While the development issues surrounding Cyberpunk 2077 threw the team for a loop from late 2020, it appears that CD Projekt Red has some big plans in store for the coming year.
In a new strategy update (posted below in video form), the publisher announced that it will make 2022 the starting point for new developed titles in both the Cyberpunk and Witcher series. Though details as to what the games will include weren’t revealed yet, CD Projekt Red promises unprecedented effort behind both of the AAA projects.
It noted that it will grow its development team exponentially, in the hopes of avoiding the “crunch” situation that led to Cyberpunk’s rushed development and release. It also hopes to make improvements to its internal game engine, so that developers can work harder on both NPC routines and player character control. This could assure that games run much more smoothly across the board.
“All these changes aim to enable us to work on multiple AAA games and expansions in parallel, starting in 2022”, said CTO Paweł Zawodny. In addition, CD Projekt Red will also adjust its marketing strategy. Instead of showing games well in advance, as it did with Cyberpunk, it will instead wait closer to a title’s launch “before showing things like trailers, demos, or going in-depth about mechanics”. This will likely temper expectations from players, though it could also affect the company’s releases with less hype. Perhaps that’s the way they want it.
Senior vice president of business development Michal Nowakowski added that “when campaigns do start we aim to properly manage expectations across all platforms. This means focusing communication on polished game footage, not concepts”. That said, teasers for said projects aren’t off the table.
So what does this mean for this year? Well, CD Projekt Red just released a new patch for Cyberpunk with a number of improvements, and it’s hard at work on free and premium DLC for the game, along with additional “fixes.” More than likely, however, it’ll scrap the game’s promised multiplayer and focus on single player content instead. We’ll see what happens in the months ahead.
Want to win a PlayStation 5? We’re giving one away!
