CD Projekt Representative on Difficult Behind-the-scenes of Cyberpunk 2077's Development
A representative of CD Projekt RED recently gave an interview to GamesIndustry.biz. In it, the developer mentions the difficult process of rebuilding trust of gamers and shares general plans for the future.
Recent years have been fraught with difficult times for CD Projekt RED. The controversial release of Cyberpunk 2077 in 2020 appears to be the culmination of the Polish developer's plunge into the hole.
The hardships associated with the game's launch, the restructuring within the company and the arduous process of rebuilding the studio's image was described by Michal Platkow-Gilewski, vice president for public relations, in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz.
The difficult process of bouncing back from the bottom
Recalling the period before the release of Cyberpunk, studio representative speaks of optimism, but also of the great pressure on the studio.
"(...) Yes, the road was bumpy. When everything was awesome and amazing, before the release of Cyberpunk... it was the time of my life, but it was too good to be true. The game was shaping up to be amazing and we were all super hyped. But this hype surrounding us was a big pressure. Then there was the release and it was not a fairytale anymore."
The release of the game in December 2020 was met with a wave of controversy and massive dissatisfaction on the part of gamers. When recalling this difficult period, Platkov-Gilevsky talks about a sense of disappointment and the eroded trust of fans.
"I was personally not happy with how things turned out. I was not expecting that. I knew immediately that we had to come back. I liked the spot we were in. I'm not talking about the peak of hype, but two years before that, we had our community, we liked them, they liked us, it was awesome to work at CD Projekt RED. After the release it was tough, but I knew that we had the same people. The gamers are the same… we just need to fix our relationship. The only thing we can truly do is just deliver what we are capable of. (...)"
The rebuilding of the game and the trust of the community was linked to a major restructuring inside the studio itself.
" (...) We had to rebuild a lot of things inside of the company. We started with pipelines on the dev side, we started to think should we tie our future with a different engine or should we stay with our own? We made some decisions about how we work, how we are structured. It was a big rebuilding."
Plans for the future
Currently, the eyes of players are turned towards the expansion for Cyberpunk, titled Phantom Liberty, which will come out on September 26. Referring to the plans for the DLC, Platkow-Gilewski mentions the studio's approach to the basic goals of the expansion.
"For us, expansions are really important. Years ago... we started to think what is DLC? Why is someone charging a couple of dollars for DLC that only gives you something small, like a special sword or horse armour? We didn't like that approach. So when we add content... we have DLC that is free because they don't involve a lot of effort, and then we have people working on something more significant, for a longer period, and there's a price for that. That's an expansion."
Sharing details about Phantom Liberty, the studio's representative mentions the vision behind the decision to engage Idris Elba.
"For Phantom Liberty, which is more of a spy thriller-themed story – it has a different vibe to the base game – we needed someone who is a match for that. Idris is the next James Bond to me. He has this Bond vibe. When we talk about the character, Solomon Reed, we knew he'd be perfect for it."
The interview also touched on the studio's future plans. For it is worth remembering that in addition to the upcoming Phantom Liberty, CD Projekt is working on, among other things. the next installment of The Witcher series or the mysterious project Orion - a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077.
"First of all, all these projects are at different stages. It's not that we are doing all that in the same moment at the same stage, because that would be a lot of work. We are thinking about the strategy for the years to come. We really care about our IPs, we want to develop them, we want to create games within them. But also, we want to make sure we are focused all the time."
Concluding the interview, Platkow-Gilewski sums up the difficult period and talks positively about the studio's approach and commitment.
"That took us a lot of time, but I don't believe we were ever broken. We were always like: Let's do this."
Let's hope that the optimistic vision of the studio's representative will prove to be justified, and that the lessons learned by the developer from the work on Cyberpunk will prove to be helpful for future projects.
