Cyberpunk 2077 to be Distributed by Warner Bros. Interactive in NA

Cloud-Hidden · Oct 3, 2018

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment will be distributing Cyberpunk in North America. Per this morning's press release:

"We've worked with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment on The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and both releases turned out to be really successful, so we're entering this new stage of our cooperation with great confidence," says Michał Nowakowski, CD PROJEKT's Member of the Board and SVP of Business Development. "Cyberpunk 2077 is our biggest and most ambitious project to date, and I'm really looking forward to all the amazing things we can achieve together."

"CD PROJEKT RED is one of the best game development studios in the world and it's great to be working with the team again," said Kevin Kebodeaux, Senior Vice President, Sales, Americas, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. "Cyberpunk 2077 is a standout title and we are expecting great things from our continued collaboration with CD PROJEKT RED."

Y'all help me remember: I thought that CDPR distributed TW3, and I remember Bandai Namco and Atari being involved at times, but I don't remember Warner Bros. ever coming on as a publisher / distributor.

Nirolak · Oct 3, 2018

Cloud-Hidden said:
Y'all help me remember: I thought that CDPR distributed TW3, and I remember Bandai Namco and Atari being involved at times, but I don't remember Warner Bros. ever coming on as a publisher / distributor.

Warner did the North American distribution for The Witcher 3 and Namco (who bought Atari's European branch) did the Western European distribution for the game.

Atari/Namco has been doing this since the first game IIRC, with Warner since... I want to say The Witcher 2 in North America, but maybe it was just The Witcher 3.

EA and Ubisoft stopped doing retail distribution for other companies' games, so Warner took over that business for North America as your only real option.

Soriku · Oct 3, 2018

You see "WB Games" when the game starts up before the title screen in TW3.

boskee · Oct 3, 2018

CD Projekt Red self-published The Witcher 3 worldwide, but signed distribution deals for physical copies. The same thing is happening here. Also, I am going to go on record once more and say that the game is coming out in 2019

Mivey · Oct 3, 2018

Warner Bros. buying out CD Projekt, confirmed.

Cloud-Hidden · Oct 3, 2018

Nirolak said:
Warner did the North American distribution for The Witcher 3 and Namco (who bought Atari's European branch) did the Western European distribution for the game.

Atari/Namco has been doing this since the first game IIRC, with Warner since... I want to say The Witcher 2 in North America, but maybe it was just The Witcher 3.

EA and Ubisoft stopped doing retail distribution for other companies' games, so Warner took over that business for North America as your only real option.

Clarity; thank you!

Ehoavash · Oct 3, 2018

So much of the cut do Warner Bros get from TW3? And or this game for doing distribution/marketing?

Wait I think I remember a long time ago that microsoft bought the marketing rights for cyberpunk too.

Soriku · Oct 3, 2018

Does this indicate they have a release timeframe in mind or not really?

Nirolak · Oct 3, 2018

Ehoavash said:
So much of the cut do Warner Bros get from TW3? And or this game for doing distribution/marketing?

On The Witcher 3, for initial sales, 25% were digital, but the digital sales represented 50% of the total revenue CD Projekt saw.

That means each physical copy they sold was worth about 1/3rd of what selling a digital copy was, from CD Projekt's perspective.

Of course, they're dealing with both retailer fees and distribution fees on the physical side.

boskee · Oct 3, 2018

Nirolak said:
Atari/Namco has been doing this since the first game IIRC, with Warner since... I want to say The Witcher 2 in North America, but maybe it was just The Witcher 3.

The diference being Witcher 1 and two were published by Atari in the US and Namco in Europe, whereas TW3 and all future CDPR games are only distributed by third party (and only physical copies).

Soriku said:
Does this indicate they have a release timeframe in mind or not really?

Yes, next year.

Nirolak · Oct 3, 2018

Soriku said:
Does this indicate they have a release timeframe in mind or not really?

boskee said:
Yes, next year.

July 2013: Warner signs distribution rights for The Witcher 3.
May 2015: The Witcher 3 is released.

Rodjer · Oct 3, 2018

And Namco Bandai will probably publish the game in EU.

boskee · Oct 3, 2018

Nirolak said:
July 2013: Warner signs distribution rights for The Witcher 3.
May 2015: The Witcher 3 is released.

Initial release date for The Witcher 3 was fall 2014.

ShutterMunster · Oct 3, 2018

So not crazy to expect that this will be out by March 2020?

cw_sasuke · Oct 3, 2018

Wonder how many copies they will ship week 1.

BigTnaples · Oct 3, 2018

ShutterMunster said:
So not crazy to expect that this will be out by March 2020?

I would think so.

Either fall 2019 or Spring 2020 if I had to bet.

Nezacant · Oct 3, 2018

boskee said:
CD Projekt Red self-published The Witcher 3 worldwide, but signed distribution deals for physical copies. The same thing is happening here. Also, I am going to go on record once more and say that the game is coming out in 2019

Stop, I can only get so excited.

Gamer17 · Oct 3, 2018

So I m assuming bandai namco will do the rest like Witcher 3

labx · Oct 3, 2018

boskee said:
CD Projekt Red self-published The Witcher 3 worldwide, but signed distribution deals for physical copies. The same thing is happening here. Also, I am going to go on record once more and say that the game is coming out in 2019

Bet time?

Ryo · Oct 3, 2018

boskee said:
Also, I am going to go on record once more and say that the game is coming out in 2019

When do you think the release date will announced? E3?

Oddhouse · Oct 3, 2018

So what is their actual role, to print discs and distribute to stores the boxes around each country ?

Anybody know what sort of fee is typical for these sorts of agreements ? .e.g 5% of value of product or £50k per 100 tons of boxes ?

Salty Rice · Oct 3, 2018

Was to be expected. They also published Witcher 3.

Cloud-Hidden · Oct 3, 2018

Oddhouse said:
So what is their actual role, to print discs and distribute to stores the boxes around each country ?

Anybody know what sort of fee is typical for these sorts of agreements ? .e.g 5% of value of product or £50k per 100 tons of boxes ?

"Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment will be responsible for the distribution and promotion of Cyberpunk 2077 in North America, and will bring the game to PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One."
So distro and marketing, sounds like.

Z-Brownie · Oct 3, 2018

Whatever the ocasion is ... everytime I read WB Games I get worried.

YaBish · Oct 3, 2018

If it ain't broke...

This is interesting in that it might lend a bit of insight into the timetable for this game. As is, I still can't see it coming out before 2020, seeing as all the marketing so far has stressed how much is still in development.

GusZamboni said:
Whatever the ocasion is ... everytime I read WB Games I get worried.

It's answered above, but it's just marketing and distribution. They didn't alter Witcher 3 at all, so I'm confident the same will be true here.

Deleted member 7450 · Oct 3, 2018

Betting on 2020 for obvious reasons.

Oddhouse · Oct 3, 2018

Cloud-Hidden said:
"Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment will be responsible for the distribution and promotion of Cyberpunk 2077 in North America, and will bring the game to PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One."
So distro and marketing, sounds like.

Ah sorry missed that bit.

Ok so they have some serious work. I wonder what the budget is .... $XXmillion .... ;-/

Deleted member 4044 · Oct 3, 2018

Bad news for the PC port /s

Quality Garbage · Oct 3, 2018

Ryo said:
When do you think the release date will announced? E3?

I wouldnt be surprised if it releases in May 2019, as thats CDPR traditional release window. I think this game is further along then people realize and we are starting to see the escalation of PR about 6 months out. It might slip but they don't strike me as a developer that will show their stuff a year or more away from release.

There more Rockstar then SquareEnix

FelipeMGM · Oct 3, 2018

I imagine the same will happen for LATAM, just like Witcher 3 as well

Ryo · Oct 3, 2018

Quality Garbage said:
I wouldnt be surprised if it releases in May 2019, as thats CDPR traditional release window. I think this game is further along then people realize and we are starting to see the escalation of PR about 6 months out. It might slip but they don't strike me as a developer that will show their stuff a year or more away from release.

There more Rockstar then SquareEnix

As they have said, the game is playable from start to finish and the demo was long and looked pretty polished but the first half of 2019 just seems too soon to me.

Quality Garbage · Oct 3, 2018

Ryo said:
As they have said, the game is playable from start to finish and the demo was long and looked pretty polished but the first half of 2019 just seems too soon to me.

I get that. I just don't see them dropping a 45 minute gameplay trailer more then a year away from release. It exposes them to changes, which usually drives negativity around downgrading.

I feel like the conservative rhetoric around the projects completion is more of a hedge against delays rather then an indicator of where the game is at this point. Releasing a 45 minute gameplay video in August feels more like a production checkpoint, especially when were getting publishing news a month later.

mreddie · Oct 3, 2018

Basically a la when EA distributed Portal 2?

Deleted member 5535 · Oct 3, 2018

Basically just distribution duties, with Bandai Namco Europe probably doing the same in their region

Gitaroo · Oct 3, 2018

give me a sick ass CE, thank you.

Rodjer · Oct 3, 2018

cw_sasuke said:
Wonder how many copies they will ship week 1.

If Bethesda shipped 12 million copies of Fallout 4 day one, CDPR after The Witcher 3 success and a good marketing push can ship the same amout WW.

Illusion · Oct 3, 2018

Better be just like Witcher 3 and that's all. Seeing anything with WB on it scares me.

Carlius · Oct 3, 2018

Soriku said:
You see "WB Games" when the game starts up before the title screen in TW3.

show me.

LordofPwn · Oct 3, 2018

So will this still be distributed on stuff like PSN via CDPR or will WB be handling that too in NA or do they just handle physical distribution in NA?

Soriku · Oct 3, 2018

Carlius said:
show me.

vasyndrom · Oct 3, 2018

Soriku said:

Never seen that WB logo before lol, but i've got both versions (normal and game of the year edition) from PlayStation Store.

ThreepQuest64 · Oct 3, 2018

What's the difference between distributing and publishing?

Carlius · Oct 3, 2018

Soriku said:

well ill be damned.. thanks man.

Falchion · Oct 5, 2018

I just want WB to distribute the game to me..... now.

Admiral Woofington · Oct 5, 2018

Rodjer said:
If Bethesda shipped 12 million copies of Fallout 4 day one, CDPR after The Witcher 3 success and a good marketing push can ship the same amout WW.

I don't think CDPR has the household name as elder scrolls or fallout. Fallout 4 had 3 new Vegas giving name to the recent title, not to mention skyrim for Bethesda.

I don't doubt it'll sell well, but saying it's going to reach the same sales as the one who is the king of western rpgs (at least popularity wise) might be stretching it.

Cyberpunk 2077 to be Distributed by Warner Bros. Interactive in NA

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