Abandoning Cyberpunk 2077 Was Not an Option: 'Version 2.0 is the Culmination'
Project RED never intended to abandon Cyberpunk 2077. According to the game's director, all decisions, actions and updates led to version 2.0.
Cyberpunk 2077 has come a long and bumpy way. After its release, streams of negative comments showered the game, caused by its poor technical condition (especially on consoles) and lack of promised content. However, CD Projekt RED decided not to give up, releasing more updates and hotfixes introducing new features and fixing numerous bugs. According to the game's director the developers never thought about abandoning the project and all their efforts have just led to the recently released update 2.0.
"I believe in the team and in the brand," he said.
In an interview for PC Gamer, Gabe Antamangelo - who has held the position of game director since 2021 - admitted that abandoning Cyberpunk 2077 was never an option. In a meeting with his boss and the board of directors, he was to have said:
"I believe in the team, I believe in the brand, but I want to do it right and I will need support to do it."
Support, of course, was provided and Antamangelo and his team were able to fix the game. We had to wait a while for updates 1.5 and 1.6, but it was worth it - not only because of the improved artificial intelligence, the removal of quite a number of bugs, or a bit of additional content, but mainly because the aforementioned updates laid the groundwork for version 2.0, which, according to a large group of players, presents the level that the studio promised at launch.
"The foundations that we laid in 1.5 and 1.6 culminated in the plan for 2.0. It was outlined and we polished it over time. Some of the changes ultimately used in 2.0 can be seen in the minor improvements to the artificial intelligence in 1.5. We thought about what the gaps were in the game and how we could fill them to provide a complete experience."
CD Projekt RED emerges from this battle victorious
Update 2.0 and Phantom Liberty are the icing on the cake, and now the studio can focus on the follow-up to the game, which is known for now as Project Orion. This does not mean, of course, that Cyberpunk 2077 will no longer be supported, because as Antamangelo admitted in previous interviews, the developers will be working on fixes and other small changes. However, we won't see any more novelties.
Cyberpunk 2077 has clearly revived after the update and release of the DLC. According to data from SteamDB in the last 24 hours the game was played simultaneously by up to 220,979 people, a record result of the previous days is about 20,000 players higher.
Developers can now slowly put the Red Engine away and devote more attention to Unreal Engine 5, on which the aforementioned sequel to Cyberpunk and the next part of the The Witcher will be built.
