Years ago, Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt RED announced that it was making a multiplayer game set in the same sci-fi world. The RPG was released two years ago but there's still no sign of the multiplayer spinoff, the developer has finally explained why, and, well, the reason is kind of obvious when you hear it.
"The priority was that the main experience will run for the people in a really good state," Cyberpunk 2077's campaign director Phipp Weber told Eurogamer. “We wanted to do many things at the same time, and we just needed to really focus and say, 'Okay, what's the important part?’”
The developer focused its attention on creating patches and updates for Cyberpunk 2077 and put the multiplayer on the back burner. Like really far back on the back burner.
Enough on their plate
When Cyberpunk 2077 was released in late 2020, it got people talking for all the wrong reasons. Riddled with bugs, CD Projekt RED found itself so occupied with correcting the very obvious problems in their existing game that any thought of a multiplayer mode got put back. The buggy launch build cost them dearly, with company shares plummeting soon after.
Glitches like the infinite money hack are still being scrubbed from the game, so it wasn’t surprising when Weber commented on how the “switch of priorities meant that other R&D projects had to go away.”
That delay, as we discovered last year, turned into a full cancellation.
At the time, CEO Adam Kiciński clarified the company’s stance on entering the multiplayer scene. “Let’s stress this here: CD Projekt RED makes single-player story-driven AAA RPGs – that is not changing. What is changing is our long-term approach to online.”
This was reflected in CD Projekt RED’s announcement that only one of the five upcoming Witcher games is confirmed to feature multiplayer elements. Kiciński did also say that "Instead of primarily focusing on one big, online experience - or game - we are focusing on bringing online into all of our franchises one day, [implementing] online elements in our games where they make sense."
We’re still sitting patiently for that long-awaited Cyberpunk DLC, however, so even if we will one day be able to explore Night City with our friends in tow, you can expect it won’t happen anytime soon.
