Metropolis Joins CD Projekt Group
WARSAW, FEBRUARY 18, 2008 - CD Projekt and Metropolis Software announced
that they have signed an investment agreement, under which CD Projekt will
become the majority owner of Metropolis Software. Combining the strengths of
both companies is a very important step in realisation of CD Projekt's
strategy, which includes becoming a leading publisher delivering
high-budget, ambitious and creative projects that ready to compete with the
world's biggest productions.
To date, CD Projekt has developed one title, the hit PC role-playing game,
The Witcher. Fusing with Metropolis and dividing the CD Projekt RED team
into two units, CD Projekt now has are three development teams working on
new AAA game projects.
CD Projekt's debut game, The Witcher, has been a worldwide success. After
several years of development by dozens of people at the CD Projekt RED
studio, as well as a record budget for a Polish media product, The Witcher
launched to much critical and commercial success. To date, The Witcher has
earned more than 40 awards, including prestigious awards like Best PC RPG of
the Year at IGN.com, GameSpy and the US edition of PC Gamer, as well as
Gamespot's Readers' Choice award for Best RPG. Rave reviews from fans and
media have translated into excellent sales results, as the game has sold
more than 600,000 copies around the world.
Metropolis Software has been a leading Polish game developer for years and
is the longest operating game-development studio in the country. Its catalog
includes Gorky 17 and last year's Infernal. The latest Metropolis production
is THEY, a next-generation mystery first-person shooter set on a near-future
Earth that has been ruined by war. What makes THEY unique is that it
combines an involving story with the best characteristics of action games.
Thanks to the emphasis on an engaging plot, THEY has a chance to join the
small and elite circle of FPS games whose involving story is the key element
driving the player to keep playing for hours on end. The game's world is
developed on the basis of Metropolis' new proprietary game engine,
benefiting from all the latest technologies used in video games software.
The game is designed for PC and next-gen consoles, and is scheduled for
release in 2009.
The fusion of the two companies was commented on by Michał Kiciński, CD
Projekt Joint CEO: "I'm very happy that we managed to combine the strengths
of two key development teams in Poland. Metropolis and CD Projekt have many
values in common: we believe that the success of our products depends on
innovative character and atmosphere, as well as uncompromising care of the
highest quality. In the games business, this latter element is particularly
difficult to achieve by independent teams. It is often the case that finance
- and not the developers' vision - that determines the final shape and
quality of the project. CD Projekt was an atypical company from the very
beginning - the realisation of our plans is preferred to simply earning a
profit. Now, thanks to our financial reserves from the success of The
Witcher and CD Projekt's publishing business, Metropolis will have much more
creative freedom. I'm sure that thanks to that, Metropolis will develop
their dream game and will soon join the upper echelon of game developers."
Grzegorz Miechowski, Metropolis Software Joint CEO: "This deal is great news
for Metropolis. Thanks to this fusion, we have come together to become the
developer with the biggest potential in this part of Europe. We will develop
our future games on a grand scale - a scale which, in Poland, was previously
only available for The Witcher. I believe that thanks to CD Projekt's
support, THEY will have the chance to take the FPS genre by storm, just as
The Witcher did in the RPG genre."
Piotr Nielubowicz, Vice-president for Strategic Finances of CD Projekt
group, had the following to say about the deal: "It's the first business
deal of this kind in our history and, at the same time, it's another big
step in our company's expansion. Simultaneously, it's one of the steps in
our plans for our stock market debut. Metropolis Software is an experienced
and thriving team. I'm sure that our financial contribution and experience
on an international level will guarantee the development of many fantastic
games of the highest caliber. I believe that together with Metropolis
Software we will succeed in realising a strategy that will deliver unique
value to future investors."
ABOUT CD PROJEKT
Established in 1994, CD Projekt is the biggest PC games distributor in
Central Europe. It is known among gamers for high professionalism and many
pioneering projects changing local markets. It was the first company in the
region to fully localise PC games, including the biggest RPG projects like
Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment and the Gothic series. Polish language
versions of those games are lauded by players as premiere models for the
localisation process. CD Projekt, as a distributor, introduces to the
central European markets products of such companies as Microsoft, NCSoft,
Ubisoft, Activision, SEGA, THQ, Vivendi Universal Games, Disney and Konami.
Distribution is only one area of CD Projekt group's activity. At the
beginning of 2002, CD Projekt RED, a game development studio, was created.
Including The Witcher, CD Projekt sold 3.7 million games bearing the CDP
logo in 2007. In addition to CD Projekt RED, CD Projekt group also includes
CD Projekt Localisation Centre which offers professional games localisation
service to companies from all over the world
(
www.localisation.cdprojekt.com), and gram.pl Ltd, which is responsible for
running the web portal and online shop at
www.gram.pl. Currently, CD Projekt
is a group of companies operating in the electronic entertainment industry,
employing over 300 people altogether, with annual turnover coming to 55
million USD (2007). CD Projekt group's mission is less about the realisation
of business goals than the realisation of dreams and delivering products
that cater to the needs and desires of gamers around the world. An important
value of the company is also the pursuit of unique and landmark projects.
Every year, the company's turnover has been at least 30% higher and such
growth is planned to continue in 2008. You can find more information about
CD Projekt at
www.cdprojekt.com. Since the beginning of February 2008, CD
Projekt group also includes Metropolis Software.
ABOUT CD PROJEKT RED
CD Projekt RED was established in February 2002 as the sister company of CD
Projekt. CD Projekt RED's mission is to become one of leading RPG developers
in the world, developing games that combine the best trade practices with
original ideas. One of the company's guiding values is working in close
contact with the players and listening and reacting to their opinions, both
in the scope of developed games and the methods of delivering them to
gamers' hands. The studio's first game is The Witcher, a title warmly
welcomed by fans of the genre and showered with awards by professional
media. To this day, The Witcher has won over 40 distinctions, including
prestigious awards like PC RPG of the Year from IGN.com, GameSpy and PC
Gamer, as well as Gamespot's Readers' Choice award for Best RPG. During only
three months since the premiere, 600,000 people all over the world have
purchased the game. CD Projekt RED benefits from the experience and
financial support of CD Projekt's publishing arm, the largest PC games
distributor in Central Europe. Currently, CD Projekt RED consists of 70
people working on The Witcher: Enhanced Edition and another as-of-yet
unannounced project. More information is available at
www.thewitcher.com.
ABOUT METROPOLIS SOFTWARE
Metropolis Software Ltd is one of leading game developers in Poland and at
the same time is the longest operating company of its kind in the country.
The company has extensive experience in video games development and has 11
finished projects on their account. The latest projects of Metropolis
include warmly welcomed Gorky series and, released last year, Infernal.
Since its establishment, the company's philosophy has been to create
original and unique games based on their own continuously developed
technology. The company has cooperated with the biggest world publishers,
including Atari, Ubisoft and, most recently, Eidos. Currently the company is
working on the very promising action game, THEY, which is being developed
for PC and next-gen consoles. At the beginning of February 2008, the company
will join CD Projekt group.
