Cyberpunk 2077 Developer Comments on Next-Gen Consoles, Multiplayer, and VR

Today CD Projekt hosted its financial conference call for investors and analysts and the executive team talked about Cyberpunk 2077 and more.

First of all, they declined to answer on when they’ll talk about the next AAA game after Cyberpunk 2077. We’ll have to wait and see about that.

Speaking about streaming, w hear that Cyberpunk 2077 will be full price on Stadia. It won’t be part of any subscription program. It also will come later than the launch on consoles and PC.

The executives in attendance were also asked about their plans for the game on next-gen consoles. 

Looks like we can “probably assume” that at some point they’re going to do something on next-gen consoles, even if it won’t be around their launch window. That being said, they’re “ready or almost ready” from the point of view of technology. 

“Of course, we do have insights on what’s around the corner and what’s happening with PlayStation and Xbox. We’re watching it closely and one may probably assume that at some point we’re gonna do something with the next-gen. However, we cannot really be very specific about what that might be, when exactly that might be. I will only safely assume that it’s not gonna be around the launch timeframe of those consoles.

[…]

Our games were always ahead of technology. They always play best on strong PCs, so in many areas, we’re ready or almost ready for stronger specs. From a technical perspective, it seems to be doable.”

We then hear that Cyberpunk 2077 is still generating pre-orders and the cumulative number is in line with CD Projekt’s expectations. There was a spike at the beginning and a slowdown later on, which is to be expected. The most important period for pre-orders will be a couple of days before release, in line with what happened for The Witcher 3.

The project for the Cyberpunk 2077 multiplayer is in relatively early stage so it’s definitely too early to share details.

The studio is “experimenting and checking different options and possibilities.” That being said, asked about monetization, the executives clarified that we can expect that CD Projekt won’t change its general policies towards gamers. This means that we can expect “wise” monetization and “always value for money.”

We also learn that for now, it’s a smaller project with a smaller staff than the single-player. 

The studio has “some other things in early development” but the vast majority of their development expenses is “related to the Cyberpunk universe.”

Asked about whether they’re worried that Half-Life Alyx could pull some gamers away from Cyberpunk 2077 and CD Projekt could release some of its games on virtual reality platforms, we hear that VR remains a “nichy niche” market. Alyx is probably a big effort from Valve to expand that niche, which is defined as “very, very, very, and I could add a few verys here, small.”

From a market perspective CD Projekt isn’t worried because it’s a very different niche. While Valve is trying to push the market, CD Projekt is targeting the mass market as it is now, which is major consoles and PC without the need of VR gear.   

In their conversations with other publishers, CD Projekt is unaware of hard pushes for VR, and they have not heard of anybody building an actual solid business on that niche.

That being said, this “can very well change” in the future, but it’s definitely not going to be the case in the first half of next year, and probably not even further in 2020. 

At some point VR might become mass-market entertainment that will validate the business around it, but that’s not the case for CD Projekt right now.

Speaking further of possibly releasing past games on VR, the executives mentioned that to prepare a game for VR one should design for VR. They’d “rather work on new great things than on older stuff.” That’s not always true as we can see with The Witcher 3 on Switch, but that’s the general attitude.

Incidentally, the release of  The Witcher 3 on Switch is generating additional revenue, but it isn’t comparable to the release of a new game. Sales are in-line with expectations.