CD Projekt is Changing its Name Following Shareholder Vote

Out of the blue, it was announced today that CD Projekt shareholders have officially voted to change the parent corporation's name to CD Projekt RED, marking the end of a major corporate era. However, if you are a bit confused right now and thinking, “Wait, haven't they always been called that?”, well, that is actually their point!

There is a huge chance that you, like most players outside of Poland, were not even aware that “CD Projekt RED” wasn't the official legal name of the overarching company this entire time, especially since it sounds so catchy and has simply popularized itself that way, mainly after the massive launch of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. But that changes now.

The Colorful History Behind the Red Bird

During this recent meeting (thanks for the info, Bankier), the corporate structure was permanently shifted so that CD Projekt RED becomes the official legal name of the company once and for all. And this decision represents a huge corporate restructuring effort to finally cut through years of unnecessary confusion.

That’s because, for over a decade, “CD Projekt” served as the overarching Polish holding group, while the RED complement was technically just the internal division responsible for developing and releasing video games based on The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077 franchises. From now on, both the publisher and the developer will share the exact same identity.

To truly understand why there was a distinction in the first place, we have to look back at the company’s colorful history. Back in the day, the Polish giant utilized different color codings to differentiate its various business branches. While the Red studio handled the core game development, they used to have other divisions under their wing, such as CD Projekt Blue, which was the internal team famously tasked with launching and running the popular digital storefront GOG.

However, following a significant corporate shift and the strategic sale of GOG, the holding company has slowly stripped away its extra branches to focus entirely on its primary money-maker: developing triple-A games and managing those iconic intellectual properties. Because the studio's development activities now make up virtually 100% of the company's main operations, keeping two separate names just didn't make sense anymore. According to the board of directors, unifying the two titles will streamline their international communication and eliminate any lingering corporate identity crises.

So, now, these changes are locked in and will come into effect as soon as the court registers the new amendments to the articles of association! Beyond the boardroom bureaucracy, this unified branding comes at a time when the studio is working harder than ever on multiple and highly anticipated titles, such as The Witcher 4 and a direct sequel for Cyberpunk 2077 – though both still remain without an official release window.

Fortunately, the company is now fully embracing the “RED” branding that popularized itself so naturally over the years, marking the beginning of a much more unified era for the studio. Personally, I think it is a great move to cut through the corporate noise and focus on what they do best, so I'm definitely excited to see how their upcoming titles turn out under this new, streamlined identity.