Will Cyberpunk 2077’s Second Life Change CDPR’s Plans?

Games Will Cyberpunk 2077’s Second Life Change CDPR’s Plans? Paul Tassi Senior Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. News and opinion about video games, television, movies and the internet. Following New! Follow this author to stay notified about their latest stories.

Got it! Sep 24, 2022, 10:12am EDT | New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Cyberpunk 2077 CDPR While I am sure that CDPR was hoping that Netflix’s Cyberpunk Edgerunners would be good and drive some level of interest in Cyberpunk 2077 itself, I am guessing they were not predicting a million players a day, 120,000 concurrents on Steam and the kind of renaissance we’re seeing here. Edgerunners, a new patch and a sale as drivers for this second wind for Cyberpunk 2077 has me wondering that if the game is experiencing this level of a successful turnaround, that CDPR may choose to alter their plans. Right now, that includes future, next-gen/PC only patches and a big expansion, Phantom Liberty.

But previously? The original plan for post-launch Cyberpunk was going to be: Two full DLCs, similar to what The Witcher 3 got. A multiplayer spin-off game set in Night City. The multiplayer idea was scrapped, and the two DLCs were reduced to one.

Though again, the question now is if anything changes in the wake of Edgerunners and this massive player surge. The problem, of course, is that the way game development works is that you have to plan things way, way ahead of time, and many decisions about Cyberpunk’s future were already made a long time ago when things were struggling a lot more. The DLC has been getting worked on since launch, more or less, and to change things now? That would take development away from the next Witcher game, which CDPR has announced and is already starting work on.

Phantom Liberty CDPR MORE FOR YOU ‘Demon Slayer’ Season 2 Finally Has An Actual 2021 Release Date Netflix’s ‘Squid Game’ Season 2 Not A Sure Thing, Says Director ‘Genshin Impact’ Still Refuses To Increase Anniversary Rewards, Despite Fan Outcry However, CDPR has said that they will be continuing to invest in the Cyberpunk IP in the future, so where does that leave us? With where things are right now, my guess is that it’s too late to add anything major to Cyberpunk 2077 past what’s already planned, namely the big expansion. They have talked about adding new cyberware and a better police and vehicle combat system, but I do not think that this will mean a greenlight for a second full expansion or something like a multiplayer spin-off. Nothing of that scale.

What I do think this does, however, is give CDPR a whole lot more motivation to start drafting a full sequel, let’s call it Cyberpunk 2078, using the lessons learned from this game. CDPR has said they will start doing parallel development on multiple big games at a time, meaning they can eventually starting working on a Cyberpunk sequel while they also work on Witcher 4. Though that would require them to stop working on Cyberpunk 2077, eventually.

That seems like the better play at this point. Presumably, CDPR will move the next Cyberpunk game to Unreal Engine 5, like they’re doing with the next Witcher game, freeing them from the often problematic REDengine that Cyberpunk is still using. It’s not that I wouldn’t love another Cyberpunk expansion past what’s already planned, but with the long arc of CDPR’s strategy, I’d be surprised if they kept going with just 2077 instead of casting an eye toward a larger sequel.

Now, the real question is…can they convince TRIGGER to do season 2 of Cyberpunk Edgerunners? Follow me on Twitter , YouTube , Facebook and Instagram . Subscribe to my free weekly content round-up newsletter, God Rolls . Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy .

Paul Tassi Editorial Standards Print Reprints & Permissions.