Whether or not Cyberpunk 2077 will end up having a New Game Plus option is a question that’s been asked many times now. Previous developments have indicated that it probably will have it, but there’s been no concrete confirmation from CD Projekt RED so far. As it turns out, that’s because it’s something the developers are still looking into.
Speaking with GameSpot, CDPR producer Richard Borzymowski said that CDPR is looking for a way to implement New Game Plus in the game while keeping the core gameplay loop intact. Owing to things such as life paths and the much greater degree of freedom that Cyberpunk 2077 offers to players in terms of how they want to play, CDPR is brainstorming ideas for a way to implement New Game Plus so that that freedom is kept intact in subsequent playthroughs, rather than limiting players’ playstyle options based on how their character had progressed in previous saves.
“What I can tell you is we are looking into a suitable idea for implementing New Game Plus,” said Borzymowski. “If and how has yet to be seen and talked about.”
“Let’s go with the two most basic approaches to New Game Plus, or whatever,” he said. “Complete example: either you finish the story and you’re left in the open world, or you can start a new game with the character you’ve previously developed. With the first approach, in our case with Cyberpunk 2077, the benefit of replaying or playing more is that there are many, many activities. I presume that most players will first finish the story rather than do everything there is because that’s pretty time-consuming.”
“The other approach basically funnels you into one of the playstyles, right?” he continued. “So we’re looking for a way to ensure that you’re able to keep your progression, but are you still able to take a different path in order to see one of those parts hidden behind one of those actual choices? And we will probably get to something, but it’s too early to talk exactly how because we want to make sure that it fits Cyberpunk 2077. Everything we want to do, we want to fit.”
On the one hand, it’s great to see CD Projekt RED trying to tweak their New Game Plus concept to make it fit within the degree of freedom in gameplay, which is clearly something that they’re putting a lot of emphasis on. Then again, this also means that there’s a chance that it doesn’t happen at all.
Something else that they’re also currently considering and doing research on is a multiplayer component, and whether or not they can find the right way to put it into the game post-launch. Read more on that through here.
Cyberpunk 2077 is out on April 16, 2020 for the PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Stadia. New gameplay footage will be streamed on August 30th, so stay tuned.
