CD PROJEKT. On July 25, 2011, Optimus S.A. officialy changed its name into CD PROJEKT Red S.A.
2012 saw further name changes in order to clarify the group's structure. On September 21, the original distributor abbreviated its name from CD PROJEKT to cdp.pl, following with founding new online shop for games, movies, and e-books with the same name. In November, CD PROJEKT RED S.A. changed name to CD PROJEKT S.A., leaving the name "CD PROJEKT RED" solely for the gamedev studio. In the same month, managers of cdp.pl Michał Gembicki i Robert Wesołowski bought the control from CD PROJEKT S.A., making the distributor independent from its former owners. In 2016 cdp.pl launched Klabater brand responsible for Indie game publishing and in 2017 it changed name to CDP, selling cdp.pl shop to Merlin Commerce Group.
As of 2020, CD PROJEKT Capital Group is headed by CD PROJEKT S.A., owned by Iwiński and Kiciński, and consists of:
- CD PROJEKT RED: world-renowned videogame development studio
- CD PROJEKT RED Store: physical products
- GOG: global digital distribution
- Spokko: mobile games development studio
CDP publisher remained independent from CD PROJEKT Capital Group. It bankrupted in April 2020.
CD PROJEKT RED[]
CD PROJEKT RED is the development studio of CD PROJEKT, specializing in video games. Founded in 2002, it first produced The Witcher, based on Andrzej Sapkowski's books, for a 2007 release. It is headquartered in Warsaw.
In July 2013, CD PROJEKT RED opened a new studio in Kraków to develop "two new smaller games approximately 20-hours in length".[1] In July 2015, it was revealed that they were the two expansions for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, first called Hearts of Stone expansion and second Blood and Wine expansion,[2] both announced on April 7, 2015.[3]