CDPR Moving On From Cyberpunk 2077 To Witcher 4 And Other Games

Image: CD Projekt Red

Cyberpunk 2077The best days may still be ahead of us, but developer CD Projekt Red announced today that it is now shifting its focus and resources to other projects, including its new open-world game Witcher. While the beleaguered sci-fi shooter will still get a story expansion in 2023, it doesn’t look like it will get any other major revisions in the future.

“We will obviously continue to support Cyberpunk 2077 and work on updating it, but [the] In our view, much of the work has already been done and will be done in 2021,” the company said on today’s earnings call. He also shared a presentation slide showing how development resources have evolved over time, with “Cyberpunk 2077 support” becoming one of the smaller segments as of February 2022.

That was around when CDPR released the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions of the game, along with fix 1.5, which added a ton of new fixes, rebalanced rewards and skill trees, and expanded relationships with certain NPCs. Many improvements directly address previous reviews of the game, and I recently enjoyed diving back into the latest version.

Screenshot: CD Projekt Red / Kotaku

At the same time patch 1.5 struck me as the midpoint in Cyberpunk 2077’s redemption arc rather than a final victory lap. There are parts of the game that I like and then there are the parts where the simulation still frequently breaks and breaks any sense of immersion. CDPR hasn’t said the open-world RPG will ever get another patch on this scale, but all signs point to development winding down when it comes to a deeper overhaul of the way whose game is played or structured. It may not be so much a retreat as a concession to the limits of what the game is.

If so, a No Man’s Sky or Final Fantasy XIV-style return might not be in the cards after all. During its rocky 2020 launch, including a PS4 version that was so bad Sony pulled it from the PlayStation Store, Cyberpunk sold 13 million copies. Today, CDPR announced that it had only sold another five million in the 16 months since. Currently, that puts total sales slightly ahead of Super Mario Party and behind God of War, both first-party exclusives. It’s also still severely below the initial projections of some analysts.

And while Cyberpunk 2077’s future is still murky, additional DLC plans also seem to have been downgraded over time. Adam Kiciński, President of CD Projekt had said before the game would receive “no less downloadable content than The Witcher 3”, and that game received two giant, stellar expansions. Because of this, some initially speculated that Cyberpunk 2077 would similarly get two major paid DLCs in addition to smaller free ones, but so far CDPR has only confirmed one. It will arrive in 2023, the company announced today. Other details remain elusive. A previously planned multiplayer component also seems to have been set aside. CDPR did not clearly confirm what his fate was when asked about it during today’s earnings call, and did not immediately respond to a request for comment when asked. asked to clarify their future plans for Cyberpunk 2077.

It is not surprising that the company wants, in the meantime, to move on, especially more Witcher. CDPR revealed today that The Witcher 3 has sold over 40 million copies, with the series as a whole selling over 65 million. As he tackles development of the next game in this series, he also plans further updates from Gwent and The Witcher: Monster Slayer, a new spin-off from Gwent, an unannounced project at the Boston studio. recently acquired The Molasses Flood, and the next-gen version of The Witcher 3.

This latest version slipped this summer after the CDPR revealed yesterday it was pushing development away from Russia-based Saber Interactive and in-house finishing. Despite the lack of a new release window, the company said it was unfair to describe it as “delayed indefinitely,” saying it simply needed more time to assess the remaining work. “Nobody is saying the game is delayed in some kind of monumental time gap ahead of us,” said Michal Nowakowski, senior vice president of business development.