Perhaps CD Projekt Red Hasn’t Learned Enough
The launch of Cyberpunk 2077 was, in no uncertain terms, a disaster for CD Projekt Red. It released near the end of 2020 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC in a horrendous glitch-ridden state, with a performance on the two consoles that showed how the game had no business being available for them, on top of the promotional team overpromising and underdelivering on the game’s feature set. The launch was enough to undo most of the goodwill the company had built over time from The Witcher series and their DRM-free PC gaming service GoG.com (though whether that was earned in the first place is another question for another post).
It’s taken time to get there, but the game is finally in a great state in terms of its playability and features thanks to an array of free updates. Hell, it even bounced back on the Steam bestsellers list for now. It’s a shame it’s largely taken the developers ending support for the PS4 and XB1 versions in favor of the pristine PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series versions, but it matters that it’s now reached a point where even the most disappointed voices are satisfied. The recent release of Cyberpunk Edgerunners has also helped it, the anime adaptation from Studio Trigger that’s been well received. This, along with apologies from execs for the crunch time they inflicted upon the developers (after several of them left) seemed to be enough proof that CDPR learned the lesson to ensure that this never happens again.
“Seemed to be” was only a temporary perception, however. CDPR took to social media to detail their plans for the near-to-slightly distant future, several of which are mind-bogglingly overambitious for a company that’s recently made several avoidable missteps.
CDPR announced the development of five — FIVE — new titles. One will be a new title in The Witcher series codenamed “Polaris,” as they previously announced. The second will be a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 codenamed “Orion,” a follow-up to a title whose initial success shouldn’t be undermined even while considering its recent critical and commercial rebound. The third will be a new IP, codenamed “Hadar,” details of which will likely remain unknown for a long time. The other two will be Witcher spinoff titles developed by external studios, including “Canis Majoris,” handled by a studio consisting of former Witcher team members, and another game, “Sirius,” a title with multiplayer and single-player modes developed by The Molasses Flood.
They found a subtle way to announce more than this, though. The new mainline Witcher game will mark the start of a new trilogy, the subsequent installments in which they’re planning to release over a six-year period. They also want several of these games to have multiplayer components.
This is all ridiculous, even with their plans to hire more staffers and establish new development houses in other countries, including the United States. We’re talking about a studio that released a title well before they should have less than two years ago, and has needed to delay the current-generation version of The Witcher 3 a number of times (though they’re still planning to release it by the end of 2022). They also continually delayed the multiplayer component for Cyberpunk 2077, which may or may not be cancelled by this point. Unless they plan to bring on more developers on a massive scale very quickly, which could itself invite further issues, these plans will be difficult to impossible to abide by.
Even with the departure of CEO Marcin Iwiński after 20 years as head of the company, who became infamous for providing apologies after Cyberpunk 2077’s release, they still have a naivete issue here. As I mentioned above, acting on these plans in a quick fashion will require a significant company expansion in an extremely quick manner. If there’s a group of people I’d like to hear from here, it’s the employees who’ve previously anonymously talked to the press about how overambitious the company’s plans were for Cyberpunk 2077 by providing unrealistic release timeframes, among other matters.
The main issue being described in this post is fortunately not on par with messy video game launch, meaning there’s plenty of time for CDPR to get some sense and correct these plans. CDPR can schedule another direct-to-internet presentation and provide more realistic plans they can largely stick to, for the employees that might be having restless nights about crunch time pressure that could soon be inflicted upon them. The gaming audience can be forgiving of delays, but not from companies that made promises they knew damn well they couldn’t deliver on.
We’ll soon find out of CDPR wises up and makes alterations to their schedule, while likely leaving all their planned projects in development. But I have a bridge to sell to anyone who seriously thinks these developments will go smoothly as they’ve currently laid them out simply because the company is ditching their internal REDengine for Epic Games’ Unreal Engine for future game developments.
About The Author
Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
