CD Projekt S.A. is a Polish computer game publisher and distributor. 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 specialising in publishing video games and educational software.
More recently, they gained international renown thanks to the Wiedźmin (The Witcher) game trilogy. Created by their development subdivision, CD Projekt RED, and based on the classic fantasy saga by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski—the third instalment of the series, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, was a huge commercial success. Along with its expansions the game received countless Game of the Year awards, and is widely considered to be one of the greatest games of all time.
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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.
CD Projekt RED[]
CD Projekt RED is a Polish video game publisher and developer. The company was founded in February 2002 as a development studio subdivision of CD Projekt. The first game the unit produced is The Witcher, based on Andrzej Sapkowski's books. In February of 2008, CD Projekt RED's parent company CD Projekt acquired Metropolis Software development studio, which was subsequently merged with CD Projekt RED.
Games Developed[]
- The Witcher (2007)
- The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (2011)
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015)
- Cyberpunk 2077 (2020)
- Cyberpunk Orion (In development)
History[]
After the international success of The Witcher, CD Projekt changed its focus to game development. In 2008, CD Projekt group companies became part of a newly created holding company, CDP Investment Sp. z o.o. Soon thereafter, in what is known as reverse takeover, CDP Investment merged with Optimus S.A., a public company listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. In October 2011, CD Projekt RED Sp. z o.o. merged with CD Projekt RED S.A. and became the dominant part of the group.
- During February 2002, CD Projekt launched a new unit, CD Projekt RED Studio, which specialises in developing computer games. Their first game in production was The Witcher, based on Andrzej Sapkowski's books. Also in 2002, CD Projekt expanded to the Czech Republic and Slovakia, where it began to distribute games in Czech translation.
- On 6 October, 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. A life-time warranty is provided with new purchases.
- In February 2008, CD Projekt purchased the Metropolis Software development studio.
- On 10 July 2008, CD Projekt announced Good Old Games (gog.com), a service for purchasing classic, DRM-free computer games online.