Developer CD Projekt Red has said that it has no plans to give up on Cyberpunk 2077. While the game has only been available for seven months, the impact it has had on the gaming community is one of the most significant in recent memory. Despite the game being highly anticipated, worked on for several years, and delayed three times, it still released in a suboptimal state and the developer has been trying to right the ship ever since. The most recent effort to do this was Patch 1.2, which brought a series of improvements to the game.
Since the game released, CDPR has been attempting to return to fans’ good graces. While many were disappointed with the initial state of the game, the developer is still generally liked by the gaming community. This is possibly thanks to some residual goodwill earned by the Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt, which is still regularly mentioned in conversations surrounding the greatest RPGs ever made. Recently, CDPR also held a Strategy Update presentation, during which it outlined what the company learned from Cyberpunk’s release and what it will do in the future to prevent this from happening again.
In an interview with Reuters, CD Projekt’s joint chief executive Adam Kicinski stated that he “doesn’t see an option to shelve Cyberpunk 2077,” adding that he believes that it’s still possible to bring the game so a point where it can have a respectable shelf life. This includes getting the game back onto the PlayStation Store, where it was removed after just one week and has now been unavailable for over three months. While Patch 1.2 was a step in the right direction in terms of bringing the game up to the standard that was promised, it seems as though there is still a fair way to go before that can be accomplished.
Regardless of how one feels about Cyberpunk so far, it cannot be said that CDPR is not taking the situation seriously. Instead of moving forward with creating a standalone multiplayer version of the game, the company canceled that plan in favor of sticking with what it was most comfortable making. This is a strategy that other developers have used to ensure that their games’ single player campaigns are of the highest quality, such as when Crystal Dynamics initially opted to leave multiplayer out of Rise of the Tomb Raider. The decision to polish Cyberpunk before moving on is an encouraging sign that CDPR is determined to finish what it has started.
While Cyberpunk’s release was undoubtedly a disappointment for many audiences, it would be easy for CDPR to cut its losses and move on to a project that will help recoup them, such as The Witcher 4. By deciding to stand by its project and do what it takes to rectify the situation, CDPR is at least making the respectable choice. Of course, this means that players who already own Cyberpunk 2077 will essentially own a game that’s still in development, but that’s arguably better than the game never having released at all. Hopefully Kicinski’s passion for this project means that someday there will be a final, optimized version of the game that does indeed have a long shelf life.
Source: Reuters