CyberPunk 2077, the eagerly anticipated next game from CD Projekt RED, and their first title since they found mainstream success with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in 2015, is currently still largely a mystery, owing in large part to the fact that, ever since it was announce almost half a decade ago, we have seen nor heard much of it.
However, there is now one thing we do know- which isn’t necessarily the most encouraging thing to hear from a developer that you would otherwise turn to, hoping for quality single player experiences. According to CD Projekt RED’s CEO Adam Kicinski, the upcoming game will have online elements of some sort, which he confirmed in an interview with Strefa Inwestorow, Polish investment site (translated by techraptor).
“Online is necessary, or very recommended if you wish to achieve a long-term success. At some point, we have mentioned that there will be a certain online element related to Cyberpunk,” he said, adding that there is great value to a well done multiplayer mode.
“Multiplayer is strategically important, playing online is strategically important, because we want to have a commercial leg for service type games, games which generate stable income, period to period, which are built. Of course, every game ends after a number of years, some service type games function even after 10 years, but outside our main source of income, meaning big names, it’s building a stable source of income. And in the future, we can imagine a lot of connections between big games and service type games – we have to acknowledge it, it is obvious.”
This is- not the thing I wanted to hear, I must say (his further elaboration only makes it worse for me). That has… punctured my hype for the game very effectively. I don’t even care if it’s a well done GaaS style game, I don’t want them to dilute their focus from strong single player experiences. If Bethesda can sell 30 million copies of single player experiences with no GaaS elements, why can’t CDPR?
I hope I am overreacting, and the final game ends up only having a multiplayer mode by the side that doesn’t detract from the single player experience; then I think back to Bioware and sob inconsolably.