CD Projekt Changes Its Name Following Shareholder Vote

Out of the blue, it was announced today that The CD Project shareholders have officially voted to change the name of the parent corporation to CD Project REDmarking the end of a great era of business. Well, if you’re a little confused now and thinking, “Wait, they’ve always been called that?”, that’s actually their point!

There is a good chance that you, like many players outside of Poland, had no idea that “CD Projekt RED” was not the official name of the big company at this time, especially since it sounds catchy and has already become popular that way, especially after the big launch of Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. But that is changing now.

The Colorful History Behind the Red Bird

During this latest meeting (thanks for the info, Bankier), the corporate structure was permanently changed so that CD Projekt RED will be the official name of the company forever. And this decision represents a major effort to rebuild the company to finally end years of unnecessary confusion.

That’s because, for more than a decade, “CD Projekt” worked as the main Polish holding company, while the RED division was technically the internal division responsible for developing and releasing video games based on The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077 franchises. From now on, both the publisher and the developer will share the same identity.

To really understand why there was a difference in the first place, we have to look back at the company’s colorful history. At the time, the Polish giant used different color codes to differentiate the various branches of the business. While red studio handled the development of the main game, they used to have other divisions under their wing, such as CD Project Bluewhich was the in-house team tasked with launching and implementing the popular GOG digital storefront.

However, following significant business changes and the strategic sale of GOG, the holding company has gradually stripped off its additional branches to focus entirely on its main money maker: developing triple-A games and managing those iconic intellectual properties. Because the studio’s development activities now make up almost 100% of the company’s core activities, keeping two separate names no longer makes sense. According to the board of directors, combining the two titles will simplify their international connections and eliminate any ongoing problems of corporate ownership.

So, now, these changes are locked in and will go into effect as soon as the court registers the new amendments to the articles of association! Beyond the board, this integrated branding comes at a time when the studio is working harder than ever on more and more anticipated titles, such as Witch 4 and direct succession of Cyberpunk 2077 – although both are still outside the official release window.

Fortunately, the company is now fully embracing the “RED” name that became popular in nature over the years, marking the beginning of a more unified era for the studio. Personally, I think it’s a good move to cut through the corporate noise and focus on what they do best, so I’m very excited to see how their future titles will evolve under this new, simpler identity.

The date it was established

March 6, 2002

CEO

Adam Kiciński