Video game maker CD Projekt beats first-half expectations

(Reuters) -Polish video game maker CD Projekt's first-half net profit topped expectations on Wednesday, helped by sales of its flagship "Cyberpunk 2077" game and lower costs.

Net profit rose 8% to 113.7 million zlotys ($23.98 million), against analyst expectations of 107 million zlotys.

CD Projekt, which gained prominence with "The Witcher" video game series and has been in the spotlight after Cyberpunk's troubled rollout, reported revenue down 20% year on year at 377.9 million zlotys.

The company's finance chief Piotr Nielubowicz said in a video commentary on the results that most of the revenue was driven by Cyberpunk's version for next-generation consoles.

"The release of the next-gen edition of Cyberpunk brought a wave of positive feedback from gamers and was followed by satisfactory sales figures, especially for the console version," the company said in a statement.

CD Projekt released its next-generation version of Cyberpunk in February.

Cyberpunk made its bug-ridden debut in late 2020 and CD Projekt has since released several patches and fixes for the game.

Cyberpunk service costs fell 68% to 15.2 million zlotys in the January-June period, helping to reduce overall selling by 23% to 101.3 million zlotys.

($1 = 4.7409 zlotys)

(Reporting by Anna PruchnickaEditing by David Goodman)