Show notes
Cyberpunk 2077 sold 13 million copies in ten days, then Sony pulled it from the PlayStation Store. CD Projekt Red joint CEO Michal Nowakowski was the one taking the calls.He walks through what actually broke, why the investors weren't the reason, and how the studio went from a Polish box distributor to owning The Witcher outright. Plus the transmedia strategy, the move to Unreal Engine 5, and why Poland built the strongest gaming ecosystem in Europe.Chapters00:00 From Polish distributor to a global studio04:43 Buying The Witcher rights08:15 Why owning the IP was non-negotiable14:12 Poland's coding culture and the talent pipeline18:54 Scaling to 350 developers on The Witcher 326:16 The Cyberpunk 2077 launch and the hardest week34:03 The decision to fix the game instead of cutting losses39:14 Unreal Engine 5 and rebuilding production43:51 Transmedia, Netflix, and keeping games at the center49:49 What makes the Polish gaming ecosystem work
