COVID-19 cases in Minnesota and Wisconsin | kare11.com

Happy new year, everyone! With COVID pushing people to get outside more than any winter in the last several decades, I have seen several discussions come up (on Facebook, NextDoor, and even trailside) surrounding the usage and etiquette of groomed trails in the winter. In order to help ensure people have as positive an experience as possible, I thought it would be helpful to outline some of the rules, both written and unwritten, that exist to protect trail users as well as the trails themselves. That said...

The Written Rules

1. Almost all trails which are machine groomed require a daily or annual pass to use. Note that there are a few different organizations that maintain trails, so if you use multiple trail systems, you may also need multiple passes. Fortunately, unlike downhill resorts, these passes are generally very cheap (generally $5-10 for a day pass or $25-90 for a season).
   • Three Rivers Park District has a single pass which is valid for all of their parks throughout the metro.
   • All ski and multiuse trails inside Theodore Wirth Park are maintained by the Loppet Foundation, including groomed trails on Brownie Lake, Cedar Lake, and Lake of the Isles. Fat bike trails are maintained by MORC, who do not require trail passes (but throw them a donation anyway!)
   • All Ramsay County (such as those by Battle Creek) AND State Park (such as Afton and William O'Brien) ski trails are covered by the Great Minnesota Ski Pass, as are many other trail systems throughout the state.
2. Many trails are protected use and prohibit most forms of traffic (i.e. many trails are for skiing only, or fat biking only, or walking only). Many other trails, however, are multi use and do allow multiple or all forms of human powered traffic. Bottom line: check trail maps in advance and actively look foread signs at trailheads and trail intersections. Please respect these limitations.
   • Although not always true, it is often the case that there will be multiple sets of trails for different usages within the same park. These different trails may or may not share a trailhead (for example, the trails in Elm Creek do not; ski trails start by the main chalet, while walking trails have access points at the beach lot, the nature center, and a couple of other points along the outer ring).
3. Many trails also have a specified direction. This is usually not true for trails where walking is permitted, but for ski and bike specific trails, it is the norm rather than the exception. Be sure you are not travelling the wrong way on a trail, especially if it is hilly or technical.

The Unwritten Rules

1. Regardless of your chosen activity, as a general rule, if you leave tracks that are any deeper than the tread on your boots/shoes/tires, you should stop. Deep tracks can ruin the trail for other users, and they can be surprisingly difficult to remove even when regrooming.
2. As on a bike path in the summer, please yield to faster traffic. Of course, this cuts both ways - when passing others, you should give them sufficient notice, time and space to move over, and should never force yourself past someone else. In general, always be aware of and courteous to other trail users. Pro tip: bikers may use a bell or a call such as "rider back!" or "on your left/right!". Skiers will frequently call for "Track!" to request an opportunity to pass - especially if they are coming up behind you in the same set of classic tracks.
3. If walking or snowshoeing on a ski specific trail, or a multiuse trail which is "ski focused" (i.e. the trails near Eloise Butler flower garden), walkers should endeavor to stay near the edge of the trail opposite any groomed classic tracks (see below).
4. Classic tracks, the set of parallel channels which often run along one edge of ski trails, are especially prone to damage, and one should never step on or bike along them. Even skiers should take care to avoid skiing across them, especially repeatedly (i.e. while skate skiing).
5. Trailheads are by far the most congested areas of any trail system. Especially given the COVID situation this year, please do not loiter when starting or stopping your activity - move through as quickly as possible and make room for other trail users.
6. Have fun. Be nice. :)

Some FAQ's

• Why are protected use trails necessary?
  • Although multiuse trails are great for providing access to the largest number of people, in order to do so, some compromises need to be made in both the design and the maintenance of the trails. Protected use trails allow for a better, often safer experience for participants of a specific activity, especially if the trails are especially challenging or technical.
• Don't my taxes pay for these trails?
  • By and large, no. Of course, funding sources vary from trail system to trail system, but in most cases, trail maintenance is paid for primarily by the sale of trail passes and bolstered by many hundreds of hours of volunteer labor.
• Don't skiers just use the tracks on the side of the trail?
  • No. Modern cross country skiing is split into two disciplines: classic and skating. Classic skiing requires the parallel tracks that people typically associate with ski trails, however skate skiing requires a wide, flat, smooth "deck" in order to do. Most ski-oriented trails accommodate both disciplines by grooming most of the trail flat, but also cutting a set of classic tracks along one edge (usually the right).

Conclusion

My intent in writing this post is to help inform new and potential trail users, so that misunderstandings and confrontations can be avoided on the trail. I do worry slightly that it will come across as gatekeeping, and I sincerely hope that it does not. I have seen more people out on the trails this year than ever before, and that makes me genuinely happy. Minneapolis, St. Paul, and the surrounding areas have some of the best municipal parks and trail systems in the country if not the world, and I strongly believe that the more people get out and use them, the better. With that in mind, I hope to see you all out there!
Edit: Special thank you and shout out to Jeff Wagner at WCCO for adapting this post and getting it on the CBS Evening News tonight (January 5th)! You can check out his handiwork here.

Adam Kiciński (AK):Good afternoon,Thank you for joining the call. My name is Adam Kicińskiand I am the Joint-CEO of CD PROJEKT. This meeting was organized to discuss the situation right after the launch of Cyberpunk 2077. At the beginning I will present our current view of the situation which we are in today. After that, you will have time to ask questions. I’m with Piotr Nielubowicz, our CFO, Marcin Iwiński the Joint-CEO and co-founder, and Michał Nowakowski, Board Member responsible for publishing.
We released Cyberpunk 2077 4 days ago on December the 10th. The game had a strong opening and we’ve got positive feedback from players enjoying it on stronger machines —PCs and next gen consoles and Stadia —but the initial feedback from those playing it on the oldest last-gen consoles is way below our expectations.
CD PROJEKT is a team that puts all their efforts and hearts to deliver amazing games. So how was it even possible that it has come to this?
After 3 delays, we as the Management Board were too focused on releasing the game. We underestimated the scale and complexity of the issues, we ignored the signals about the need for additional time to refine the game on the base last-gen consoles. It was the wrong approach and against our business philosophy. On top of that, during the campaign, we showed the game mostly on PCs.
This caused the loss of gamers’ trust and the reputation that we’ve been building through a big part of our lives. That’s why our first steps are solely focused on regaining those two things. We are concentrated on fixing Cyberpunk on last-gen consoles. The first substantial set of fixes was released over the weekend. The next set of fixes will be released within the next seven days. Big updates are planned for January and February, together with smaller fixes. Of course, PC gamers will also be getting regular updates and fixes to improve the game. We will do everything possible to prove that we stick to our values.
We truly hope that our efforts will let us rebuild the trust we have lost.
Thank you. Now we are ready for the Q&A session.
Q1: Hi there, I’ve got three questions. Firstly, I wonder if you could give us some more color on the impact this had on sales overthe first four days since release, for the old-gen consoles–obviously it’d be great if you could give us a sense of what you current sales are, in total, maybe on two digital platforms, that’d be most helpful, but if you can’t give us an actual number, then maybe just some color on what impact you’re seeing, and maybe a percentage of your sales that you expected to come from old-gen consoles –that’s the first question. Secondly, taking a step back and thinking what went wrong here, could you give us a sense of whether you think you could have released this game on old-gen consoles in the way that you wanted to if you had more developers? Do you think this was a headcount capacity issue or a workflow issue –some color on that would be helpful. And finally, again, thinking forward to your additional content that you’re planning to launch over the next 2-3 years–how do you feel about your ability to release a couple of DLCs next year, and, obviously, multiplayer in 2022?
Piotr Nielubowicz (PN): Hello, Piotr Nielubowicz on this side. We definitely saw good initial sales, especially on PC. Obviously, the current situation will cause console sales to drop, but at this moment on Monday it’s far too early to provide detailed feedback on that; we’re still collecting data, especially from retail channels, and I’m afraid I won’t be able to answer this question precisely; however, as we promised prior to this call, we plan to release sales numbers before the holiday break.
Michał Nowakowski (MN): Hi, this is Michał Nowakowski –the second question; would having more developers help deliver the game on old-gens? In terms of delivering the game at a certain point, it’s really not about the number of people; it’s not like throwing in –in the last month –200 or so people would actually help. So, the answer is no; this is not related to the fact that we could have thrown 300 or 500 more people into the fray and things would have happened differently.
AK: Adam Kiciński; the third question –to be honest, it’s too early to judge. At the moment please let us handle the situation, and please let us make some more assessments –that’s still ahead of us; we don’t know yet, and we’re now focused on improving Cyberpunk. We’ll discuss this early next year.
Q2: I have three questions. First of all, I’ve seen that you’re offering refunds through the Sony and Microsoft platforms, and also through retailers. Since you made that kind of comment on Twitter –have you seen a flood of refund requests that you have to deal with, or are most people who have already bought the game holding on to it, trusting you that you’ll make it more playable on old-gen? Second question: do you think that you needed to have more external testing? Is it part of the process that everything is done in-house? If you had hired some outsourcers to do more extensive testing –could you have had less of an issue here? And the third question: regarding multiplayer, I’ve heard your answer to the previous question. Surely, you won’t rush that process, though, given what you’ve been seeing now –should we really be thinking about 2023 at the earliest for the arrival of that?
Marcin Iwiński (MI): Marcin Iwiński; I’ll answer the first question regarding refunds. We are not encouraging gamers to return the game; we hope they’ll give us a chance to improve it on old-gen consoles. One fix was released last weekend; another one is coming in seven days –but there is an option, obviously, and the easiest way is to ask the retailer for a refund. If that’s not possible, we also provide help. As of today it’s too early to say; we’ve just begun the process and we sincerely hope that gamers will prefer to wait for updates since they had waited so long for thegame, but –again –this is our humble hope. We’ll assess the situation in a couple of days when we have the numbers.
AK: I’ll take the second and third question. We have an internal QA department and we’re working with external companies as well. One thing that perhaps didn’t help us is COVID: internal testers are able to test the game working from home because we provide them with our own connected machines and so on, but external testers working for external companies were not able to test the game from homes –they have test centers and if they’re not there, they’re not able to work. So, we have seen a decrease in the number of testers, but I wouldn’t point to it as a major source of problems. The third one, about multiplayer –first and foremost, we haven’t confirmed any dates yet, and as I’ve said before, it’s hard to judge now. We’re in an unanticipated situation and we’ll have to reassess. This is planned for January. We’re now focusing on managing the single-player release, working on patches, communication and –as I said at the very beginning of this call –our focus remains on gamers. We’ll see about further plans; the direction is obviously to proceed as planned, but we have to sit and discuss –and that will happen [inaudible].
Q2: Can I sneak in another question? Among the more than 8 million pre-orders that you have –did you include in this figure people who started downloading the two days before launch, on PC? They weren’t really pre-orders; they were just getting it lined up so that they could play. It’s something that’s treated differently across the industry.
MN: Hi, this is MichałNowakowski; I can take this one. You ask whether who started pre-downloading the PC version were included in pre-orders? Well, yes, because if they started the pre-download they must have placedthe pre-order. That’s the group of people who were able to pre-download the game. So one group includes the other, so to speak. It’s not like anybody could have pre-downloaded the game; that was an option open only to people who had pre-purchased the game on the given storefront.
Q3: Couple of questions if I may. Firstly, your earlier comment about the board being too focused on delivering the game and ignoring problems with old-gen. Should we take it that you had found it was very important that the game shouldn’t be delayed into the next year, or simply that youhad always wanted to deliver the game and not delay it –and you just underestimated the extent to which the last-gen version was not going to be the way it should be? Was it more about “the launch is important” or more about “we underestimated how bad the last-gen version was”? And secondly, and related to that, at the certification stage –presumably, Microsoft and Sony always get games that still have bugs, and decide they’re going tobe ok –partly on the basis of discussions with you that there will be fixes. Have I understood that correctly? Or do you feel somehow that the certification process is kind of only one side or the other, and failed to identify just how underperforming the last-gen version was? Perhaps I should add a final question to make it three; everyone has three –are you confident that last-gen machines will be able to produce an acceptable version of this game? And I say this as a PS4 owner, so I hope so. But –is it something that’s simply too demanding, and –in hindsight –no amount of fixing is going togenerate an acceptable experience? Thank you.
MN: First –your question was about the focus and the cause of ours ignoring, so to speak, the shortcomings of the current-gen version. It is more about us looking –as was previously stated –at the PC and next-gen performance rather than current-gen. We definitely did not spend enough time looking at that. I wouldn’t say that we felt any external or internal pressure to launch on the date –other than the normal pressure, which is typical for any release. So that was not the cause. In terms of the certification process and the third parties –this is definitely on our side. I can only assume that they trusted that we’re going to fix things upon release, and that obviously did not come together exactly as we had planned. Regarding the third question –where we want to go with the PlayStation and Xbox –as stated in the statement made public today in the morning, we are planning to get the game in much better shape than it is now, of course, and a lot of that is going to be happening in December. Come January and February you’re going to see larger improvements –which we’ve stated already. We have also stated that if your expectation is that the game is going to be equal to, say, next-gens or PC in terms of performance, that definitely isn’t going to happen. Having said that, I’m not saying it’s going to be a bad game –but if you’re expectations regarding, say, visuals or other performance angle, are like this, then we’re openly stating that’s not going tobe the case. It will be a good, playable, stable game, without glitches and crashes, though. That’s the intention.
Q3: Okay; that last sentence, I think, is the key one. I don’t expect next-gen performance on last-gen, but I would like to be able to play through the game. Thank you very much.
MN: You will be able to. Thank you.
Q4: A couple of questions, please. The first one: will you still be doing your strategy update in Q1, or will that be postponed? The second question: obviously the gameplay on old-gen consoles wasn’t really shown very much. Could you explain why you decided to hold that back? People just saw PC gameplay, I think. And can you also talk about how you’re deploying your staff now? How are you splitting what they’re working on? How many people are still working on Cyberpunk? How many on the mobile [game]? How many people on the next Witcher game? How many people on DLCs? How many people on multiplayer? Have you changed your expectations concerning staff allocation because of this? And does this push back things like The Witcher 4? I know you haven’t announced it, but you’ve said that people would be working on other titles once Cyberpunk is done. Thank you.
AK: So, regarding the strategy update –as of today we’re planning to release it in Q1, as planned.
MI: For the second question –with regard to not showing the console version –we’ve actually shown console footage, but never on the last-gen consoles. The reason is that we were updating the game on last-gen consoles until the very last minute, and we thought we’d make it in time. Unfortunately this resulted in giving it to reviewers just one day before the release, which was definitely too late and the media didn’t get the chance to review it properly. That was not intended; we were just fixing the game until the very last moment.
AK: Regarding allocation of teams –it’s normal outside of the Cyberpunk teams. Spokko and the GWENT team are working on their projects. The Cyberpunk teams were scheduled to continue working on patches –this will probably take some more time, but of course we are branching and working on future projects as well. We’re also scheduling holidays; people are tired and –regardless of the situation and regardless of patches, we will not simply continue working as before; our people need to rest a bit. We will have a strong team working on patches at least until February.
Q5: Hello, I have aquestion on your cost side. You said that the pre-orders covered the development and marketing costs of the game. Could you maybe provide the numbers now that the game has launched? And the second question –given the work which is required now to fix bugs, glitches and similar problems, how does this affect your costs with regard to marketing and development? Perhaps you could provide some color on this as well? Thank you.
PN: Unfortunately I cannot share the cost related to additional work, but the cost of patching the game is irrelevant compared to what we have already spent. So there’s no question –we definitely want to fix the game; we made a promise to gamers and we’ll be doing everything to stick with it. And as far as the first part of the question is concerned –could you please repeat it?
Q5: It’s about the development and marketing cost of Cyberpunk that you have incurred so far –maybe you could give us numbers?
AK: We’re not revealing this data; a complete statement including our revenues and expenses related to marketing, will be part of the Q4 report –I’m sorry, but we’re not providing guidance on that right now.
Q6: Hello; I have three questions. First, regarding the refunds again, but another issue: I was wondering whether your console partners, like Microsoft and Sony will by any chance participate in the refunds, or is the financial burden yours only? The second question –are you considering giving away a bigger DLC for free to make gamers feel less disappointed? Is it on the table? And the last one –could you comment on the latest leak from Jason Schreier about the change in your bonus policy? I’m wondering –will it be connected with the game’s revenues or will you be giving out bonuses at nominal value to retain the staff? That’s all from me.
MN: I’ll start –the question is whether Microsoft and Sony are participating financially in refunds. One has to understand: Microsoft and Sony have refund policies for every product that is released digitally on their storefronts. Despite several articles I’ve seen that things are being set up just for us, it’s actually not true –these policies are in place and have always been in place; they’re not offered specifically for us. Anyone who has purchased any title on the PlayStation network or the Microsoft storefront can ask for a refund, and if it’s made within certain boundaries, usually related to time, usage and so on, can ask for that refund. Our procedure here with Microsoft and Sony is not different than with any other title released on any of those storefronts. I want to state that clearly, as there seem to be certain misconceptions. In terms of financial participation, when our product is refunded, the share from the store that Microsoft took is refunded, and of course it’s something that is subtracted from the share of revenues that would normally be transmitted to CD PROJEKT. It’s, of course, not shared with us and is instead refunded to the given player –the given customer. I think that pretty much sums up the first one. Regarding the second question –we have stated our policy in terms of what we are doing with the players for now, and that’s where we stand. Regarding the third question –we don’t really comment on what someone else has stated about what’s going on at the studio. Thank you.
Q7: Thanks for that and regarding refunds –there’s no chance that the market will receive an update on the volume or number of refunds before the sales report around Christmas, yes?
AK: We don’t know yet. Before Christmas we will release sales numbers, but in terms of refunds –we’re not sure if we’ll share this information outside of the company.
Q8: Hello; I wanted to ask about the shape of the game after optimization that’s possible in February –you said that it would be possible to play, but what price points can we expect? Obviously, it might be a smaller game if it’s not fully comparable to PC –so perhaps a comment on that, and also –could you have released the game without including the old-gen consoles if that version was unacceptable?
MN: I’m not sure I fully understood your question, so if I’m answering something different than what you asked –feel free to correct me. In terms of the shape of the game after optimization: we pretty much said it earlier in the call, i.e. the game will have no crashes, the main bugs will be eliminated, and we’re looking to improve both performance and graphic fidelity –that’s going to be spread out across various patches and, of course, a pretty important update will happen this month. Actually, the game is playable right now; that may be an important thing to state because it’s not like the game does not launch or is unplayable; I fully understand that the experience is far from satisfactory for a lot of people –and we do acknowledge that –but “not playable” sounds like it doesn’t launch at all, which is not the case. Versus PC –again, this is something we have stated before; you cannot expect PC-like or next-gen-like performance on last-gens, and we’re not claiming that. I’m not sure I fully understood the context of the question concerning the difference in price points.
Q8: Will it be offered at the same price or will the price be lower on old-gens in February?
MN: We do not foresee lowering the price. We’re focusing on fixing the game to make sure that people are happy with the product, but there’s currently no discussion about changing the price.
Q8: And could you have released –
MN: –without the old-gen consoles? In pure theory, if we had decided that one day before the launch then yes; we might have released just the PC version –but I’m not sure what else is included in that question, to be honest.
Q8: So could this have only been the new generation of consoles and PCs?
MN: So the answer here is “no”: next-gens get a completely different version of the game, so it’s not like we could have decided at any point recently to “flip the switch”, so to say, and change the old-gen version to the next-gen version and release only on next-gens. As you have noticed, there is no native next-gen release. The game runs on next-gens and takes advantage of how next-gens are performing, but it’s not like we had a next-gen version in our hands and decided to keep it on the shelf.
MI: Marcin Iwiński; let me add one more thing: [sometime ago] we decided upon a last-gen version and, as you can see, we have not released a proper next-gen version –we don’t have it ready yet. What we did instead was promise that every single gamer who bought the game on last-gen consoles will get a proper next-gen updatenext year. This is what we’re working on and I sincerely hope that this will serve as another incentive for the gamers to keep the game and not return it –they will be able to plug their PlayStation or Xbox version into the next-gen consoles and the game will auto-update to a full-blown next-gen experience at no additional cost. So –I believe it does have quite some value.
Q9: Hi. I also have three questions. So, we all know that [muffled] on consoles has been disappointing, but could you maybe provide some comments on the PC sales and player feedback –are the sales and the feedback on the PC platform in line with your original expectations? Secondly –other than performance considerationsand stability of the game, is there any other player feedback that might be a bit alarming or concerning –like feedback regarding the story or gameplay experience that you potentially might need to focus on? And thirdly –you mentioned you would have another patch in seven days; I’m wondering what improvements will this patch bring. I’m trying to understand if the experience of console players will improve by Christmas.
PN: Hello; Piotr Nielubowicz here. As we mentioned; the initial sales were very good, and that’s what we mostly see by now. We’re still collecting sales results, especially from physical retail channels, but the digital opening –especially on PC –was really good, as we reported on launch day. As far as players’ feedback is concerned, thefeedback for the PC edition is by far better than what we’re getting on consoles –but when we read reviews of the PC version we see many comments referring to the console versions, so there’s a bit of a mix among platforms and it’s not always easy to distinguish them.
MI: And with regard to the PC version, this is what the reviewers got –you can check the reviews and our Metacritic score –and of course PCs vary in terms of configuration, so gamers may also have certain problems. We’re reminding everyone at launch about the very recent release of Nvidia graphic drivers which are crucial for our game, because they were developed in coordination with us, but in general PC gamers are enjoying the game a lot and we see very positive comments [on their streams]. So –a lot of positivity and goodwill is coming from this direction. Not that the game is perfect –it’s a gigantic world so at launch there’ll always be some glitches and problems on various configurations, but with regard to the console experience –we already fixed a lot of crashes with the last hotfix, and this time again we will be mostly looking at crashes and game-breaking bugs. I sincerely hope that by Christmas gamers will be able to enjoy the game on consoles; of course the major updateswill come in January and February, so, again, we humbly ask gamers to wait –and they’ll be able to have an even better experience then.
Q10: Good afternoon. I have a question on the trajectory of your sales and how you will be updating the market on those new figures –because up until now you’ve only announced pre-order figures. I’ve been wondering at what intervals will you communicate to the market –I think the consensus figure is 23 million for the end of the year –to me it seems that that figure is still attainable, in particular given that a lot of the sales have been happening on PC, and also through Google Stadia, both of which performed quite well. Also, given that we’ve now had 3-4 days of active gameplay, could you comment a bit on the PC and Stadia side of things –as gamers advance through the game, how do they experience it in terms of how actively they play –do you have any numbers on that? How “sticky” is the game for those PC gamers? Thank you.
PN: As far as future sales updates are concerned, we will release an update before the holiday break, and then the next full set of results will be included in our annual report which will be published in Q1. We have not decided on any additional update as of now. As far as comments regarding the consensus are concerned –we had never commented upon the consensus before the release, and we will not comment on it right now either.
AK: I’ll take the second one. Sentiment is positive. With every passing day since the release we’re getting more and more positive feedback. We started low, but we’re gaining. [muffled] we started with a score of 70, but now it’s 79. If you filter those who have played 10 hours or more, the score is 85 –so the more you play the more enjoyment you feel. That’s the general feedback we have. One important point: we’re discussing old-gen consoles and negative feedback there –but we also have tons of positive feedback from players playing the game on old-gen consoles, so it’s not strictly negative. Of course the first impression was negative, especially after the very strong campaign showcasing the game on PCs, but now we have more and more satisfied players using old-gen consoles as well –though naturally strong PCs offer better graphics and better gameplay than old-gens. In terms of numbers, we’ve seen millions of gamers playing on PC. Thank you.
Q11: Apologies if you have already answered this question, but –out of the 8 million pre-orders, could you give us a breakdown of where they actually come from –in terms of new consoles, old consoles, PC sales –just to get a hold on where they’re coming in from? And also –looking at your own internal expectations, what was the breakdown of the sales mix between these channels?
MN: So just to be sure, your question was –out of the 8 million, how many people were on last-gens and how many were on next-gens?
Q11: Yes, I’m just trying to get an understanding of that.
PN: Let me jump in –the preorder numbers were split between PCs and consoles with PC accounting for 59% of sales and consoles –41%. Unfortunately we do not have the exact split between old and new console versions since we have just one console SKU for PlayStation and one for Xbox and we do not have direct visibility of how this CD or digital download is being used by gamers and which machines they’re using –the newest consoles or older ones.
Q11: Thanks; and if you look at your internal projections, obviously you might not want to comment on consensus expectations on unit sales, but in terms of your own internal budgeting process –what was your expectation in terms of the mix on the sale of the game?
PN: Naturally, we would be expecting PC to have a bigger share in the preorder campaign as PC gamers are usually more active on the preorder front, and then consoles tend to get stronger after the release. We’re monitoring the situation; the game has been out for just 3 days and what we see are mostly digital channels –we still do not have full data representing physical retail. It’s definitely too early to judge this and give you reliable guidance on this question.
Q11: I understand that in terms of guidance, but I’m trying to understand your budgeting process: what would be the mix between console and PC, and with consoles, how much was on next-gen and how much on old-gen?
MN: I’d say that the mix between PC and consoles in general was in line with what we had been expecting. In terms of the mix between next-gens and current-gens, we weren’t really looking at it like this because we knew that for next-gens we were going to be launching on the current-gen platforms, so from a purely marketing perspective it’s a bit irrelevant –we knew we had potential consumers in one or the other group, and that the number of next-gens on the market was something we had no influence upon –but from a numbers perspective, this wasn’t a game-changer for us; we never carried out any analysis like that; it had no influence on the numbers from our perspective.
Q12: Thank you very much for taking the time. Two quick questions. The first would be this: are the patches purely focused on performance and fixing bugs, or are you also looking to improve the gameplay in some ways –for example, the AI has been criticized [muffled] the NPC behaviors. And the second question: how would expect the revenue over the year to look compared to a “traditional” launch? For example, a lot of gamers may decide they want to postpone the purchase until they get a next-gen console. Thank you.
MN: So, for the first question –whether we’re focusing just on technicalities or gameplay elements; things like AI –for example. To be honest –these are the same for us, from the production standpoint AI and NPC behavior fall within the general category of bugs, so if I can give you an answer –I think it does actually include that as well. I’ll ask you to repeat the second question.
Q12: How would you expect the revenue generated over the year by the game to compare to a more traditional launch given that a lot of gamers might be thinking “I’m just going to wait maybe 6 months or a year before I get a next-gen console in order to play the game”?
PN: OK, so first of all we’ve publicly offered a free update to everyone who bought the game on old-gen consoles, and wants to upgrade to a next-gen console, so I hope it won’t cause any gamers to withhold their purchase decision and wait for a next-gen console. On top of that, obviously, an update will be given out once we prepare the next-gen version of the game, which will happen next year –so we will have another opportunity to offer the game to those who haven’t decided to buy it by that time; they will be given the opportunity to purchase a version prepared exclusively for next-gen and all the technologies that next-gen has to offer.
Q13: Good afternoon; just one question: of the PC digital copies, could you give us a bit of color on the share of copies sold through GOG.com –for example, how does it compare to what you achieved with The Witcher 3? Thank you.
PN: We’re not revealing this data. Obviously, GOG as our internal store has a much bigger share in the PC digital distribution of Cyberpunk vs. the standard market share of GOG –but as for now, we’re not revealing any splits or comparisons involving GOG or sales on this platform.
Moderator: This concludes our Q&A session. I would now like to turn it over to our speakers for any additional or closing remarks.
AK: Thank you for joining the call. Let’s stay in touch and if you have any further questions –please contact our IR team. Bye!

Continuing…
He smiles, pockets the money, and scurries off to accomplish his tasks.
I’m sitting in the darkened, warm, and well-used pub; sipping at my drinks, puffing on my cigar and noting that I was more or less alone here. I was enjoying my comfort of solitude and familiar surroundings greatly.
Suddenly, a gruff hand grips my right shoulder.
I hear a guttural voice complain “Why don’t you put out that fucking smelly cigar?”
My Hapkido training kicked in as I was about to spin around and clock the klutz that dared intrude on my seclusion and risked to grab my person.
However, there was something familiar about the voice that made me hold my hand in the split second before I was to deliver a stunning kidney-punch.
“Toivo!”, I shouted, “You gnarly bastard! What the actual flying fennec fox fuck are you doing here in Moscow?”
Toivo has already backed up, out of swing or kick range, and is laughing out loud.
“You should have seen yourself jump!”, he chortles, “I didn’t know you still had it in you, ya’ old fart.”
“Yeah”, I snicker back, “And you’re still one deaf MOFO.”
Toivo laughs long and loud as he helps himself to one of my cigars, and the seat on Mahogany Ridge next to me.
“Still, Toiv”, I continue, “You haven’t answered me. What the hell you doing in Moscow during this briskly foul month of the equally foul year 2020?”
“Just whorin’ around for money”, Toivo chuckles as he instructs the just returned barkeep to make with new rounds of drinks. “As usual. No one else out schmoozing for oilfield services during the lockdown. I can’t afford not to have work, so I’m taking advantage of having a working immune system and flying all over setting up contracts. Working a treat, I might add…”
“So”, I reply between sips, “Still have your own service company. That’s rare in this day and age. With all this COVID crapola, even the big guns are hurting bad.”
“That’s right”, Toivo adds as he filches my new Montgolfière lighter and fires up his cigar.
“They can’t just order people indefinitely indoors and want everyone to work from home. Does not work that way for me or my guys. Seriously difficult to do a workover or well completion over the phone. I pay real well and ensure my people take all precautions and get tested after every job. A few got the ‘Vid’, and I paid for everything until they feel they can return to work. Haven’t lost a soul and damned if I’m going to let that happen on my watch. But damned if I’ll let any of my people go, cut hours, half-time, or close-up shop either. Common sense, situational awareness, and ‘don’t be a fucking idiot’ goes a long way in the world today.”
“Having a well-tuned and actively working immune system doesn’t hurt as well”, I add, as I finish up the bowl of Irish Stew; which was incredible, as usual.
“So where you off to this time, Rock?”, Toivo asks. “Or are you just returning from a vacation out in Yakutsk? I mean, it is November…”
“Nope”, I reply between sips and high signs to our bartender for another round. “I’m only here for the convenience of some of my handlers. I’m actually headed to South America, and that’s as much as I can tell you unless I immediately neutralize you afterwards.”
“Ya’ know”, Toivo says without a hint of irony, “That line is a trite cliché. Except when it comes from you. Fine. Need to know basis and I don’t need to know. Gotcha.”
“Sorry”, I reply, “It’s really nothing personal, but the fewer who know what I’m up to these days, the better off the world will probably be.”
“Yeah”, Toivo replies, “I thought you were doing some academic schtick. Getting another couple of degrees or some shit like that.”
“Who says I can’t do both?” I chuckle in return. “Yeah, I’m teaching at [REDACTED] university and getting my DSc. In the meantime, I take odd jobs for fun and profit.”
Toivo accepted that and as long as I was on expenses, he decided to see how much hypermath he could use in running up an enormous bar tab. Over drinks and some bar snacks, he told me he was headed back to the US and home for the holidays.
“Shit!”, I exclaimed, “I completely forgot that it was Thanksgiving this week. Thanks, Toiv. I’ve got to make some calls and get some food catered.”
Toivo snickers and makes some reference as to how I can recall the chemical formula for Eggletonite [(Na,K,Ca)2(Mn,Fe)8(Si,Al)12O29(OH)7.11(H2O) if you must know], but can’t remember my own damn phone number.
“Priorities, Herr Toivo, priorities,” I say as I’m dialing the local caterer back home. I make certain Es and the girls have their Thanksgivings taken care of…
A few hours later, Toivo’s flight is called and we part after a manly handshake ensues. We pledge to get together, families and all, once the holidays are over. Maybe the new year might just be a little less revolting than the year we just endured.
Flight time from Moscow to Caracas is just under 15 hours and I’ve got at least two more to wait until boarding. I check the flight tote board and note that besides Aeroflot, there’s another flight to Caracas on another airline, this one from Turkey. It leaves in an hour, but a quick call to the airlines quashes the idea that I can get out of Dodge, as it were, a bit earlier.
So, I waste an extraordinary amount of time and money in the Irish Pub. I can’t smoke on the flight, nor in the waiting area, nor anywhere outside the Pub, so I sit and fume like a foundry chimney until they call my flight.
Once again, it’s Business Class on Aeroflot and once the snickering over my attempts at Russian die down, the flight crew were top-notch. The plane seems almost brand new, it was clean, painted where it was supposed to have paint, carpeted where carpet would be a good idea and even the heads sparkled.
After a short taxi to our take-off runway, we were wheels-up once again, heading west this time.
The flight was 15 or so hours long so I had several pre-nap tots, took a great snooze in the mostly empty aircraft, tried to watch the Russian version of an Avengers movie (The Guardians, 2017. Get a copy. You won’t regret it.) while trying, and failing, not to laugh too much. After a lovely Russian repast of black and red caviar, smoked sturgeon and salmon, blinis and borscht, I decided to have another nap, to bank some snooze-time as I had no idea what I’d be excepting once I land in Venezuela.
I am jolted awake by Captain Kangaroo and his overly bouncy touchdown at Maiquetía "Simón Bolívar" International Airport. Here we taxi for what seems like another eternity before we finally find an empty jetway and squeeze the oddly non-Russian-built Boeing 777-300ER into space for our deplaning pleasure.
Caracas airport is not world-renowned, or perhaps it is more than just infamous. Many, many airlines, including all US carriers, refuse to fly here due to labor strikes, crime, shortage of qualified ground personnel, stolen baggage, and problems with the quality of jet fuel and maintenance of runways. Needless to say, add the COVID to this stew of infamy, and the whole bloody airport is practically empty.
I’m off the plane, down the jetway, and am greeted by a for once, a non-euphemistically monikered brace of Federales.
“You are Dr. Rocknocker”, the one on the left, blocking my passage, asks.
“Yes, sir. That’s me.” I reply in my inimitable style of international amity.
“You will come with us.” The brusquely says.
“Ah. Well, umm, you see, no I won’t. There’s this little problem of identification.” I note, “You characters may know who I am and should be awed enough by that, but I have no idea if you say you are who you really say you are. Papers, please?”
Yep. That’s me. Giving the police and/or military the business in their own country.
“We need to show you nothing. You will come with us now.” The other unsmiling dolt says.
“Now gentlemen”, I say as I pull out my cellphone telephone, and hit speed dial. “Let’s see what Senor Nicolás Maduro has to say about all this.”
That’s right. I’m ringing the president of the country. I have a ‘special number’ to cut through all the red tape.
The two Federales look on in either hilarity or despair.
“Hello? Senor Maduro, por favor? Bueno. They’re going to connect me” I say to the befuddled guards.
“Buenos dias, Cilia...Com esta?” I cover the phone, “It’s his wife Cilia. Evidently Sr. Maduro is indispose.”
The two federales go white when I put Cilia Flores on speaker.
“Si, gracias. Just got in, and there’s these two characters here demanding I go with them. Did Carlos arrange a welcoming party for me? He did? Bueno. Their names? Let me ask…”
“You, on the right. Name for Senora Maduro?” I ask politely. “Come, come, let’s not keep the president’s wife waiting”, I say, snapping my fingers.
“César Fontana Braz” stammers the first.
“Armando Quadros Garcia” stutters the second.
“Cool. Cesar and Armando. Names go in book.” I say as I ring off the phone after politely asking Cilia to have Carlos give me a ring when he is not so occupied.
“Now, Cesar and Armando, where were we?” I asked, smiling like a reptile.
They were falling all over themselves getting airport transport so we could go and collect my luggage, and get the proper stamps through passport control and customs. They blanch when they see my Red Diplomatic Passport. The Russians are the only remaining friends of the current administration and that situation is tenuous as best.
Hanging by a Damoclean thread is more appropriate.
Once we breeze through customs and passport control without so much as a flinch, I get a message that my reservations at the JW Marriott hotel have been received and approved. The hotel is only a dozen miles from the airport and Cesar and Armando are trying mightily to ingratiate themselves by finding the least corrupt taxi.
As if by magic, Lucas shows up and makes a big scene that he will take the situation over from here. There is some staccato, machine-gun level hypervelocity Spanish going on, and I’m in way over my head linguistically.
So, I do what I normally do in such situations.
I pull out an emergency flask and fire up a cigar to await the outcome of this verbal boxing match.
Suddenly as it started, it ends with Cesar and Armando skulking off empty-handed and Lucas looking at my cigar longingly.
Of course, I offer him one.
And ask what that was all about.
“Each wanted a different cab for you as it was one run by his relations. Everything here is relations and kickbacks. You will quickly learn anything is available, just have to ask the right cousin, uncle or monster-in-law” Lucas chuckles at his own little joke.
“Right, Luc”, I quickly agreed, “Things never change around here. It was that way when I first came to Venezuela some 35 years ago.”
Lucas realizes he’s trying, metaphorically speaking, to teach his grandmother to suck eggs, as I was in Venezuela way back when even before he was born. Just a little humility lesson from the Doctor, free of charge.
Lucas stashes his filched cigar, grabs my luggage, and stows it in the boot of the car. I have to sit in the back of the sedan as Lucas has all his tat covering the passenger seat. Laptop, cellphone, GPS, several errant dossiers, a bottle of Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva Rum, an eight pack of Cerveza Tovar, his service revolver and a couple of speed loaders, his sap…just the necessities.
I barely have time enough to sit and Lucas is punching the throttle, blaring the horn and we’re off to the hotel.
I do love driving in South America so much. I quickly tuck my hot-loaded Glock into a shoulder holster and don my Agency vest.
Just as a precaution. There are banditos at large around here.
But, they were all either siesta-ing or couldn’t keep up with Lucas as he careened around one corner and slalomed around another. Soon, I found myself standing as the only gringo. Hell, the only other vertical biped, at the front desk of the hotel, waiting for my check-in.
Suddenly, appearing apparently out of the vapor, one Chief Hotel Clerk, one Jose Antonio Hidalgo Juan Antonio Enríquez, Jr., asks if I have a reservation and if I was alone.
“Yes to both”, I replied as Lucas had someplace where I didn’t ask and he didn’t tell me where he was bunking for the night. Just that he would be calling around 0900 so he could partake of the hotel’s famous buffet breakfast, all 100 or so meters of it. Then he’ll take me to the Presidential Palace as I have an appointment with my old buddy, Herr El Presidente.
I am checked in and escorted by the bellman to my suite. I thought it was odd that when we got off the elevator on my floor, he was replaced with another person, one Chief Bellman Xabier, and he’d be escorting me to my room.
“Things is just plain weird in Venezuela”, I mused to myself as we made the slog down the long, carpeted hall towards my “Vice Presidential” suite. Seems the Presidential Suite was constantly on reserve in case the real President wanted a room.
As we’re shuffling down the corridor, I notice the nametag on my “Chief Bellman” looks as if it had gone through the laundry many, many times, it was that battered and washed out. And while he had one hand on my luggage as we wheeled along, he kept his other hand in his right front pocket.
“Must be concerned about pickpockets thereabouts”, I thought to myself.
We arrive at my suite and he asks for my card-key, which was unusual even in Venezuela. Most bellmen, particularly the Chief Bellman, would be carrying a master-card to unlock the doors for any swell or VIP (vaguely important person).
“Well, here you go”, I said with a flourish, as I swiped the card myself and let both of us into the suite.
Xavier entered first, and I followed close behind.
I tossed my briefcase with all my irreplaceable papers and emergency flasks and cigars on the bed when Xavier asks if I’d like for him to hang my clothes.
“Sure”, I said, from the depths of the minibar. I was interested in seeing if there was any Pisco Capel available, as I like that stuff just fine.
Xavier is taking his time going through a couple of shirts, a spare pair of pants, and my unmentionables from my Scramble Bag, when he sees that I have a spare wallet, a couple of Zenith's and my Breitling Emergency watch in a separate zipped close but unfortunately not independently locked case. He suddenly stiffens, as he doesn’t realize that I’m watching him from the mirror in the back of the minibar.
He looks at me, at the watches, at me, at the watches again, the door, out the window, and around the room.
He pockets my Breitling and Zenit watch quick as a bunny fucks as I pretend to be ever so engrossed in with what the minibar was stocked.
I’m making idiot noises to distract him as I see he’s finally hung all my clothes. Without turning, I ask him if he’s going to return those watches or if I will be forced to kill him.
He solidifies some more, stammers, and pulls out a scabby looking straight-bladed knife. He stands there behind me making the first overtures of a series of really bad life decisions.
With a fresh cold beer in my left hand, I turn around and point my Glock, of caliber millimeters ten, point-blank between his eyes.
“Now I’m not saying that you should drop that knife. Nor am I saying that you should return my watches. However, this is a Glock ten-millimeter pistol, one of the most powerful handguns in the world, and at this range would blow your damn fool head clean off. It carries eight ‘Eviscerator 145 grain Black Talon’ hollow point cartridges in the magazine, along with eight 10mm ‘Auto 155 grain Xtreme Penetrator Defense®’ loads with another up the pipe. The one question you have to ask yourself is would I miss ventilating your skull all 17 times or only 16? The real question really boils down to: ‘do you feel lucky, punk?’
“Well, do you?” I asked as I sipped my beer while tapping my foot in irritation waiting for his answer.
Xavier suddenly has an attack of the mutes. I think he’s trying to say something, hoping to whatever deity he prefers that they won’t be his last words. He is also transfixed by what appears to be the Holland Tunnel that suddenly appeared and is staring him right in the face.
I set my beer down on the table and rack a round into the Glock’s guts just to let Xavier know that I’m not fucking around. If he doesn’t make a choice pretty damn quickly, that I’ll gladly paint the back wall of my suite with a fascinating new color: “Hint of brain”.
He drops the knife to the floor, and slowly, painfully slowly retrieves my watches and sets them on the table. He also irrigates his trousers soundly as I snort all sorts of nasty, and personal, derision his way and nary vary my aim one millimicron.
“OK”, I say, “Good boy. Now, drop your wallet, keys, and anything else you have in your pockets on the table as well.”
“Oh, señor…” he begins to protest.
I nudge his forehead with the Glock and remind him I’m not anywhere near the mood for fucking around.
“Look, Scooter”, I say in my most threatening ‘you do know that you’re keeping me from my drink’ voice. “Either you do as I ask, or your family will be meeting to split up your belongings. When I see President Marcos tomorrow, we’ll both have a good chuckle about some idiot fake bellman and how they can’t catch high-velocity lead slugs worth a damn.”
“But, señor”, he continues to protest, “I am poor. My family is poor. I only have a few céntims…”
“I didn’t ask for your biography or family history, dick-cheese”, I growled, “Now give, asshole” as I pressed the Glock a few millimeters forward.
He empties his pockets and I eventually lower the Glock.
“Now run, you cur”, I growled even louder, “You run and tell all the other curs that Doc Rock is comin’ And hell’s comin’ with me. You hear me? Hell’s comin’ with me!”
He evidently didn’t get the movie reference, but he hit the hallway flat-out running as I slammed the door, parked the Glock back in its holster and called the front desk.
“Hello? Front desk? Yeah, Doc Rocknocker here in the VP suite. In about two minutes you’re going to see some sorry schmuck in soggy slacks come screaming through the lobby. He tried to rob me in my room, but I got the drop on him. Please send someone up to recover his possessions. What you do about and with them is of no concern of mine. And send up a bucket of ice, some bitter lemon and a bottle of best vodka. Got that? Cheers.”
“Fucking local idiots”, I muse.
The real concierge arrives a few minutes later with my order. He also carefully takes the departed miscreants' belongings, telling me that maybe they can get his fingerprints and have him prosecuted.
“One more minute and I’d have all the blood spatter analysis for DNA you could handle”, I snorted as I tipped him generously and bade him out the door.
I drew a bath and double-checked the doors were soundly locked. I’m not paranoid but it’s a good thing the Glock is primarily made of polymers. They don’t rust.
The next morning, I’m fresh as a daisy downstairs at the breakfast buffet with Lucas. Of course, I had on my best shorts, Hawaiian shirt, and Agency vest, but I decided to leave the Glock behind in my room in the safe. The magazines I left in the safe behind the check-in desk. Not every day you get a private meeting with the president of a country.
I need to be a bit vague about the meeting, but other than the fine rum and cigars I was offered, I was given a series of tasks by El Presidente in exchange for carte blanche travel in his country.
He wants a signed copy of the book I am researching in Venezuela when it goes to print.
He also wants a copy of the data I uncover before I leave the country. Believe me, the original data will be scrubbed and gone long before I present it to El Presidente. He’ll get the ‘Reader’s Digest’ version.
Finally, he wants me to extend an invite to Esme to come to Venezuela and meet with him and the First Lady.
I can’t promise anything, but if shopping is involved, I doubt even a shooting war could dissuade Esme.
Figuring that I’ve done a full day’s work as it stands, I decided to have Lucas drive me back to the hotel where I need to makes some serious notes in several dossiers. I also need to call Esme to tell her of the invitation at the behest of El Presidente and the First Lady.
I place a cellphone telephone call to my darling Esme and we have an absolutely lovely conversation. She’s thrilled at the prospect of going shopping with the First Lady of the country and hobnobbing around the land as a VIP. She regales me with the tales of Khan and the ravens. How they steal from his outside food bowl and he’s absolutely inept on chasing them because they take flight before he can get within 20 feet.
Perhaps if he wasn’t barking a blue streak, he’d be more stealthy and successful.
Esme tells me that Agents Rack and Ruin have been calling all day, wondering where the hell I was.
“Is there some problem there?” She asks me.
“Well, the country is on the brink of civil war. There is factional fighting. Rampant inflation: a cup of coffee now costs 1.55m bolivars; an increase of 6,639% in the past 12 months. The economy’s all but collapsed. Bolivars are damn near worthless, the US dollar is the hardest of hard currency. Millions have left the country and there’s widespread crime, cases of killings, torture, violence, and disappearances. Shortages of staple items, as well as medical care…you know, sort of the ‘Just after the wall fell’ sort of Russia Syndrome.” I replied.
“Well”, Es replies, “Rack and Ruin are having kittens. They’re desperate to talk with you. Call them and tell them it’s not all that bad.”
“Well”, I reply, “It’s actually worse, but I didn’t want to upset you.”
“Are you safe?” Es asks.
“Aw, hell”, I snort, “I’m fine. I’ve been through a lot worse. Still, if Rack and Ruin are antsy, best pull the big brown box out of my office. After I talk to R&R, they’ll probably be wanting to send me some bits and pieces. I’d prefer my own stuff if you know what I mean.”
“Will do”, Es replies. She knows the shorthand for ‘I want my own large-caliber weapons’ and associated items of personal defense.
“I’ll get ahold of Rack and Ruin”, I note, “They are going to want to send me some kit, if things are all that nasty, even though I only saw a bit of low-octane attempted crime. Just pull my ditty-box and I’m sure they’ll send someone over to collect it.”
We covered a few more items, professed our undying love and I rang off.
Once I had procured about 300 milliliters of Old Thought Provoker, on ice, I placed the call to Virginia.
Agents Rack and Ruin are more or less unflappable, but today, they were flapped.
They wanted me to exercise(!) extreme caution. They wanted me to only spend a few more days in-country. If nothing else, they wanted me to chuck the whole fucking project and hightail it home.
“Are you high?”, I asked of the perpetually sober Agent Rack. “Quit a job before it’s finished? You know as well as I that’s not the Agency way. And it’s not my way either. Perish the thought.”
Agent Ruin takes over the phone and tries to reason with me.
I reply that I’ve never failed to complete an assignment before and I’d be goddamned if I’d let a little thing like a shithole country’s 33 and 1/3rd revolution run my happy ass off location.
“OK, then”, Agent Rack exhales in defeat, “Then sit tight for a day or so. We’ll get you a parcel through the Diplo Pouch. It’ll contain a few items that will make us all rest easier here.”
“OK, that I can do”, I reply with a snort, “Pantywaists”, I sneer under my breath. “Since you’re sending some goodies my way, have someone who’s not afraid of huge dogs drop by the house and have them include my big, brown box in the DP.”
They readily agreed and told me to expect the pouch, which can vary from the size of a tin of tobacco to something big enough to overnight an aircraft carrier, within 24 hours.
“OK”, I relent, “I’ve got a bunch a writing to do after meeting with El Presidente today. This will work out great. I get ample time to update my dossiers and you don’t have to worry so much about your best agent getting a boo-boo.”
“Doctor”, Agent Ruin ripostes, “Please treat this situation with all affordable circumspection. This is no charade; this is a potentially real, and doubly dangerous, situation. Pay heed.”
“Agents”, I snort after pouring another 300 mils of Old Thought Provoker over ice, “You are speaking to a Doctor of Geology, one who is an international Master Blaster and plays with home-made nitroglycerine for shits and giggles. ‘Circumspection’ is my middle name.”
“We thought it was ‘Danger’…”, They replied as one.
“Well”, I chuckled back, “That’s my Confirmation name…”
Somewhat mollified, Agents Rack and Ruin again warn me to be careful and to keep an eye out for a parcel that should arrive within 24 hours.
“Thanks, guys”, I say before ringing off, “What would you ever do without me?”
I hung up before they had time to formulate a reply.
So, with nothing much else to do, I resigned myself to getting all my necessary writing out of the way. I needed to formulate another of my unbreakable codes, encrypt all my writings and do the dossier needful so I could send off the information before anything goes south.
To be continued…⇝

Adam Kiciński (AK):
Good morning,
Thanks for joining calla. My name is Adam Kiciński and I am the President of the Management Board of CD PROJEKT.
This call is to discuss the events that took place immediately after the premiere Cyberpunk 2077. Let me start by presenting our current opinion on the current situation; then you can ask questions. I am accompanied by Piotr Nielubowicz, director of affairs financial institutions, Marcin Iwiński, vice president and co-founder of the company, and Michał Nowakowski, member management board responsible for publishing policy.
Cyberpunk 2077 was released 4 days ago - on December 10. The game had a strong debut, and the reactions of the players using powerful machines - PC, next-generation consoles and Stadia service - were positive. On the other hand, the opinions of users of older consoles of the previous generation fell significantly below our expectations. All the efforts of the CD PROJEKT team are aimed at creating games of the highest quality. So how could it come to the described situation? After the premiere was delayed three times, the Board of Directors was overly focused on the need to release games. We have underestimated the scale and complexity of the problems; we ignored the signals that the need for additional improvements on the base versions of the previous generation consoles. Approach it was wrong and contrary to our business philosophy. What's more - during the promotional campaign, the game was mainly demonstrated in the PC version. The above mistakes resulted in a loss of players' trust and reputation, which we were building by the significant part of our life. Our current activities must therefore be decisively towards regaining these two strengths. Last weekend, we released the first major patch; another will be released within seven days. We plan major updates for January and February; they will be too be accompanied by smaller patches. Of course, there will be regular updates and patches to improve the game also available to users of the PC version. We will do everything in our power to prove that we remain true to our values. We sincerely hope that our efforts will enable us to restore our lost trust.
Thank you. We are ready for your questions.
Q1: Hello; I have three questions. First, could you comment on the impact this has on sales? version for old consoles in the first four days after release - it would be great if you guys could roughly determine how this sales is currently taking place on the two digital platforms. If you are not able to present specific numbers - maybe you could describe in general observed impact and determine the percentage of sales for which they were supposed to be responsible for in your plans older consoles - this is the first question. Second - looking in a slightly wider perspective at what went wrong - do you think you could release the game for older consoles to your satisfaction? characters if you had more developers? Was the problem due to staff shortages, or rather from the work schedule? I would be grateful if you could comment on this. And finally - taking take into account the additional content that you intend to release in the next 2-3 years - as today you are looking at the possibility of releasing a few DLCs in the coming year and, of course, a version multiplayer in 2022?
Piotr Nielubowicz (PN): Hello; here is Piotr Nielubowicz. Initial sales, especially the PC version, are on very good. Of course, the current situation will make the game sell worse in the version console, but at the moment - on Monday - it is difficult to provide detailed comments on this issue; we are still collecting data, especially from retail distributors and I am afraid I cannot provide precise answer. However, I stand by our pre-conference declaration: we plan to disclose sales amount before the holiday break.
Michał Nowakowski (MN): Hello; here is Michał Nowakowski. I will answer the second question: is it greater number of developers would help bring the game to older consoles? As for the possibility of release games on a specific date - it's not about the number of people; it cannot be said that commitment - eg in the last month - two hundred additional employees helped with anything. Thus the answer is no: we don't think if we had had 300 or 500 on the home straight additional people, things would have been different.
AK: This is Adam Kiciński. I will answer the third question - to be honest, it's too early to do so rate. Please allow us to grasp the current situation and make an estimate - this is still before us; we do not have detailed knowledge here; we focus on improving Cyberpunk. We will come back to topic at the beginning of next year.
Q2: I have three questions. First of all - I can see that you are offering refunds on Sony and Microsoft platforms, a also at retail distributors. Have you been following from the moment you posted it on Twitter? an avalanche of returns, or the majority of people who acquire the game don't get rid of it, believing that you will improve its operation on older generation consoles? Second question: do you think that more was needed? extensive external game testing campaign? Does your trial assume you take care of everything? yourself? If you had decided to outsource wider and carried out a more insightful one tests - wouldn't you be better off right now? The third question concerns the multiplayer. I have listened to the answers to the previous questions; I assume you will not rush to take now taking into account recent events - should we assume that the multiplayer will be released first? in 2023?
Marcin Iwiński (MI): This is Marcin Iwiński; I will answer the question about returns. We do not encourage players to return the game; we hope that they will give us a chance to improve it on the older generation consoles. We released the first update over the weekend; another one will be released in seven days - nevertheless you can apply for a refund; the easiest way to do it is at your distributor, but if it turned out it is impossible - we are here to help. At the moment it is difficult to define the scale of this phenomenon; all it has only just begun and we sincerely hope that players who have waited so long for the game will find it they can also wait for its update - but I emphasize that this is only a humble hope. In a few days we will receive detailed data and we will be able to better assess the situation.
AK: I will answer the second and third questions. We have an internal test department and we cooperate as well with external contractors. COVID turned out to be a significant obstacle in this process; of course ours internal testers are able to work from home because we deliver them properly configured machines, etc., but testers working for external companies were not able to test the game on their own homes - these companies have their own testing centers and people who are not physically present there cannot do your job. So we saw a reduction in the number of testers, though I would not say so this to be a major source of problems. The third question was about the multiplayer. First of all - no we have announced any specific dates here, and it is difficult to make a credible judgment at this stage. We have dealing with an unforeseen situation that will require new analysis. This is what we plan take care of in January; we are currently focusing on managing the for-one situation the player; we are working on updates, we conduct communication and - as I mentioned on the same beginning of call - we focus on the needs of players. Further plans are a matter of the future; of course we would like to follow the agreed schedule, but we have to think carefully about it and discuss - what will happen [disturbances] .
Q2: Could I ask you one more question? Is the number of over eight million pre-orders takes into account players who started pre-download the PC version two days before the release? You can say that this is not a presale, but only a group of people who want to install the game with its release date. These clients are categorized differently in the gaming market.
MN: This is Michał Nowakowski; I can answer that question. You ask if the people who have benefited from PC version pre-download options included in pre-order? Yes - because pre-download required a pre-order. Only pre-ordered customers were able to download the game prior to release. One can therefore say that one of these groups is contained in the other. Pre-download was not available for each, and only for people who took advantage of the pre-sale offer at a given distributor.
Q3: A few questions if allowed. First, you mentioned earlier that the Board was too much he was focused on the game release and underestimated the problems with the previous generation consoles. Are we to understand that you found it extremely important not to postpone the premiere to the next one? a year, or you just wanted to release the game without delay and didn't realize to what extent the version for the older generation of consoles does not meet your expectations? In other words - or more the slogan "we have to meet the deadline" or "we underestimated the problems in the older one plays a role here generation "? Second - which is related to the first question - probably to Microsoft and Sony often games with glitches run off, but platform owners decide - maybe on the basis of discussions with you, promises to release updates, etc. - that the quality of the game is satisfactory? Is okay I understand that? Or maybe the certification process itself is too one-sided and did not reveal the true ones problems with game performance on the previous generation of consoles? I will add a third question - since everyone asks three questions: do you think it is even possible to get an acceptable version? games on older consoles? I am asking this as a PS4 owner so hopefully the answer is "Yes," but perhaps the game is just too demanding and unrepairable to the extent that would guarantee a good experience on older consoles? Thank you.
MN: The first question was about the priorities and the reasons why we ignored it, so to speak shortcomings of the version for the current generation of consoles. Rather, this is due - as already stated - to the fact that that we were focusing on the performance of the PC version and on the next generation of consoles. We have certainly sacrificed too little attention from the older generation. I wouldn't say that we were under pressure - external or internal - to release the game on time, except, of course, the usual pressure that he always accompanies prime ministers. I would not see the causes of the problem here. As for the process certification and activities of our contractors - here the responsibility is definitely ours side. It can be assumed that the platform owners trust us that the problems will be resolved by the time premiere and there is no doubt that not everything went as planned in this respect. About the third question - what actions will we take in relation to the PlayStation and Xbox versions - as we announced this morning, we intend to bring the game to a much better state than Nowadays; many of these activities will take place in December, and in January and February we are going to make more serious improvements. At the same time, we emphasize that it cannot be expected that the game will work as well as on PCs or the new generation of consoles. Here I want to clarify that it won't be a bad game - but expectations for its visual or other aspects performance should not assume that everything will be the same as on the PC and on the next generation. However, everything will be a good, playable, stable game, free from bugs and hangs. This is what it is plan.
Q3: This last sentence is, I think, crucial. I don't expect the previous generation of consoles to match next-gen performance - but wish I could beat the game. Thank you very much.
MN: You will be able to go through it. Thank you.
Q4: Some questions. First, are you still going to update your strategy in the first? quarter - do you postpone this activity? Second question: the game was almost not demonstrated in the for older consoles. Could you please explain why you didn't show it? I think that presentations were based solely on the PC version. Could you also say something about the current involvement of the teams? How are you assigning them tasks today? How many people I'm working on Cyberpunk, how much on the [game] mobile, how much on the new Witcher, how much on DLC, how much multiplayer? In light of these events, have your assumptions about team allocation changed? and does it mean that work on, for example, The Witcher 4 is postponed? I know you didn't announce this game, but you said that after finishing Cyberpunk some of the team would start working on new titles. Thank you.
AK: As for the strategy update, we are still going to publish it in the first quarter, according to plan.
MI: Regarding the second question - about avoiding showing the console version - we were demonstrating the game on consoles, but not on older generation consoles. The reason was that we were working on improving this version until the last minute and we hoped we would be on time. Unfortunately, as a consequence, the game ended up in reviewers only one day before the premiere, so far too late for reviewers to be able to evaluate it properly. This was not an intended action on our part; just to the last minute we have been working on improvements.
AK: When it comes to assigning tasks, everything is normal in teams that are not working over the Cyberpunk. Spokko and the GWENT team develop their projects, while the Cyberpunk team he had plans to work on patches, which will probably take a little longer now - but at the same time, we are operating on new fronts and also working on future projects. I will add also that we are planning a holiday season; our people are tired and regardless of the current situation and preparing the update, they cannot continue to work in their current mode - they have to do a little rest. Anyway, a strong team will be working on patches at least until February.
Q5: Good morning; I have a question about the cost. You announced that pre-order revenues they compensated you for the costs of creating the game and the costs of promoting it. Now, after the premiere, could you reveal specific numbers? And the second question - taking into account the work required for fixing bugs and other such problems - as it relates to your spending on marketing and game development? Could you please reveal more details? Thank you.
PN: Unfortunately, I am not able to disclose the cost of additional work, but in terms of expenses patching the game is irrelevant compared to the expenses already incurred. The question is then indisputable - we want to fix the game; we made a promise to the players and we will do everything we can to her keep. As for the first part of the question - can you ask for a repeat?
Q5: I mean Cyberpunk's development and marketing costs so far - can you please specify? specific numbers?
AK: We do not disclose this data. A complete statement of our income and expenses will be in our financial statements for the fourth quarter - sorry, but we are currently not presenting any forecasts relating to them.
Q6: Hello; I have three questions. The first is again about returns, but I mean a slightly different point: I wonder if your console partners Microsoft and Sony will participate in the funding returns, or do all costs fall on you? Second question - are you considering offering any larger DLC for free to counteract disappointment among players? Do you think about such options? And last - could you please comment on the latest leak from Jason Schreier about the changes to the bonus policy? Will employee retention bonuses depend on income from games, or will they be fixed bonuses? It's all on my part.
MN: Let me start with a question about the financial contribution of Microsoft and Sony to the returns. You have to to clear one point: Microsoft and Sony have a return policy that covers every product sold in their stores. Several press mentions appeared suggesting such a policy it was introduced especially for us, but it's not true: the return policies are and have always been in force; we do not stand out in any way. Anyone buying any title from the PlayStation Store or Microsoft can request a refund - as long as it meets certain time criteria or the frequency of use of the purchased product. Our cooperation with Microsoft and Sony does not differ from the arrangements for any other title offered through these platforms. I would like to make this clear because I can see some misconceptions circulating. as regards for a financial contribution - when a customer returns our product, they receive a refund of the fee they paid in the store Microsoft and, of course, the revenues that flow to CD PROJEKT are also decreasing proportionally. Money does not pass through our hands; go directly to the customer - the player who returned the game. This seems to me enough to answer the first question. As for the second question - we explained our actions and policy towards players; we will get this keep. As for the third question - we rather avoid referring to opinions expressed by people the third is about the studio situation. Thank you.
Q7: Thank you, and when it comes to returns - the market shouldn't count on numbers or scale information returns before the sales report, which will be released around Christmas, right?
AK: We are not sure about it yet. We want to publish sales data before Christmas, but if it is about returns - we do not know if this information will be made public.
Q8: Good morning. My question concerns the shape of the game after optimization, which is possible in February - you said it will be playable, but what prices can we expect? It looks like it will it's a smaller game - since it's not fully comparable to the PC version. I would like a comment on this issues. And the second thing - could you release the game without including older consoles, since this version does not meet expectations?
MN: I am not sure if I fully understand the question, so if I am answering a question other than what was asked - please correct me. As for the appearance of the game after optimization: we mentioned about it a bit earlier during this call; the game will not crash, more serious glitches will remain removed and we also intend to improve both performance and graphics quality - these changes will remain introduced gradually as part of a series of updates; an important patch will be released later this month. In fact, the game is playable right now - I think it should be emphasized as we are not talking about the situation in which game does not start or the gameplay is impossible. We fully understand that impressions far from what many players expect - we admit that it is - but "unplayable" suggests that it cannot be started at all, which is not true. As for the comparison with the PC - this one we have already touched on the issue; on older consoles you cannot expect a quality comparable to what can be achieved on PC or the next generation of consoles, and we are not suggesting that this will change. No i am sure i understand the context of the question about the price difference.
Q8: Will the game be available at the same price or will the version for older consoles be cheaper in February?
MN: We do not assume any price cuts. We focus on improving the game so that its buyers are satisfied, but there is currently no question of a price reduction.
Q8: And could you release the game -
MN: - no version for the older generation of consoles? Purely theoretically, if we had made such a decision day before the premiere, yes, we could only release the PC version, but - I admit - I do not fully understand, what exactly is the question about.
Q8: So it was possible to release the game only in the new generation and PC version?
MN: Here the answer is "no": we are preparing a completely separate version of the game for the new generation; no so we could, shortly before the premiere, "switch the lever", say that the version to the new one generation is the correct console version of the game, then release the game only on the next generation. How you probably noticed, so far there is no version dedicated to the new generation of consoles. The game runs on new consoles and takes advantage of their greater efficiency, but we do not have a version for the new ones yet consoles that we could "put on the shelf".
MI: This is Marcin Iwiński; I would like to add one more thing - [some time ago] we decided that he is playing will be released on the current generation of consoles and, as you can see, we have not yet published a dedicated one version for new consoles - this version is not ready yet. Instead, we promised that each player, who buys the game for the existing consoles next year will receive a free update. This is what we are currently working on and I hope that this fact will be an additional incentive for players, so as not to part with the game: they will be able to start the game in the PlayStation or Xbox version on the new ones consoles; the game will then be automatically updated to the next-gen version without any floss. It seems to me that this is its advantage.
Q9: Good morning; I also have three questions. So - we can all see that [dimly] on consoles disappointed, but maybe you could say a little more about the sales and comments PC version users? That the sales and experience on the PC match your original one expectations? Second - aside from the issues related to the performance and stability of the game - or There were reactions from players that would upset you or upset you and prompted you to continue working - I mean story and gameplay? And third - you mentioned that another one will be released in seven days update. I am curious what improvements will be made within it; I would like to know, how much will improve the user experience of the console version before Christmas.
PN: Hello; Piotr Nielubowicz here. As we mentioned, the initial sale was great strong - this data is available at the moment. We still collect sales data, especially from physical stores, but the digital premiere - especially on PC - went very well, Fr. which we reported on the day of the premiere. When it comes to user experience - in the PC version they look much better than what we saw on consoles, but when we delve into PC game reviews, we notice that there are many comments about console editions; can be seen so that some confusion has crept in here and it is difficult to unambiguously separate the individual platforms.
MI: As for the PC version - it was this version that the reviewers received; you can familiarize yourself with them opinions and our scores on Metacritic. It is worth noting that PCs differ in terms of configuration and some players may experience some issues. From the moment premieres, we remind everyone about the recently released new versions of Nvidia drivers - our game requires them because they were created in cooperation with us. Overall, however, the game is very enjoyable PC users; we see a lot of positive feedback in their streams and in this field in general the reception of the game is positive. I'm not saying that the game is perfect - in such a huge world they will always be there were some bugs and problems due to configuration differences. As for the impressions on consoles - the last hotfix fixed many crashes; This time we will again focus on crashes and bugs that prevent proper gameplay. I have hope players will be able to fully enjoy the console version before Christmas; of course We are also planning major updates in January and February - so I would like to address players again humbly asking them to wait - their impressions will surely improve.
Q10: Good morning. I have a question about the sales trajectory and how often you are going to publish new data - so far you have only announced the pre-sale data. I wonder, at what intervals do you intend to inform the market - if I remember, the market consensus is 23 millions of copies sold this year - and I think that number is still available especially considering the large share of the PC edition, as well as the version for Google Stadia - both versions they are doing fairly well. And the second point: after 3-4 days of active play, could you - in context PC and Stadia versions - tell you about the activity of players who continue delving into the plot of the game? Do you have the relevant data? How "addicting" is the game for PC users? Thank you.
PN: As for further sales information - we are going to publish an updated one data before Christmas, and the next - as part of our full financial results, which will remain included in the annual report for the first quarter. We are not planning any additional ones yet update. As for the consensus comments, we did not comment on these forecasts before the premiere and we are not going to comment on them now.
AK: I will answer the second question. The impressions are positive. Every day since the premiere we receive more and more positive opinions. We started low but the average has been increasing since then. [unclear] was initially at level 70, but now is at 79, and if you select only these people, who have spent 10 or more hours in the game - as much as 85. The longer a person plays, the more fun he gets from the game - this is our feedback in general. It's also worth noting that when it comes to version for older consoles, we're focusing on negative feedback, but we got a lot here as well positive opinions, so the overall picture is not necessarily bad. Yes, the first impressions were poor - especially after an extensive advertising campaign that focused on the PC version - but we also have more and more satisfied users of older consoles - though of course the PC version offers better graphics and smoother gameplay. As for the figures - in the case of the PC edition we deal with millions of players. Thank you.
Q11: Sorry if you already answered that question, but - when we're talking about 8 million preorder, could you please explain which versions they were about? Version for new consoles, for old ones consoles, on PC - what is the share of each of these editions? By the way, I would also like to ask about yours internal expectations - how did you imagine the share of individual channels in the total pre-sale?
MN: I just want to be sure - it's about the share of old and new consoles in the 8 million preorder?
Q11: Yes; I'd like to know.
PN: I will cut in: the pre-order schedule for the PC version and console editions is as follows: PC - 59%, consoles - 41%. Unfortunately, we do not have detailed data on the participation of elders and new consoles, as there is only one SKU for PlayStation and one for Xbox. We don't have a direct one access to information on how these CDs or electronic editions are used by players; on what kind of machines - new or old consoles.
Q11: Thanks. As for your internal forecasts, I understand you don't want to comment market consensus regarding expected sales volume - but from the point of view internal resource allocation processes what were the expectations of the participation of each individual fully sold version?
PN: Of course, we were expecting more PC pre-sale - PC users are usually more active when it comes to preorders, and the share of consoles increases after the premiere. Currently we monitor the situation; the game has only been on the market for three days and so far we have the data concerning mainly electronic sales - some data from the retail market is still missing. Is so it is far too early to provide concrete estimates and reliable guidance in context of this question.
Q11: I understand the pointers, but I am trying to understand your resource allocation process financial - what in this context was the expected share of the console and PC versions, and among the consoles - old and new generation?
MN: I would say that the share of the PC and console versions was roughly in line with our expectations. If it's about the old and new generation of consoles - we didn't approach the problem from this side; we understood that the game will be released on the older generation and will also be playable on the new generation generation, so from a purely marketing point of view it was relatively insignificant - we have potential customers in both groups; however, we have no influence on the market share of the new one generation. Anyway, from a purely numerical point of view, it was not particularly important - we did not carry out the relevant analyzes as we have no influence on the figures mentioned.
Q12: Thank you for your time. Two quick questions. First: are the updates focused solely on improving performance and fixing bugs, or you also strive to improve the gameplay - for example, there was criticism of AI and the [unclearly] behavior of the characters. And the second question: how In your opinion, the revenue distribution in the coming year will be presented in compared to the "traditional" premiere? For example, many players may hold back from acquiring games until they buy a new generation console. Thank you.
MN: Regarding the first question - are we focusing only on technicalities or also on elements gameplay, such as AI. Honestly, it's one and the same for us; from a production point of view problems related to artificial intelligence and character behavior are a subcategory of faults; about So how many answers can I give - yes, we also do that. I would ask for a repeat second question.
Q12: How would you compare the expected distribution of revenues from game distribution in the coming year with a more traditional launch - considering many players may now be thinking, "I'll wait with Game 6 months or a year - until I buy a next-gen console?
PN: OK, so first of all - we offer a free update for everyone who purchased the game version for older consoles and intend to buy a new console; so i hope waiting for the new generation of consoles will not be a reason for players to refrain from purchasing the game. Moreover - of course, after preparing the version dedicated to the new generation of consoles, which will happen next year, we will offer a free update to game owners, and to people who have not yet made a decision about its purchase, they will be able to purchase a version prepared especially for the new generation and everyone related technical improvements.
Q13: Good morning. One quick question - when it comes to digital distribution to PC, could you please say something about GOG.com's share of total sales? What these results look like in compared to e.g.
PN: We do not disclose specific data. Yes, GOG - our internal distribution platform - has a larger share in Cyberpunk for PC sales than the statistical share of this platform in the gaming market - but we are not providing detailed information on market share or sales yet carried out through GOG.

Not sure if this is the right place for this. the breaks are separate pages
Adam Kiciński (AK): Good afternoon, Thank you for joining the call. My name is Adam Kiciński and I am the Joint-CEO of CD PROJEKT. This meeting was organized to discuss the situation right after the launch of Cyberpunk 2077. At the beginning I will present our current view of the situation which we are in today. After that, you will have time to ask questions. I’m with Piotr Nielubowicz, our CFO, Marcin Iwiński the Joint-CEO and co- founder, and Michał Nowakowski, Board Member responsible for publishing. We released Cyberpunk 2077 4 days ago on December the 10th. The game had a strong opening and we’ve got positive feedback from players enjoying it on stronger machines — PCs and next gen consoles and Stadia — but the initial feedback from those playing it on the oldest last-gen consoles is way below our expectations. CD PROJEKT is a team that puts all their efforts and hearts to deliver amazing games. So how was it even possible that it has come to this? After 3 delays, we as the Management Board were too focused on releasing the game. We underestimated the scale and complexity of the issues, we ignored the signals about the need for additional time to refine the game on the base last-gen consoles. It was the wrong approach and against our business philosophy. On top of that, during the campaign, we showed the game mostly on PCs. This caused the loss of gamers’ trust and the reputation that we’ve been building through a big part of our lives. That’s why our first steps are solely focused on regaining those two things. We are concentrated on fixing Cyberpunk on last-gen consoles. The first substantial set of fixes was released over the weekend. The next set of fixes will be released within the next seven days. Big updates are planned for January and February, together with smaller fixes. Of course, PC gamers will also be getting regular updates and fixes to improve the game. We will do everything possible to prove that we stick to our values. We truly hope that our efforts will let us rebuild the trust we have lost. Thank you. Now we are ready for the Q&A session. Q1: Hi there, I’ve got three questions. Firstly, I wonder if you could give us some more color on the impact this had on sales over the first four days since release, for the old-gen consoles – obviously it’d be great if you could give us a sense of what you current sales are, in total, maybe on two digital platforms, that’d be most helpful, but if you can’t give us an actual number, then maybe just some color on what impact you’re seeing, and maybe a percentage of your sales that you expected to come from old-gen consoles – that’s the first question. Secondly, taking a step back and thinking what went wrong here, could you give us a sense of whether you think you could have released this game on old- gen consoles in the way that you wanted to if you had more developers? Do you think this was a headcount capacity issue or a workflow issue – some color on that would be helpful. And finally, again, thinking forward to your additional content that you’re planning to launch over the next 2-3 years – how do you feel about your ability to release a couple of DLCs next year, and, obviously, multiplayer in 2022?
Piotr Nielubowicz (PN): Hello, Piotr Nielubowicz on this side. We definitely saw good initial sales, especially on PC. Obviously, the current situation will cause console sales to drop, but at this moment on Monday it’s far too early to provide detailed feedback on that; we’re still collecting data, especially from retail channels, and I’m afraid I won’t be able to answer this question precisely; however, as we promised prior to this call, we plan to release sales numbers before the holiday break. Michał Nowakowski (MN): Hi, this is Michał Nowakowski – the second question; would having more developers help deliver the game on old-gens? In terms of delivering the game at a certain point, it’s really not about the number of people; it’s not like throwing in – in the last month – 200 or so people would actually help. So, the answer is no; this is not related to the fact that we could have thrown 300 or 500 more people into the fray and things would have happened differently. AK: Adam Kiciński; the third question – to be honest, it’s too early to judge. At the moment please let us handle the situation, and please let us make some more assessments – that’s still ahead of us; we don’t know yet, and we’re now focused on improving Cyberpunk. We’ll discuss this early next year. Q2: I have three questions. First of all, I’ve seen that you’re offering refunds through the Sony and Microsoft platforms, and also through retailers. Since you made that kind of comment on Twitter – have you seen a flood of refund requests that you have to deal with, or are most people who have already bought the game holding on to it, trusting you that you’ll make it more playable on old-gen? Second question: do you think that you needed to have more external testing? Is it part of the process that everything is done in-house? If you had hired some outsourcers to do more extensive testing – could you have had less of an issue here? And the third question: regarding multiplayer, I’ve heard your answer to the previous question. Surely, you won’t rush that process, though, given what you’ve been seeing now – should we really be thinking about 2023 at the earliest for the arrival of that? Marcin Iwiński (MI): Marcin Iwiński; I’ll answer the first question regarding refunds. We are not encouraging gamers to return the game; we hope they’ll give us a chance to improve it on old-gen consoles. One fix was released last weekend; another one is coming in seven days – but there is an option, obviously, and the easiest way is to ask the retailer for a refund. If that’s not possible, we also provide help. As of today it’s too early to say; we’ve just begun the process and we sincerely hope that gamers will prefer to wait for updates since they had waited so long for the game, but – again – this is our humble hope. We’ll assess the situation in a couple of days when we have the numbers. AK: I’ll take the second and third question. We have an internal QA department and we’re working with external companies as well. One thing that perhaps didn’t help us is COVID: internal testers are able to test the game working from home because we provide them with our own connected machines and so on, but external testers working for external companies were not able to test the game from homes – they have test centers and if they’re not there, they’re not able to work. So, we have seen a decrease in the number of testers, but I wouldn’t point to it as a major source of problems. The third one, about multiplayer – first and foremost, we haven’t confirmed any dates yet, and as I’ve said before, it’s hard to judge now. We’re in an unanticipated situation and we’ll have to reassess. This is planned for January. We’re now focusing on managing the single-player release, working on patches, communication and – as I said at the very beginning of this call – our focus remains on gamers. We’ll see about further plans; the direction is obviously to proceed as planned, but we have to sit and discuss – and that will happen [inaudible]. Q2: Can I sneak in another question? Among the more than 8 million pre-orders that you have – did you include in this figure people who started downloading the two days before launch, on PC? They weren’t really pre-orders; they were just getting it lined up so that they could play. It’s something that’s treated differently across the industry.
MN: Hi, this is Michał Nowakowski; I can take this one. You ask whether who started pre-downloading the PC version were included in pre-orders? Well, yes, because if they started the pre-download they must have placed the pre-order. That’s the group of people who were able to pre-download the game. So one group includes the other, so to speak. It’s not like anybody could have pre-downloaded the game; that was an option open only to people who had pre-purchased the game on the given storefront. Q3: Couple of questions if I may. Firstly, your earlier comment about the board being too focused on delivering the game and ignoring problems with old-gen. Should we take it that you had found it was very important that the game shouldn’t be delayed into the next year, or simply that you had always wanted to deliver the game and not delay it – and you just underestimated the extent to which the last-gen version was not going to be the way it should be? Was it more about “the launch is important” or more about “we underestimated how bad the last-gen version was”? And secondly, and related to that, at the certification stage – presumably, Microsoft and Sony always get games that still have bugs, and decide they’re going to be ok – partly on the basis of discussions with you that there will be fixes. Have I understood that correctly? Or do you feel somehow that the certification process is kind of only one side or the other, and failed to identify just how underperforming the last-gen version was? Perhaps I should add a final question to make it three; everyone has three – are you confident that last-gen machines will be able to produce an acceptable version of this game? And I say this as a PS4 owner, so I hope so. But – is it something that’s simply too demanding, and – in hindsight – no amount of fixing is going to generate an acceptable experience? Thank you. MN: First – your question was about the focus and the cause of ours ignoring, so to speak, the shortcomings of the current-gen version. It is more about us looking – as was previously stated – at the PC and next-gen performance rather than current-gen. We definitely did not spend enough time looking at that. I wouldn’t say that we felt any external or internal pressure to launch on the date – other than the normal pressure, which is typical for any release. So that was not the cause. In terms of the certification process and the third parties – this is definitely on our side. I can only assume that they trusted that we’re going to fix things upon release, and that obviously did not come together exactly as we had planned. Regarding the third question – where we want to go with the PlayStation and Xbox – as stated in the statement made public today in the morning, we are planning to get the game in much better shape than it is now, of course, and a lot of that is going to be happening in December. Come January and February you’re going to see larger improvements – which we’ve stated already. We have also stated that if your expectation is that the game is going to be equal to, say, next- gens or PC in terms of performance, that definitely isn’t going to happen. Having said that, I’m not saying it’s going to be a bad game – but if you’re expectations regarding, say, visuals or other performance angle, are like this, then we’re openly stating that’s not going to be the case. It will be a good, playable, stable game, without glitches and crashes, though. That’s the intention. Q3: Okay; that last sentence, I think, is the key one. I don’t expect next-gen performance on last-gen, but I would like to be able to play through the game. Thank you very much. MN: You will be able to. Thank you. Q4: A couple of questions, please. The first one: will you still be doing your strategy update in Q1, or will that be postponed? The second question: obviously the gameplay on old-gen consoles wasn’t really shown very much. Could you explain why you decided to hold that back? People just saw PC gameplay, I think. And can you also talk about how you’re deploying your staff now? How are you splitting what they’re working on? How many people are still working on Cyberpunk? How many on the mobile [game]? How many people on the next Witcher game? How many people on DLCs? How many people on multiplayer? Have you changed your expectations concerning staff allocation because
of this? And does this push back things like The Witcher 4? I know you haven’t announced it, but you’ve said that people would be working on other titles once Cyberpunk is done. Thank you. AK: So, regarding the strategy update – as of today we’re planning to release it in Q1, as planned. MI: For the second question – with regard to not showing the console version – we’ve actually shown console footage, but never on the last-gen consoles. The reason is that we were updating the game on last-gen consoles until the very last minute, and we thought we’d make it in time. Unfortunately this resulted in giving it to reviewers just one day before the release, which was definitely too late and the media didn’t get the chance to review it properly. That was not intended; we were just fixing the game until the very last moment. AK: Regarding allocation of teams – it’s normal outside of the Cyberpunk teams. Spokko and the GWENT team are working on their projects. The Cyberpunk teams were scheduled to continue working on patches – this will probably take some more time, but of course we are branching and working on future projects as well. We’re also scheduling holidays; people are tired and – regardless of the situation and regardless of patches, we will not simply continue working as before; our people need to rest a bit. We will have a strong team working on patches at least until February. Q5: Hello, I have a question on your cost side. You said that the pre-orders covered the development and marketing costs of the game. Could you maybe provide the numbers now that the game has launched? And the second question – given the work which is required now to fix bugs, glitches and similar problems, how does this affect your costs with regard to marketing and development? Perhaps you could provide some color on this as well? Thank you. PN: Unfortunately I cannot share the cost related to additional work, but the cost of patching the game is irrelevant compared to what we have already spent. So there’s no question – we definitely want to fix the game; we made a promise to gamers and we’ll be doing everything to stick with it. And as far as the first part of the question is concerned – could you please repeat it? Q5: It’s about the development and marketing cost of Cyberpunk that you have incurred so far – maybe you could give us numbers? AK: We’re not revealing this data; a complete statement including our revenues and expenses related to marketing, will be part of the Q4 report – I’m sorry, but we’re not providing guidance on that right now. Q6: Hello; I have three questions. First, regarding the refunds again, but another issue: I was wondering whether your console partners, like Microsoft and Sony will by any chance participate in the refunds, or is the financial burden yours only? The second question – are you considering giving away a bigger DLC for free to make gamers feel less disappointed? Is it on the table? And the last one – could you comment on the latest leak from Jason Schreier about the change in your bonus policy? I’m wondering – will it be connected with the game’s revenues or will you be giving out bonuses at nominal value to retain the staff? That’s all from me. MN: I’ll start – the question is whether Microsoft and Sony are participating financially in refunds. One has to understand: Microsoft and Sony have refund policies for every product that is released digitally on their storefronts. Despite several articles I’ve seen that things are being set up just for us, it’s actually not true – these policies are in place and have always been in place; they’re not offered specifically for us. Anyone who has purchased any title on the PlayStation network or the Microsoft storefront can ask for a refund, and if it’s made within certain boundaries, usually related to time, usage and so on, can ask for that refund. Our procedure here with Microsoft and Sony is not different
than with any other title released on any of those storefronts. I want to state that clearly, as there seem to be certain misconceptions. In terms of financial participation, when our product is refunded, the share from the store that Microsoft took is refunded, and of course it’s something that is subtracted from the share of revenues that would normally be transmitted to CD PROJEKT. It’s, of course, not shared with us and is instead refunded to the given player – the given customer. I think that pretty much sums up the first one. Regarding the second question – we have stated our policy in terms of what we are doing with the players for now, and that’s where we stand. Regarding the third question – we don’t really comment on what someone else has stated about what’s going on at the studio. Thank you. Q7: Thanks for that and regarding refunds – there’s no chance that the market will receive an update on the volume or number of refunds before the sales report around Christmas, yes? AK: We don’t know yet. Before Christmas we will release sales numbers, but in terms of refunds – we’re not sure if we’ll share this information outside of the company. Q8: Hello; I wanted to ask about the shape of the game after optimization that’s possible in February – you said that it would be possible to play, but what price points can we expect? Obviously, it might be a smaller game if it’s not fully comparable to PC – so perhaps a comment on that, and also – could you have released the game without including the old-gen consoles if that version was unacceptable? MN: I’m not sure I fully understood your question, so if I’m answering something different than what you asked – feel free to correct me. In terms of the shape of the game after optimization: we pretty much said it earlier in the call, i.e. the game will have no crashes, the main bugs will be eliminated, and we’re looking to improve both performance and graphic fidelity – that’s going to be spread out across various patches and, of course, a pretty important update will happen this month. Actually, the game is playable right now; that may be an important thing to state because it’s not like the game does not launch or is unplayable; I fully understand that the experience is far from satisfactory for a lot of people – and we do acknowledge that – but “not playable” sounds like it doesn’t launch at all, which is not the case. Versus PC – again, this is something we have stated before; you cannot expect PC-like or next- gen-like performance on last-gens, and we’re not claiming that. I’m not sure I fully understood the context of the question concerning the difference in price points. Q8: Will it be offered at the same price or will the price be lower on old-gens in February? MN: We do not foresee lowering the price. We’re focusing on fixing the game to make sure that people are happy with the product, but there’s currently no discussion about changing the price. Q8: And could you have released – MN: – without the old-gen consoles? In pure theory, if we had decided that one day before the launch then yes; we might have released just the PC version – but I’m not sure what else is included in that question, to be honest. Q8: So could this have only been the new generation of consoles and PCs? MN: So the answer here is “no”: next-gens get a completely different version of the game, so it’s not like we could have decided at any point recently to “flip the switch”, so to say, and change the old-gen version to the next-gen version and release only on next-gens. As you have noticed, there is no native next-gen release. The game runs on next-gens and takes advantage of how next-gens are performing, but it’s not like we had a next-gen version in our hands and decided to keep it on the shelf.
MI: Marcin Iwiński; let me add one more thing: [some time ago] we decided upon a last-gen version and, as you can see, we have not released a proper next-gen version – we don’t have it ready yet. What we did instead was promise that every single gamer who bought the game on last-gen consoles will get a proper next-gen update next year. This is what we’re working on and I sincerely hope that this will serve as another incentive for the gamers to keep the game and not return it – they will be able to plug their PlayStation or Xbox version into the next-gen consoles and the game will auto-update to a full-blown next-gen experience at no additional cost. So – I believe it does have quite some value. Q9: Hi. I also have three questions. So, we all know that [muffled] on consoles has been disappointing, but could you maybe provide some comments on the PC sales and player feedback – are the sales and the feedback on the PC platform in line with your original expectations? Secondly – other than performance considerations and stability of the game, is there any other player feedback that might be a bit alarming or concerning – like feedback regarding the story or gameplay experience that you potentially might need to focus on? And thirdly – you mentioned you would have another patch in seven days; I’m wondering what improvements will this patch bring. I’m trying to understand if the experience of console players will improve by Christmas. PN: Hello; Piotr Nielubowicz here. As we mentioned; the initial sales were very good, and that’s what we mostly see by now. We’re still collecting sales results, especially from physical retail channels, but the digital opening – especially on PC – was really good, as we reported on launch day. As far as players’ feedback is concerned, the feedback for the PC edition is by far better than what we’re getting on consoles – but when we read reviews of the PC version we see many comments referring to the console versions, so there’s a bit of a mix among platforms and it’s not always easy to distinguish them. MI: And with regard to the PC version, this is what the reviewers got – you can check the reviews and our Metacritic score – and of course PCs vary in terms of configuration, so gamers may also have certain problems. We’re reminding everyone at launch about the very recent release of Nvidia graphic drivers which are crucial for our game, because they were developed in coordination with us, but in general PC gamers are enjoying the game a lot and we see very positive comments [on their streams]. So – a lot of positivity and goodwill is coming from this direction. Not that the game is perfect – it’s a gigantic world so at launch there’ll always be some glitches and problems on various configurations, but with regard to the console experience – we already fixed a lot of crashes with the last hotfix, and this time again we will be mostly looking at crashes and game-breaking bugs. I sincerely hope that by Christmas gamers will be able to enjoy the game on consoles; of course the major updates will come in January and February, so, again, we humbly ask gamers to wait – and they’ll be able to have an even better experience then. Q10: Good afternoon. I have a question on the trajectory of your sales and how you will be updating the market on those new figures – because up until now you’ve only announced pre-order figures. I’ve been wondering at what intervals will you communicate to the market – I think the consensus figure is 23 million for the end of the year – to me it seems that that figure is still attainable, in particular given that a lot of the sales have been happening on PC, and also through Google Stadia, both of which performed quite well. Also, given that we’ve now had 3-4 days of active gameplay, could you comment a bit on the PC and Stadia side of things – as gamers advance through the game, how do they experience it in terms of how actively they play – do you have any numbers on that? How “sticky” is the game for those PC gamers? Thank you. PN: As far as future sales updates are concerned, we will release an update before the holiday break, and then the next full set of results will be included in our annual report which will be published in Q1. We have not decided on any additional update as of now. As far as comments regarding the consensus are concerned – we had never commented upon the consensus before the release, and we will not comment on it right now either.
AK: I’ll take the second one. Sentiment is positive. With every passing day since the release we’re getting more and more positive feedback. We started low, but we’re gaining. [muffled] we started with a score of 70, but now it’s 79. If you filter those who have played 10 hours or more, the score is 85 – so the more you play the more enjoyment you feel. That’s the general feedback we have. One important point: we’re discussing old-gen consoles and negative feedback there – but we also have tons of positive feedback from players playing the game on old-gen consoles, so it’s not strictly negative. Of course the first impression was negative, especially after the very strong campaign showcasing the game on PCs, but now we have more and more satisfied players using old-gen consoles as well – though naturally strong PCs offer better graphics and better gameplay than old-gens. In terms of numbers, we’ve seen millions of gamers playing on PC. Thank you. Q11: Apologies if you have already answered this question, but – out of the 8 million pre-orders, could you give us a breakdown of where they actually come from – in terms of new consoles, old consoles, PC sales – just to get a hold on where they’re coming in from? And also – looking at your own internal expectations, what was the breakdown of the sales mix between these channels? MN: So just to be sure, your question was – out of the 8 million, how many people were on last-gens and how many were on next-gens? Q11: Yes, I’m just trying to get an understanding of that. PN: Let me jump in – the preorder numbers were split between PCs and consoles with PC accounting for 59% of sales and consoles – 41%. Unfortunately we do not have the exact split between old and new console versions since we have just one console SKU for PlayStation and one for Xbox and we do not have direct visibility of how this CD or digital download is being used by gamers and which machines they’re using – the newest consoles or older ones. Q11: Thanks; and if you look at your internal projections, obviously you might not want to comment on consensus expectations on unit sales, but in terms of your own internal budgeting process – what was your expectation in terms of the mix on the sale of the game? PN: Naturally, we would be expecting PC to have a bigger share in the preorder campaign as PC gamers are usually more active on the preorder front, and then consoles tend to get stronger after the release. We’re monitoring the situation; the game has been out for just 3 days and what we see are mostly digital channels – we still do not have full data representing physical retail. It’s definitely too early to judge this and give you reliable guidance on this question. Q11: I understand that in terms of guidance, but I’m trying to understand your budgeting process: what would be the mix between console and PC, and with consoles, how much was on next-gen and how much on old-gen? MN: I’d say that the mix between PC and consoles in general was in line with what we had been expecting. In terms of the mix between next-gens and current-gens, we weren’t really looking at it like this because we knew that for next-gens we were going to be launching on the current-gen platforms, so from a purely marketing perspective it’s a bit irrelevant – we knew we had potential consumers in one or the other group, and that the number of next-gens on the market was something we had no influence upon – but from a numbers perspective, this wasn’t a game-changer for us; we never carried out any analysis like that; it had no influence on the numbers from our perspective. Q12: Thank you very much for taking the time. Two quick questions. The first would be this: are the patches purely focused on performance and fixing bugs, or are you also looking to improve the gameplay in some ways – for example, the AI has been criticized [muffled] the NPC behaviors. And the
second question: how would expect the revenue over the year to look compared to a “traditional” launch? For example, a lot of gamers may decide they want to postpone the purchase until they get a next-gen console. Thank you. MN: So, for the first question – whether we’re focusing just on technicalities or gameplay elements; things like AI – for example. To be honest – these are the same for us, from the production standpoint AI and NPC behavior fall within the general category of bugs, so if I can give you an answer – I think it does actually include that as well. I’ll ask you to repeat the second question. Q12: How would you expect the revenue generated over the year by the game to compare to a more traditional launch given that a lot of gamers might be thinking “I’m just going to wait maybe 6 months or a year before I get a next-gen console in order to play the game”? PN: OK, so first of all we’ve publicly offered a free update to everyone who bought the game on old- gen consoles, and wants to upgrade to a next-gen console, so I hope it won’t cause any gamers to withhold their purchase decision and wait for a next-gen console. On top of that, obviously, an update will be given out once we prepare the next-gen version of the game, which will happen next year – so we will have another opportunity to offer the game to those who haven’t decided to buy it by that time; they will be given the opportunity to purchase a version prepared exclusively for next-gen and all the technologies that next-gen has to offer. Q13: Good afternoon; just one question: of the PC digital copies, could you give us a bit of color on the share of copies sold through GOG.com – for example, how does it compare to what you achieved with The Witcher 3? Thank you. PN: We’re not revealing this data. Obviously, GOG as our internal store has a much bigger share in the PC digital distribution of Cyberpunk vs. the standard market share of GOG – but as for now, we’re not revealing any splits or comparisons involving GOG or sales on this platform. Moderator: This concludes our Q&A session. I would now like to turn it over to our speakers for any additional or closing remarks. AK: Thank you for joining the call. Let’s stay in touch and if you have any further questions – please contact our IR team. Bye!

Adam Kiciński (AK):
Good morning,
Thanks for joining calla. My name is Adam Kiciński and I am the President of the Management Board of CD PROJEKT.
This call is to discuss the events that took place immediately after the premiere Cyberpunk 2077. Let me start by presenting our current opinion on the current situation; then you can ask questions. I am accompanied by Piotr Nielubowicz, director of affairs financial institutions, Marcin Iwiński, vice president and co-founder of the company, and Michał Nowakowski, member management board responsible for publishing policy.
Cyberpunk 2077 was released 4 days ago - on December 10. The game had a strong debut, and the reactions of the players using powerful machines - PC, next-generation consoles and Stadia service - were positive. On the other hand, the opinions of users of older consoles of the previous generation fell significantly below our expectations. All the efforts of the CD PROJEKT team are aimed at creating games of the highest quality. So how could it come to the described situation? After the premiere was delayed three times, the Board of Directors was overly focused on the need to release games. We have underestimated the scale and complexity of the problems; we ignored the signals that the need for additional improvements on the base versions of the previous generation consoles. Approach it was wrong and contrary to our business philosophy. What's more - during the promotional campaign, the game was mainly demonstrated in the PC version. The above mistakes resulted in a loss of players' trust and reputation, which we were building by the significant part of our life. Our current activities must therefore be decisively towards regaining these two strengths. Last weekend, we released the first major patch; another will be released within seven days. We plan major updates for January and February; they will be too be accompanied by smaller patches. Of course, there will be regular updates and patches to improve the game also available to users of the PC version. We will do everything in our power to prove that we remain true to our values. We sincerely hope that our efforts will enable us to restore our lost trust.
Thank you. We are ready for your questions.
Q1: Hello; I have three questions. First, could you comment on the impact this has on sales? version for old consoles in the first four days after release - it would be great if you guys could roughly determine how this sales is currently taking place on the two digital platforms. If you are not able to present specific numbers - maybe you could describe in general observed impact and determine the percentage of sales for which they were supposed to be responsible for in your plans older consoles - this is the first question. Second - looking in a slightly wider perspective at what went wrong - do you think you could release the game for older consoles to your satisfaction? characters if you had more developers? Was the problem due to staff shortages, or rather from the work schedule? I would be grateful if you could comment on this. And finally - taking take into account the additional content that you intend to release in the next 2-3 years - as today you are looking at the possibility of releasing a few DLCs in the coming year and, of course, a version multiplayer in 2022?
Piotr Nielubowicz (PN): Hello; here is Piotr Nielubowicz. Initial sales, especially the PC version, are on very good. Of course, the current situation will make the game sell worse in the version console, but at the moment - on Monday - it is difficult to provide detailed comments on this issue; we are still collecting data, especially from retail distributors and I am afraid I cannot provide precise answer. However, I stand by our pre-conference declaration: we plan to disclose sales amount before the holiday break.
Michał Nowakowski (MN): Hello; here is Michał Nowakowski. I will answer the second question: is it greater number of developers would help bring the game to older consoles? As for the possibility of release games on a specific date - it's not about the number of people; it cannot be said that commitment - eg in the last month - two hundred additional employees helped with anything. Thus the answer is no: we don't think if we had had 300 or 500 on the home straight additional people, things would have been different.
AK: This is Adam Kiciński. I will answer the third question - to be honest, it's too early to do so rate. Please allow us to grasp the current situation and make an estimate - this is still before us; we do not have detailed knowledge here; we focus on improving Cyberpunk. We will come back to topic at the beginning of next year.
Q2: I have three questions. First of all - I can see that you are offering refunds on Sony and Microsoft platforms, a also at retail distributors. Have you been following from the moment you posted it on Twitter? an avalanche of returns, or the majority of people who acquire the game don't get rid of it, believing that you will improve its operation on older generation consoles? Second question: do you think that more was needed? extensive external game testing campaign? Does your trial assume you take care of everything? yourself? If you had decided to outsource wider and carried out a more insightful one tests - wouldn't you be better off right now? The third question concerns the multiplayer. I have listened to the answers to the previous questions; I assume you will not rush to take now taking into account recent events - should we assume that the multiplayer will be released first? in 2023?
Marcin Iwiński (MI): This is Marcin Iwiński; I will answer the question about returns. We do not encourage players to return the game; we hope that they will give us a chance to improve it on the older generation consoles. We released the first update over the weekend; another one will be released in seven days - nevertheless you can apply for a refund; the easiest way to do it is at your distributor, but if it turned out it is impossible - we are here to help. At the moment it is difficult to define the scale of this phenomenon; all it has only just begun and we sincerely hope that players who have waited so long for the game will find it they can also wait for its update - but I emphasize that this is only a humble hope. In a few days we will receive detailed data and we will be able to better assess the situation.
AK: I will answer the second and third questions. We have an internal test department and we cooperate as well with external contractors. COVID turned out to be a significant obstacle in this process; of course ours internal testers are able to work from home because we deliver them properly configured machines, etc., but testers working for external companies were not able to test the game on their own homes - these companies have their own testing centers and people who are not physically present there cannot do your job. So we saw a reduction in the number of testers, though I would not say so this to be a major source of problems. The third question was about the multiplayer. First of all - no we have announced any specific dates here, and it is difficult to make a credible judgment at this stage. We have dealing with an unforeseen situation that will require new analysis. This is what we plan take care of in January; we are currently focusing on managing the for-one situation the player; we are working on updates, we conduct communication and - as I mentioned on the same beginning of call - we focus on the needs of players. Further plans are a matter of the future; of course we would like to follow the agreed schedule, but we have to think carefully about it and discuss - what will happen [disturbances] .
Q2: Could I ask you one more question? Is the number of over eight million pre-orders takes into account players who started pre-download the PC version two days before the release? You can say that this is not a presale, but only a group of people who want to install the game with its release date. These clients are categorized differently in the gaming market.
MN: This is Michał Nowakowski; I can answer that question. You ask if the people who have benefited from PC version pre-download options included in pre-order? Yes - because pre-download required a pre-order. Only pre-ordered customers were able to download the game prior to release. One can therefore say that one of these groups is contained in the other. Pre-download was not available for each, and only for people who took advantage of the pre-sale offer at a given distributor.
Q3: A few questions if allowed. First, you mentioned earlier that the Board was too much he was focused on the game release and underestimated the problems with the previous generation consoles. Are we to understand that you found it extremely important not to postpone the premiere to the next one? a year, or you just wanted to release the game without delay and didn't realize to what extent the version for the older generation of consoles does not meet your expectations? In other words - or more the slogan "we have to meet the deadline" or "we underestimated the problems in the older one plays a role here generation "? Second - which is related to the first question - probably to Microsoft and Sony often games with glitches run off, but platform owners decide - maybe on the basis of discussions with you, promises to release updates, etc. - that the quality of the game is satisfactory? Is okay I understand that? Or maybe the certification process itself is too one-sided and did not reveal the true ones problems with game performance on the previous generation of consoles? I will add a third question - since everyone asks three questions: do you think it is even possible to get an acceptable version? games on older consoles? I am asking this as a PS4 owner so hopefully the answer is "Yes," but perhaps the game is just too demanding and unrepairable to the extent that would guarantee a good experience on older consoles? Thank you.
MN: The first question was about the priorities and the reasons why we ignored it, so to speak shortcomings of the version for the current generation of consoles. Rather, this is due - as already stated - to the fact that that we were focusing on the performance of the PC version and on the next generation of consoles. We have certainly sacrificed too little attention from the older generation. I wouldn't say that we were under pressure - external or internal - to release the game on time, except, of course, the usual pressure that he always accompanies prime ministers. I would not see the causes of the problem here. As for the process certification and activities of our contractors - here the responsibility is definitely ours side. It can be assumed that the platform owners trust us that the problems will be resolved by the time premiere and there is no doubt that not everything went as planned in this respect. About the third question - what actions will we take in relation to the PlayStation and Xbox versions - as we announced this morning, we intend to bring the game to a much better state than Nowadays; many of these activities will take place in December, and in January and February we are going to make more serious improvements. At the same time, we emphasize that it cannot be expected that the game will work as well as on PCs or the new generation of consoles. Here I want to clarify that it won't be a bad game - but expectations for its visual or other aspects performance should not assume that everything will be the same as on the PC and on the next generation. However, everything will be a good, playable, stable game, free from bugs and hangs. This is what it is plan.
Q3: This last sentence is, I think, crucial. I don't expect the previous generation of consoles to match next-gen performance - but wish I could beat the game. Thank you very much.
MN: You will be able to go through it. Thank you.
Q4: Some questions. First, are you still going to update your strategy in the first? quarter - do you postpone this activity? Second question: the game was almost not demonstrated in the for older consoles. Could you please explain why you didn't show it? I think that presentations were based solely on the PC version. Could you also say something about the current involvement of the teams? How are you assigning them tasks today? How many people I'm working on Cyberpunk, how much on the [game] mobile, how much on the new Witcher, how much on DLC, how much multiplayer? In light of these events, have your assumptions about team allocation changed? and does it mean that work on, for example, The Witcher 4 is postponed? I know you didn't announce this game, but you said that after finishing Cyberpunk some of the team would start working on new titles. Thank you.
AK: As for the strategy update, we are still going to publish it in the first quarter, according to plan.
MI: Regarding the second question - about avoiding showing the console version - we were demonstrating the game on consoles, but not on older generation consoles. The reason was that we were working on improving this version until the last minute and we hoped we would be on time. Unfortunately, as a consequence, the game ended up in reviewers only one day before the premiere, so far too late for reviewers to be able to evaluate it properly. This was not an intended action on our part; just to the last minute we have been working on improvements.
AK: When it comes to assigning tasks, everything is normal in teams that are not working over the Cyberpunk. Spokko and the GWENT team develop their projects, while the Cyberpunk team he had plans to work on patches, which will probably take a little longer now - but at the same time, we are operating on new fronts and also working on future projects. I will add also that we are planning a holiday season; our people are tired and regardless of the current situation and preparing the update, they cannot continue to work in their current mode - they have to do a little rest. Anyway, a strong team will be working on patches at least until February.
Q5: Good morning; I have a question about the cost. You announced that pre-order revenues they compensated you for the costs of creating the game and the costs of promoting it. Now, after the premiere, could you reveal specific numbers? And the second question - taking into account the work required for fixing bugs and other such problems - as it relates to your spending on marketing and game development? Could you please reveal more details? Thank you.
PN: Unfortunately, I am not able to disclose the cost of additional work, but in terms of expenses patching the game is irrelevant compared to the expenses already incurred. The question is then indisputable - we want to fix the game; we made a promise to the players and we will do everything we can to her keep. As for the first part of the question - can you ask for a repeat?
Q5: I mean Cyberpunk's development and marketing costs so far - can you please specify? specific numbers?
AK: We do not disclose this data. A complete statement of our income and expenses will be in our financial statements for the fourth quarter - sorry, but we are currently not presenting any forecasts relating to them.
Q6: Hello; I have three questions. The first is again about returns, but I mean a slightly different point: I wonder if your console partners Microsoft and Sony will participate in the funding returns, or do all costs fall on you? Second question - are you considering offering any larger DLC for free to counteract disappointment among players? Do you think about such options? And last - could you please comment on the latest leak from Jason Schreier about the changes to the bonus policy? Will employee retention bonuses depend on income from games, or will they be fixed bonuses? It's all on my part.
MN: Let me start with a question about the financial contribution of Microsoft and Sony to the returns. You have to to clear one point: Microsoft and Sony have a return policy that covers every product sold in their stores. Several press mentions appeared suggesting such a policy it was introduced especially for us, but it's not true: the return policies are and have always been in force; we do not stand out in any way. Anyone buying any title from the PlayStation Store or Microsoft can request a refund - as long as it meets certain time criteria or the frequency of use of the purchased product. Our cooperation with Microsoft and Sony does not differ from the arrangements for any other title offered through these platforms. I would like to make this clear because I can see some misconceptions circulating. as regards for a financial contribution - when a customer returns our product, they receive a refund of the fee they paid in the store Microsoft and, of course, the revenues that flow to CD PROJEKT are also decreasing proportionally. Money does not pass through our hands; go directly to the customer - the player who returned the game. This seems to me enough to answer the first question. As for the second question - we explained our actions and policy towards players; we will get this keep. As for the third question - we rather avoid referring to opinions expressed by people the third is about the studio situation. Thank you.
Q7: Thank you, and when it comes to returns - the market shouldn't count on numbers or scale information returns before the sales report, which will be released around Christmas, right?
AK: We are not sure about it yet. We want to publish sales data before Christmas, but if it is about returns - we do not know if this information will be made public.
Q8: Good morning. My question concerns the shape of the game after optimization, which is possible in February - you said it will be playable, but what prices can we expect? It looks like it will it's a smaller game - since it's not fully comparable to the PC version. I would like a comment on this issues. And the second thing - could you release the game without including older consoles, since this version does not meet expectations?
MN: I am not sure if I fully understand the question, so if I am answering a question other than what was asked - please correct me. As for the appearance of the game after optimization: we mentioned about it a bit earlier during this call; the game will not crash, more serious glitches will remain removed and we also intend to improve both performance and graphics quality - these changes will remain introduced gradually as part of a series of updates; an important patch will be released later this month. In fact, the game is playable right now - I think it should be emphasized as we are not talking about the situation in which game does not start or the gameplay is impossible. We fully understand that impressions far from what many players expect - we admit that it is - but "unplayable" suggests that it cannot be started at all, which is not true. As for the comparison with the PC - this one we have already touched on the issue; on older consoles you cannot expect a quality comparable to what can be achieved on PC or the next generation of consoles, and we are not suggesting that this will change. No i am sure i understand the context of the question about the price difference.
Q8: Will the game be available at the same price or will the version for older consoles be cheaper in February?
MN: We do not assume any price cuts. We focus on improving the game so that its buyers are satisfied, but there is currently no question of a price reduction.
Q8: And could you release the game -
MN: - no version for the older generation of consoles? Purely theoretically, if we had made such a decision day before the premiere, yes, we could only release the PC version, but - I admit - I do not fully understand, what exactly is the question about.
Q8: So it was possible to release the game only in the new generation and PC version?
MN: Here the answer is "no": we are preparing a completely separate version of the game for the new generation; no so we could, shortly before the premiere, "switch the lever", say that the version to the new one generation is the correct console version of the game, then release the game only on the next generation. How you probably noticed, so far there is no version dedicated to the new generation of consoles. The game runs on new consoles and takes advantage of their greater efficiency, but we do not have a version for the new ones yet consoles that we could "put on the shelf".
MI: This is Marcin Iwiński; I would like to add one more thing - [some time ago] we decided that he is playing will be released on the current generation of consoles and, as you can see, we have not yet published a dedicated one version for new consoles - this version is not ready yet. Instead, we promised that each player, who buys the game for the existing consoles next year will receive a free update. This is what we are currently working on and I hope that this fact will be an additional incentive for players, so as not to part with the game: they will be able to start the game in the PlayStation or Xbox version on the new ones consoles; the game will then be automatically updated to the next-gen version without any floss. It seems to me that this is its advantage.
Q9: Good morning; I also have three questions. So - we can all see that [dimly] on consoles disappointed, but maybe you could say a little more about the sales and comments PC version users? That the sales and experience on the PC match your original one expectations? Second - aside from the issues related to the performance and stability of the game - or There were reactions from players that would upset you or upset you and prompted you to continue working - I mean story and gameplay? And third - you mentioned that another one will be released in seven days update. I am curious what improvements will be made within it; I would like to know, how much will improve the user experience of the console version before Christmas.
PN: Hello; Piotr Nielubowicz here. As we mentioned, the initial sale was great strong - this data is available at the moment. We still collect sales data, especially from physical stores, but the digital premiere - especially on PC - went very well, Fr. which we reported on the day of the premiere. When it comes to user experience - in the PC version they look much better than what we saw on consoles, but when we delve into PC game reviews, we notice that there are many comments about console editions; can be seen so that some confusion has crept in here and it is difficult to unambiguously separate the individual platforms.
MI: As for the PC version - it was this version that the reviewers received; you can familiarize yourself with them opinions and our scores on Metacritic. It is worth noting that PCs differ in terms of configuration and some players may experience some issues. From the moment premieres, we remind everyone about the recently released new versions of Nvidia drivers - our game requires them because they were created in cooperation with us. Overall, however, the game is very enjoyable PC users; we see a lot of positive feedback in their streams and in this field in general the reception of the game is positive. I'm not saying that the game is perfect - in such a huge world they will always be there were some bugs and problems due to configuration differences. As for the impressions on consoles - the last hotfix fixed many crashes; This time we will again focus on crashes and bugs that prevent proper gameplay. I have hope players will be able to fully enjoy the console version before Christmas; of course We are also planning major updates in January and February - so I would like to address players again humbly asking them to wait - their impressions will surely improve.
Q10: Good morning. I have a question about the sales trajectory and how often you are going to publish new data - so far you have only announced the pre-sale data. I wonder, at what intervals do you intend to inform the market - if I remember, the market consensus is 23 millions of copies sold this year - and I think that number is still available especially considering the large share of the PC edition, as well as the version for Google Stadia - both versions they are doing fairly well. And the second point: after 3-4 days of active play, could you - in context PC and Stadia versions - tell you about the activity of players who continue delving into the plot of the game? Do you have the relevant data? How "addicting" is the game for PC users? Thank you.
PN: As for further sales information - we are going to publish an updated one data before Christmas, and the next - as part of our full financial results, which will remain included in the annual report for the first quarter. We are not planning any additional ones yet update. As for the consensus comments, we did not comment on these forecasts before the premiere and we are not going to comment on them now.
AK: I will answer the second question. The impressions are positive. Every day since the premiere we receive more and more positive opinions. We started low but the average has been increasing since then. [unclear] was initially at level 70, but now is at 79, and if you select only these people, who have spent 10 or more hours in the game - as much as 85. The longer a person plays, the more fun he gets from the game - this is our feedback in general. It's also worth noting that when it comes to version for older consoles, we're focusing on negative feedback, but we got a lot here as well positive opinions, so the overall picture is not necessarily bad. Yes, the first impressions were poor - especially after an extensive advertising campaign that focused on the PC version - but we also have more and more satisfied users of older consoles - though of course the PC version offers better graphics and smoother gameplay. As for the figures - in the case of the PC edition we deal with millions of players. Thank you.
Q11: Sorry if you already answered that question, but - when we're talking about 8 million preorder, could you please explain which versions they were about? Version for new consoles, for old ones consoles, on PC - what is the share of each of these editions? By the way, I would also like to ask about yours internal expectations - how did you imagine the share of individual channels in the total pre-sale?
MN: I just want to be sure - it's about the share of old and new consoles in the 8 million preorder?
Q11: Yes; I'd like to know.
PN: I will cut in: the pre-order schedule for the PC version and console editions is as follows: PC - 59%, consoles - 41%. Unfortunately, we do not have detailed data on the participation of elders and new consoles, as there is only one SKU for PlayStation and one for Xbox. We don't have a direct one access to information on how these CDs or electronic editions are used by players; on what kind of machines - new or old consoles.
Q11: Thanks. As for your internal forecasts, I understand you don't want to comment market consensus regarding expected sales volume - but from the point of view internal resource allocation processes what were the expectations of the participation of each individual fully sold version?
PN: Of course, we were expecting more PC pre-sale - PC users are usually more active when it comes to preorders, and the share of consoles increases after the premiere. Currently we monitor the situation; the game has only been on the market for three days and so far we have the data concerning mainly electronic sales - some data from the retail market is still missing. Is so it is far too early to provide concrete estimates and reliable guidance in context of this question.
Q11: I understand the pointers, but I am trying to understand your resource allocation process financial - what in this context was the expected share of the console and PC versions, and among the consoles - old and new generation?
MN: I would say that the share of the PC and console versions was roughly in line with our expectations. If it's about the old and new generation of consoles - we didn't approach the problem from this side; we understood that the game will be released on the older generation and will also be playable on the new generation generation, so from a purely marketing point of view it was relatively insignificant - we have potential customers in both groups; however, we have no influence on the market share of the new one generation. Anyway, from a purely numerical point of view, it was not particularly important - we did not carry out the relevant analyzes as we have no influence on the figures mentioned.
Q12: Thank you for your time. Two quick questions. First: are the updates focused solely on improving performance and fixing bugs, or you also strive to improve the gameplay - for example, there was criticism of AI and the [unclearly] behavior of the characters. And the second question: how In your opinion, the revenue distribution in the coming year will be presented in compared to the "traditional" premiere? For example, many players may hold back from acquiring games until they buy a new generation console. Thank you.
MN: Regarding the first question - are we focusing only on technicalities or also on elements gameplay, such as AI. Honestly, it's one and the same for us; from a production point of view problems related to artificial intelligence and character behavior are a subcategory of faults; about So how many answers can I give - yes, we also do that. I would ask for a repeat second question.
Q12: How would you compare the expected distribution of revenues from game distribution in the coming year with a more traditional launch - considering many players may now be thinking, "I'll wait with Game 6 months or a year - until I buy a next-gen console?
PN: OK, so first of all - we offer a free update for everyone who purchased the game version for older consoles and intend to buy a new console; so i hope waiting for the new generation of consoles will not be a reason for players to refrain from purchasing the game. Moreover - of course, after preparing the version dedicated to the new generation of consoles, which will happen next year, we will offer a free update to game owners, and to people who have not yet made a decision about its purchase, they will be able to purchase a version prepared especially for the new generation and everyone related technical improvements.
Q13: Good morning. One quick question - when it comes to digital distribution to PC, could you please say something about GOG.com's share of total sales? What these results look like in compared to e.g.
PN: We do not disclose specific data. Yes, GOG - our internal distribution platform - has a larger share in Cyberpunk for PC sales than the statistical share of this platform in the gaming market - but we are not providing detailed information on market share or sales yet carried out through GOG.