CD Projekt shares slump after it says 'Witcher IV' won't come out in 2026

Reuters

Wed, Mar 26, 2025, 3:04 AM 2 min read

GDANSK (Reuters) - Shares of CD Projekt fell astir 13% successful aboriginal trading connected Wednesday aft the crippled developer said the premiere of "Witcher IV" was scheduled for aft 2026, fuelling fears of an adjacent longer hold for the caller instalment successful the blockbuster series.

Analysts had antecedently said they expected the crippled to debut anyplace betwixt 2026 and 2028.

"The Witcher IV", developed nether codification sanction Polaris, is the archetypal instalment successful a caller trilogy expanding the beingness of CD Projekt's blockbuster medieval phantasy franchise that has sold much than 75 cardinal copies to date.

Finance main Piotr Nielubowicz said the video crippled shaper would not denote a precise motorboat day yet, but indicated the post-2026 timeframe "to springiness much visibility to investors".

The confirmation that the crippled volition not beryllium released earlier 2027 is "not a large surprise", expert Grzegorz Balcerski from Trigon said successful a note, adding the brokerage's erstwhile forecast assumed a premiere successful the 2nd 4th of 2027.

Shifting expectations for the premiere beyond 2026 whitethorn besides rise speculation that the crippled mightiness debut adjacent aft 2027, considering postponements of caller releases are communal successful the industry, Balcerski added.

"Lack of absorption assurance to perpetrate to 2027 should besides disappoint, adjacent though we judge that the actuary assumptions utilized successful the yearly study suggest that this is presently the interior basal case," JPMorgan analysts said successful a note.

The banal was down 11% arsenic of 0940 GMT, connected way for its biggest one-day driblet successful 2 years and the worst performer connected Europe's benchmark STOXX 600 index.

Up to Tuesday's close, it was up 20% since the opening of 2025.

CD Projekt said successful November that "Witcher IV" had entered full-scale production. The company's associated CEO Michal Nowakowski said astatine the clip that it typically takes 5 to six years to make a large summons AAA crippled from the clip aboriginal ideas are archetypal discussed.

It had announced the works connected the caller "Witcher" saga backmost successful March 2022.

(Reporting by Adrianna Ebert, editing by Milla Nissi)