CD Projekt Red top execs clear over US$28 million in bonuses despite Cyberpunk 2077's rocky launch

A Bloomberg report indicates that senior CD Projekt Red executives stand to collectively take home nearly US$30 million this year, as part of a contractual profit sharing plan. These bonuses are being paid out on account of Cyberpunk 2077's sales success, despite the game's documented issues at launch.

The Playstation 4 version of the game has a low Metacritic score of just 57, thanks to nearly unplayable performance at launch and a myriad of bugs. Even on PC, Cyberpunk 2077 featured serious problems, including broken AI and teleporting police, apart from suboptimal performance on anything short of a GeForce RTX 3080.

The game's launch issues don't seem to have had an impact on sales, however: CDPR registered over 13 million sales within ten days of Cyberpunk 2077's launch, many of which were pre-orders. According to the Bloomberg report, the profit-sharing arrangement extended to other employees. However, just five senior executives received nearly as much from profits as over 800 employees. During an investor call last week, CDPR's board was apparently asked whether these bonuses were "appropriate" in light of the game's launch. 

While Cyberpunk 2077's 1.2 patch makes it significantly more playable on last-gen consoles and addresses some of the more pressing gameplay issues, CDPR's future plans remain unclear, with regards to DLC and future titles.