Next-Gen Cyberpunk 2077 and Witcher 3 still coming 2021… CDPR thinks

CD Projekt Crimson remains to be pushing to launch next-gen variations of Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3 in 2021—or so the developer hopes.

As CDPR mothership CD Projekt Group held its H1 2021 monetary earnings presentation with traders this week, it put its ongoing assist for Cyberpunk entrance and heart. The corporate’s public report highlights the excessive variety of patches and hotfix additions added to the sport since launch, improved efficiency throughout platforms, and Cyberpunk‘s latest re-addition to the PlayStation Retailer after Sony pulled the title from its digital storefronts in December. The incremental expertise followers have been getting, the report suggests, is slowly making progress.

Joint CEO Adam Kiciński even reiterated throughout the presentation that continued enhancements to Cyberpunk would be the firm’s top-priority for “so long as it takes.” (He additionally famous that, regardless of its myriad points, the sport was the main income driver for CDPR within the first half of 2021.)

Shifting to next-gen?

However CD Projekt stopped wanting providing a assure that its next-gen ports of Cyberpunk and Witcher 3 would completely be out this yr—solely that “late 2021” was its purpose. The general public report offers little context for Cyberpunk personnel. As a substitute, it lumps collectively over a 3rd of its present employees below the identical yellow bar and says these staff are engaged on fixes for the present launch and growing the next-gen model. The report does not differentiate the chances of how a lot goes to every challenge or what number of staff are engaged on these initiatives in whole.

The decision confirmed the continued scenario, which is that the variety of present staff supporting fixes to Cyberpunk would proceed to lower every month. This seemingly signifies a gradual enhance of employees from the unique launch to the next-gen model. Whether or not or not that might change the end result of the next-gen’s eventual launch stays to be seen, although per the report, the corporate expects the variety of builders engaged on Cyberpunk total is anticipated to extend to greater than half.

In contrast to Cyberpunk, Witcher 3’s port growth is primarily being achieved out-of-house by Saber Interactive. This implies CD Projekt is unable to say with absolute certainty that Witcher 3‘s launch will not slip into 2022. Saber beforehand labored with CDPR to carry the sport to the Change, which is the most recent of a number of regularly improved ports of the hit RPG.

Whereas decidedly improved since its launch in November, Cyberpunk remains to be a multitude. Gamers within the recreation’s Reddit neighborhood proceed to routinely share movies of their player-character (generally known as V) and different characters falling sufferer to random animation and physics glitches, automobiles spawning from out of the sky or getting caught in geometry, and gamers’ personal rides even, uh, exploding out of one another in case you attempt to summon too many without delay. A bug that clones NPCs has plagued the sport since launch, and the introduction of patch 1.3 in August appears to have, for no matter cause, made the bug even worse.

Cyberpunk 2077 is not completely unplayable at this level. Its newest patch added a lot of long-requested options, like an improved mini-map, extra save slots on prime of a brand new car, and a few beauty additions for Johnny Silverhand and V, that are the primary of the numerous promised free DLC drops. Nonetheless, CDPR has an extended highway forward earlier than the sport is likely to be thought-about “completed”—longtime Witcher followers could bear in mind it took years for the developer to iron out all of Witcher 3‘s kinks. Within the meantime, Cyberpunk followers at the least look like having enjoyable with the seemingly unending cascade of issues.