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Technical glitches affecting CD Projekt SA’s Cyberpunk 2077 game have reduced the wealth of the company’s founders by more than $ 1 billion.
Perhaps most seriously, the quality image of the study has been altered and may not be easy to recover.
Shares of CD Projekt tumbled by a third in the past six days as the number of bugs plaguing the long-awaited futuristic game prompted an apology from the company and an offer for refunds players on previous generation consoles.
Short sellers have also started targeting stocks, with short interest rising from less than 1% of free float in September to 8.3% on Monday, according to data from Markit.
The story of the college dropouts who built one of Europe’s largest gaming studios has inspired other Poles to try to emulate them, flooding the Warsaw Stock Exchange with similar offerings. The joint 34% stake of the founders was valued at about $ 3 billion in market value on Tuesday.
The three executives, Marcin Iwinski, Adam Kicinski and Piotr Nielubowicz, along with a fourth principal owner, Michal Kicinski, have joined the ranks of the richest Poles thanks to the stellar rally in shares of CD Projekt.
However, they now face a fight to save the studio’s reputation and prove that Cyberpunk will also be playable for owners of older generation consoles, which are much more common than just released new ones.
“Now there is a huge scar on the reputation of both the studio and its management,” said Tomasz Rodak, an analyst at BOS Bank SA in an email.
“In just a couple of days, CD Projekt went from the most loved studio to the most hated. Restoring trust is not impossible, but it would take a lot of time and effort. “
Cut estimation
Analysts vary in their assessment of the lasting consequences for the study, which largely depends on the new title. They agree that the pace of bug fixes will be crucial to revenue, even when opinions on the PC version look much better.
The average forecast for 12-month sales fell to 25.6 million copies from nearly 30 million copies. expected ahead of the December 10 launch, based on nine updated estimates compiled by Bloomberg News. The stock halted its free fall on Tuesday, rising 2.5% at 2:02 pm in Warsaw.
The problems are particularly acute on older-generation consoles, Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox One, with reports indicating that the game engine is malfunctioning on weaker machines.
“If your only option at the moment is to play Cyberpunk 2077 on any of the base console platforms, I suggest that you do not play until your terrible performance issues are fixed,” popular gaming website IGN said, recommending that players request a refund.
The site separated its mostly positive PC review from the negative evaluation of the console version, saying it’s “a completely different game.”
Brokers such as Morgan Stanley and Barclays Plc now predict that a multiplayer component of Cyberpunk, crucial for long-term sales, may take longer to prepare. The studio plans to release a strategy update in the first quarter of 2021.
Now Read: Cyberpunk 2077 Console Version Gets Bad Reviews
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