CD Projekt Red CEO Adam Kicinski has revealed new information on the highly-anticipated – but relatively quiet – RPG Cyberpunk 2077, specifically regarding online features. Cyberpunk 2077 will have an “online element” and that it will “acknowledge” the games-as-service model when it releases.
Speaking with Polish investment site Strefa Inwestorow (translation via TechRaptor), Kicinski spoke on the future of the company. He notes that it all hinges on Gwent and Cyberpunk 2077. Details have been noticeably scarce for Cyberpunk 2077 since its original announcement in 2012. In the years since, the studio’s other massive RPG The Witcher 3 released and the rise of continuously supported online games like Destiny 2 began. Kicinski notes that, stating:
“Multiplayer is strategically important, playing online is strategically important, because we want to have a commercial leg for service type games, games which generate stable income, period to period, which are built. Of course, every game ends after a number of years, some service type games function even after 10 years, but outside our main source of income, meaning big names, it’s building a stable source of income. And in the future, we can imagine a lot of connections between big games and service type games – We have to acknowledge it, it is obvious.”
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It is the company’s hope that investing more heavily into Cyberpunk 2077 will allow it to even more successful than The Witcher 3, a game that was huge in scope, but solely meant for singleplayer. Kicinski says that he believes that long-term success for a game requires some type of online service.
The entire Witcher series is reported to have sold more than 25 million copies, with The Witcher 3 specifically generating more than $250 million in total revenue as of March this year. Like The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077 is based on an already established source material. The premise and world for it is based on the classic tabletop role-playing game Cyberpunk 2020 that was originally released in 1988.
