Today CD Projekt Red hosted its financial results teleconference and the the company’s executives were asked to give more insight on possible issues outside of their control that might impact Cyberpunk 2077’s release.
Specifically, the question mentioned the temporary closure of the Japanese rating board CERO as an example of such possible issues.
Board member Michał Nowakowski answered as follows:
“We have obtained the vast majority of ratings for the game already. The game has been submitted for rating I think […] earlier in March, and by now we have obtained the vast majority of ratings so there is no risk of us not obtaining ratings for the game in any of the major markets or in any of the not-major markets for that matter.”
Nowakowski also mentioned that the developer doesn’t see any physical issues that may hinder the release in September.
We don’t really see any major physical risks related to the launch that may impede us or stop us in any way from launching in September.
That being said, there are issues related to localization and specifically recording of some of the voice-overs, but they shouldn’t cause delays.
CD Projekt is not very worried about it, and in the worst-case scenario, people may have to download the missing recordings in a patch.
“There are some difficulties with the localization process, specifically with recording some of the actors. Most of the studios right now are closed down at least for the time being.
However we have managed to record the vast majority of the voice-overs, but there are always some last pick up sessions.
We’re not very worried about because that’s something we can record even later and add in a digital patch, so by the moment the customers will actually buy the game in September they would just download a file which would add the missing pieces of recording […] but that’s not something we identified as a major, major risk.
This is literally the only issue that is on our radar. Anything else we already are either past the hurdle so we’re not really impacted by it, or things are progressing smoothly or business as usual, I would say.”
Of course, this raises an interesting issue for other games as well. Voice acting is one of those jobs that can’t be performed from home, as it requires advanced recording equipment and state-of-the-art soundproof studios.
While it may not cause major issues for Cyberpunk 2077, it could impact other games in the pipeline.
If you want to learn more about Cyberpunk 2077, you can enjoy additional information from the results presentation released yesterday, some more recent comments from CD Projekt RED’s executives, the latest gameplay, additional comments from the developers, and enjoy some really high-definition character images.
You can also read our semi-recent interview with producer Richard Borzymowski, how character creation can impact the story, and every way V can kill someone.
Cyberpunk 2077 is coming to PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and it has recently been delayed to September 17, 2020. It has also been confirmed for Xbox Series X down the line.
