Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red needs to "fix" its relationship with the fans, a senior company official said. This bit of insight into CDPR's ambitions arrived shortly after the company confirmed the release date for Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty DLC at the latest Xbox Games Showcase.
Cyberpunk 2077 has come a long way since its highly controversial launch in December 2020, which was largely hampered by the game's terrible performance on the PS4 and Xbox One. CD Projekt Red spent the next two years optimizing the game before finally dropping support for last-generation consoles with the release of the Cyberpunk 2077 1.61 update in late 2022. The RPG's upcoming expansion, Phantom Liberty, will only be available on PC and current-gen consoles once it releases come September.
In the meantime, the shadow of the game's disastrous debut still looms over the developer, with CDPR VP of PR and Communication Michał Platkow-Gilewski acknowledging as much. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, the executive reflected on the past three years as a "bumpy" period for the company, adding that the studio still has ways to go until it restores its reputation. "We just need to fix our relationship [with the fandom]," Platkow-Gilewski explained. Elaborating on that point, the official said that merely delivering what CDPR is capable of should be enough to do so moving forward, starting with Cyberpunk 2077's first and only expansion.
It remains to be seen whether Phantom Liberty turns Cyberpunk 2077 into the game everyone wanted in 2020, but Platkow-Gilewski says the developer already took steps to ensure such a disappointing release doesn't happen again. Among other things, CDPR restructured its operations and made the decision to create the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 sequel using Unreal Engine 5 instead of its REDengine. Additionally, the studio is currently in the process of decentralizing its development practices in order to make better use of its rapidly growing workforce.
The developer also looked to eliminate crunch culture following the troubled launch of Cyberpunk 2077, which originally went gold in such unsustainable conditions. According to Platkow-Gilewski, CDPR now has a whole team dedicated to eliminating "excessive working" and improving life across the company. And while its launch left a lot to be desired, Cyberpunk 2077 was still a massive commercial hit from the moment it reached the store shelves, with CDPR previously confirming the project broke even from pre-orders alone.
Apart from wrapping up work on Phantom Liberty, CDPR is currently also working on additional fixes for its RPG meant to polish its overall gameplay experience. The latest such update released earlier this month in the form of the Cyberpunk 2077 1.63 patch which addressed over three dozen issues.
Cyberpunk 2077 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: GamesIndustry.biz
