CD Projekt’s The Witcher mobile game debut hampered by technical issues

July 21 (Reuters) – CD Projekt (CDR.WA) said its mobile game “The Witcher: Monster Slayer” is now available for download after technical issues affected its launch, in another issue for the affected Polish company by the troubled release of Game “Cyberpunk 2077” last year.

The Pokemon-style game, developed by CD Projekt’s Spokko studio, is based on the medieval fantasy series Witcher, where players hunt foul creatures in scripted quests. It marks the group’s debut in augmented reality technology.

CD Projekt told Reuters that the technical issues that put the much-anticipated mobile gaming launch into service mode earlier have now been resolved.

The free-to-play game has so far had over 100,000 installs on Google Play and has a score of 3.6 out of 5 based on 3,094 reviews.

In the reviews section of the store listing for the game, users were mentioning difficulty signing in.

With Monster Slayer, CD Projekt is stepping up its efforts in the mobile gaming market, which is the fastest growing gaming segment, driven by demand during the pandemic when many other forms of entertainment were shut down.

Global consumer spending on mobile games rose 17.9% to $ 44.7 billion in the first half of 2021, according to analytics firm Sensor Tower.

CD Projekt is best known for its big budget productions and has so far only dipped its toes into mobile games.

While analysts have said the financial potential of Monster Slayer remains uncertain, it could support the Witcher and Cyberpunk franchises if it proves successful.

Maciej Kietlinski of Noble Securities, who estimated the game’s revenue to be tens of millions of zlotys per year, said such issues can arise on release day and if they are resolved quickly they shouldn’t have long-term gaming impact.

“Nonetheless, in the case of CD Projekt and the Cyberpunk PR crash, the short-term share price can be very sensitive to any technical issues related to the launch of the mobile game.”

Shares of CD Projekt turned negative and closed 1.7% lower after rising 3.5% on the day.

Cyberpunk, CD Projekt’s flagship game starring Hollywood star Keanu Reeves, was pulled from Sony’s PlayStation Store shortly after its debut last year as gamers complained about issues. He returned to the store last month. Read more

Reporting by Anna Pruchnicka Editing by Keith Weir, Steve Orlofsky and Elaine Hardcastle

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