Though there had been plenty of chatter, official or otherwise, that Cyberpunk 2077 would have its own auxiliary and/or stand-alone multiplayer mode (including datamined content found within the actual game’s executable files), a recent strategy update from the developer made it clear that CDPR’s next big-name title won’t be a Cyberpunk 2077 multiplayer game, as past announcements had indicated.
“Previously we hinted that our next triple-A would be a multiplayer Cyberpunk game, but we have decided to reconsider this now,” CDPR president and joint CEO Adam Kicinski said in Tuesday’s strategy update.
In prior announcements, Kicinski had described the Cyberpunk 2077 multiplayer as “a separate dedicated production, a big production” and “another independent production [with an] independent team of people working on it.” Unfortunately, due to either the disastrous Cyberpunk 2077 release or the still underwhelming reception surrounding the game after years and years of hype and buildup, we won’t be seeing a standalone Cyberpunk 2077 multiplayer experience any time soon.
Tuesday’s strategy update also outlined CDPR’s future plans with regards to more careful and time sensitive marketing campaigns, plans for concurrent triple-A game development and content roadmaps for Cyberpunk 2077 as well as The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in 2021.
A conference call which took place after the strategy update (via VGC) further elucidated CDPR’s plans for the future. Although a Cyberpunk 2077 multiplayer game isn’t currently in the cards, online is something that CDPR doesn’t want to ignore.
“Regarding online, we are changing our approach, so we want to have online in our future games,” Kicinski added in the conference call, “definitely, but step by step. So, we are working on specific features enhancing our single player [games], but we are not working on releasing the next game [as] a big online experience. So, we will be enhancing our single player games with online experiences.”
Kicinski stressed that online capabilities in CDPR games is not necessarily something that’s new, at least when it comes to the developers actually implementing online play in games. “Actually, we started working on online components over two years ago and we just continue,” Kicinski said when asked about the subject. “The only change is that we continue to work on it not as a main production line but as a supportive production line together with our single player productions, but we believe that our ideas, once they will be revealed, will be very exciting for gamers as an extra experience in our world which fits our single player games.”
Do you think CDPR made the right move in cancelling the Cyberpunk 2077 multiplayer game? Are you looking forward to any multiplayer experiences the company will be offering in the future? Keep in mind that although CDPR has scrapped the idea of a standalone Cyberpunk 2077 triple-A title, the possibility for an online multiplayer experience appended to Cyberpunk 2077 may still be a possibility.
Ninja Gaiden was my rite of passage at an early age. After finally beating that game (and narrowly dodging carpal tunnel) I decided to write about my gaming exploits. These days I enjoy roguelikes and anything Pokemon but I'll always dust off Super Mario RPG, Donkey Kong Country and StarFox 64 from time to time to bask in their glory.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login