The studio behind Cyberpunk 2077 talks about the game’s disastrous launch, the new Phantom Liberty expansion, and changes within the studio.
How was the launch of Cyberpunk again? After The Witcher 3, the action RPG Cyberpunk 2077 was supposed to be the next big hit by the Polish developer CD Projekt. Instead, as is well known, things turned out differently:
After several postponements, the once “hottest game of the year” just came out in December, but the release was overshadowed by performance problems.
The game was considered almost unplayable, especially on older consoles, and Sony even removed it from the PS Store and offered refunds. CD Projekt Red also had to face several class action lawsuits. A shame for a studio of this caliber.
How is cyberpunk doing today? The game now sits at a respectable 83% of reviews within the last 30 days and is said to be pretty good actually. With Phantom Liberty, the first major expansion is scheduled to appear in 2023.
At the Summer Game Fest, GamesIndustry.biz spoke to CD Projekt Red’s Michał Platkow-Gilewski about how he experienced the launch and the lessons learned from it.
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CD Projekt learned lessons from launch disaster
This is how Platkow-Gilewski sees the situation: The PR spokesman says they’re at a pretty good point now, but getting there has been difficult. After the disastrous release, you knew it would take a lot of work to come back from it.
According to Platkow-Gilewski, there has been a major restructuring at CD Projekt. The change was overdue anyway, according to the PR spokesman. However, the situation surrounding cyberpunk was an additional motivation, a wake-up call.
Because in order to publish Cyberpunk in time, numerous people had worked overtime without end, the notorious crunch. However, they are now working on improvements, for which there is even a dedicated team:
We’re in the process of improving, rebuilding, and redesigning the studio on so many levels that it’s hard to tell exactly what’s happening. But the work-life balance, the way we work together, how we empower even smaller teams, what the pipelines look like, how we speak to management, all that… it’s always changing.
Will there be a big new beginning soon?
For Platkow-Gilewski, what was really disappointing about the release was that the community had been let down. Two years before the big hype, they were at a good point, according to the PR spokesman: “We had our fans. We liked them, they liked us.”
The relationship was hurt by the launch, but the PR rep believes it can be fixed:
It was tough after the release, but I knew we had the same people. The gamers are the same… we just need to fix our relationship. […] I have a feeling we’ll be able to do that soon and hopefully it’ll be a fresh start for everyone.
Platkow-Gilewski is confident that with the expansion you can finally deliver what you are actually capable of. At the moment he’s just curious to see what people say when they play Phantom Liberty.
Incidentally, the actor Idris Elba is also involved in the expansion. This is intended to show that this is not a small side mission, but an independent and important story. Other franchises also rely on star power:
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