CD Projekt Red’s upcoming FPS RPG has gone through a lot of trouble as it went through multiple delays and is currently under development during a global pandemic. In a video that summarizes the first half of 2020, the studio’s CFO Piotr Nielubowicz said that Cyberpunk 2077 is in the “final stretch of development” when he was going through the company’s financial earnings and investment growth through the first half to the year.
“As for expenditures on new products and technologies, in the first half of the year, we invested 114 million PLN [approximately $30 million or €25 million] for a cumulative balance of expenditures on development projects of 483 million PLN [approximately $128 million or €108 million],” he said. “Of course, the largest contribution to this figure comes from Cyberpunk 2077, which has now entered its final stretch of development, marked by very intensive work.”
Another factor in the success of the Polish developer this year was because of Witcher 3, which got its port over to the Nintendo Switch last year. As Witcher 3 continues to sell like hotcakes, GWENT and Thronebreaker stood tall in assisting the company reaches a 70% sales increase compared to last year.
Tensions are high in Night City
The CFO highlighted the events and announcements surrounding its upcoming game. The studio had Night City Wire, a brief series that gave players an update on development along with an insight into various mechanics like gunplay and playstyles. The company is expanding on the universe with Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, a 10 episode Netflix anime set in Night City.
While Cyberpunk 2077 is on its “final stretch of development,” it still has a little longer than two months to go in development where anything can happen. The game was supposed to come out in May, but it got hit with a delay to September, then, despite saying the game was on track for release, it was delayed again for the current November launch. Much of the delays come from the company, like most, working from home due to COVID-19.
While we are two months away from release, and only a select group of people around the world have played Cyberpunk 2077. Journalists and known figures in the gaming community got to play four hours’ worth of content. Eurogamer wrote that “there’s a lot more going on in Cyberpunk 2077 than The Witcher 3.” IGN critiqued the driving mechanics, along with some unintuitive UI and tutorials, while still saying the game “might somehow live up to the years of hype.”
Cyberpunk 2077 releases on November 19 for PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Google Stadia. The game will also come to next-gen consoles.
