It’s been a rough few months for CD Projekt Red. While the release of Cyberpunk 2077 could best be described as a mixed blessing for the company, it’s hard to deny that its high sales numbers also gave way to an unprecedented refund policy and damage to their credibility. In their first public guidance primarily aimed at shareholders, CDPR argued that they have a number of plans to grow and evolve past last year’s mistakes.
The first step in this plan is the acquisition of Digital Scapes, a Vancouver-based studio that largely did support work on games like Dying Light, Dead Rising, and of course Cyberpunk 2077. CDPR argues that having Digital Scapes acting as a satellite support studio should allow them to execute on parallel development plans and develop multiple games at once.
Moreover, it seems like the European publisher has learned a harsh lessons from “surprising” consumers with the PS4/Xbox One versions of Cyberpunk 2077. They now plan to show off every version of what they’re releasing. To be clear, there was nothing preventing them from showing off the PS4/Xbox One versions of Cyberpunk 2077 before, so it’s unclear exactly what this internal change actually means in real-world terms, but at least it’s a quote to hold them to later.
CDPR also highlighted their upcoming Cyberpunk and Witcher 3 plans, promising that the latter will get a next-gen patch later this year for PS5 and Xbox Series S|X improvements. Cyberpunk’s multiplayer mode, which was announced in 2019, is currently still planned, but CDPR seems increasingly iffy on whether it will see release. They are, however, planning more (seemingly free) DLC and fixes for the game in the near future.
I don’t envy the task ahead of them, though it’s largely a bed of their own making. It will take a lot of time and effort to win back the trust that a lot of expectant players had of them before last December.
