CD Projekt and other Polish devs get R&D cash injections

December 19, 2016 | 10:13

Tags: #cyberpunk-2077 #multiplayer #poland #research-and-development #the-witcher #video-games

Companies: #cd-projekt #games #gog #good-old-games #research

CD Projekt, the company behind the GOG digital distribution platform and popular role-playing franchise The Witcher, has announced the receipt of £5.7 million as part of an effort to boost local game development in Poland.

The GameINN portion of Poland's Smart Growth Operational Programme has announced recipients for funding totalling £22 million so far as part of an effort to boost the competitiveness of the country's local games development industry. This impressive cash injection comes following lobbying by Porozumienie Polskie Gry (the Polish Games Accord), an industry group made of up of Poland's biggest game developers: 11 Bit Studios, Artifex Mundi, Bloober Team, CD Projekt, CI Games, The Farm 51, Fuero Games, Techland, and Vivid Games, with CD Projekt taking the lion's share.

'Developing videogames is a hyper-innovative activity, but also one which carries substantial financial risks, involves continuous R&D work and requires much experimentation and prototyping along the way,' claimed CD Projekt president Adam Kiciński in his announcement of the funding. 'The GameINN program – a fruit of our industry’s collaborative efforts – will, in the coming years, enable Polish developers to carry out nearly 40 projects worth 191 million PLN (around £36.24 million). I am confident that the resulting innovative solutions will further elevate the quality of Polish videogames and enhance our competitiveness on the global stage. Indeed, our industry now has the potential to become the champion of the modern Polish economy.'

The funds provided to CD Projekt have been earmarked for a series of projects: The bulk is to be spent on the development of technology to create a large-scale living city for open-world gaming, while a slightly smaller amount is to be spent on the development of seamless multiplayer technology, improved animation systems for role-playing games, and technology to 'provide a unique, film-quality open-world RPG.' CD Projekt's GOG subsidiary, meanwhile, has received additional funding for work towards a system for cross-platform multiplayer support covering popular consoles as well as computer operating systems.

The full list of grants and their purpose can be found, in Polish, on the NCBR website (PDF warning). CD Projekt has not indicated on what game it plans to implement the technologies developed using the funding, but it seems likely at least some will appear in its upcoming RPG Cyberpunk 2077.
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