As the fallout from Cyberpunk 2077‘s launch begins to settle, CD Projekt Red has announced it has acquired Vancouver-based studio Digital Scapes as part of its new strategy adjustments.
Digital Scapes, a team of “around a dozen experienced game creators,” has worked closely with the Polish studio since 2018, “assisting with development of [Cyberpunk 2077] and optimizing its various features.” With the acquisition, they will now be known as CD Projekt Red Vancouver, and will expand as it continues to collaborate with the other branches in Warsaw, Cracow, and Wroclaw.
“We are very excited to join a studio that forges the incredibly engaging, vastly scoped experiences, such as The Witcher trilogy and Cyberpunk 2077,” said Vancouver studio head Marcin Chady. “We believe our contribution in the area of gameplay and technology can make them even more captivating. Being a Polish Canadian, I personally take great satisfaction in building bridges between Canadian and Polish game development industries. This is a great opportunity for Canadian developers to get involved with CD Projekt Red’s incredible IP and for CD Projekt Red to tap into Canada’s deep talent pool and game-making craft.”
The acquisition is part of the company’s “RED 2.0” initiative, a reshuffling of priorities and a new set of goals to help the company recover from Cyberpunk 2077‘s launch debacle. Their studio will reorganize “as a set of interdisciplinary agile teams” and its REDengine technology “will be improved and centralized” for a more proactive approach.
“We emphasize technological advancements and we want to set up versatile teams which combine various specializations and competences,” said CTO and Head of Production, Paweł Zawodny. “These teams will be further assisted by a cross-projects group of experts, who – owing to their expertise – can contribute to key aspects of development. All these changes aim to enable us to work on multiple AAA games and expansions in parallel, starting in 2022.”
As well, CD Projekt Red will adopt more mindful marketing strategies. Upcoming games will be shown closer to their intended release and on all supported platforms, unlike the infamously long development for Cyberpunk 2077. These future projects will expand the company’s core IPs, The Witcher and Cyberpunk, to new areas and media, while incorporating enhanced online functionality.
Perhaps most important of all, CD Projekt Red is pledging to improve working conditions for its employees. The company was under heavy fire over the last two years for enforcing extensive periods of mandatory overtime. To combat this, management is looking to aggressively expand its workforce while investing in employees’ development and wellbeing.
“For years we have been underscoring our belief that our greatest asset is our team,” said Studio Head Adam Badowski. “CD Projekt will remain an inclusive and diverse workplace; however, we also want to emphasize the well-being of our employees and provide them with professional and personal development opportunities.”
The RED 2.0 initiative addresses many of the areas where the company has gone astray over the last few years, but CD Projekt Red will nonetheless have a long road ahead of them, and a lot of public scrutiny. Cyberpunk 2077‘s latest patch released this week and appears to have addressed many outstanding issues, but Sony has yet to relist the game on its digital store.
