Dylan JackCD Projekt Red has always remained faithful to its games. The Witcher and The Witcher 2 received significantly improved supplemented publications about a year after the release, and The Witcher 3 – recently, after as many as seven years – a large update for the new generation. But none of these games had such a rigid landing as Cyberpunk 2077, which led to different consequences – from the dismissal of employees to collective lawsuits. The list of what had to be fixed was huge, and the list of what could be improved was even longer. It seemed that at some point CD Projekt would have to give up the game and move on – especially since the studio decided to transfer its future projects to the Unreal Engine 5 engine, facilitating Redengine departure from Cyberpunk.
But, according to the director of Cyberpunk 2077, Geib Amatanjelo, who took this post shortly after the launch of the game in May, was never part of the plans.
At the very beginning of my conversation with the boss and the board of directors, I said the following: I believe in the team, I believe in this IP, but I want to do everything right. And for this I need support. And they said: "Yes, you have support".
Patch 1.5, published in February 2022, contained significant graphic improvements for the new generation consoles, as well as some processed perks, changes in AI and management, the possibility of changes in appearance and new equipment items. This could be enough to name the game "completed", But the gears were already moving to much deeper changes in patch 2.0.
The basis we laid in 1.5 and 1.6, became the climax of Plan 2.0. Everything was scheduled. Not quite accurately, over time it became more perfect, but it was planned. You can see some of them on the example of small AI improvements in 1.5 – they were used to go to 2.0. The thought was like this: "What gaps are there and how to fill them in order to get a full -fledged experience, which, I hope, everyone imagines and wants to play?".
These "gaps" led to the fact that in 2.0 The trees of the perks were completely redesigned, the cyberimplant system was significantly expanded, automobile battles, more smart police officers and many other changes appeared.
As a result, the three -year game has borne fruit: Cyberpunk is kept in Steam sales leaders, demonstrating the best indicators in the number of players from the moment of launch and favorably differing from other large role -playing games that came out this year. And then, finally, the time has come to the developer team to start creating a continuation.