Despite its disastrous launch, CD Projekt Red never thought about quitting development on Cyberpunk 2077.
That’s according to Cyberpunk 2077 director Gabe Amatangelo, who took on the role in May 2021, who said in an interview with PC Gamer that the team never planned to stop working on the game before the release of update 2.0 – a patch that has come to completely overhaul the original game.
“Part of my conversation at the beginning with my boss and the board was: I believe in the team, I believe in this IP, but I want to do it right. And I’m going to need the support to do that,” Amatangelo said. “And they’re like, yes, you have the support.”
Cyberpunk 2077 launched in December 2020 to considerable criticism, mainly due to the game’s bad performance on every available platform, unless you had a high-end PC. The game was received so negatively that Sony even removed it from the PlayStation store and offered full refunds to players.
It wasn’t until February 2022, that CD Projekt Red released patch 1.5, which introduced significant enhancements to the game for current-gen consoles. Amatangelo said that 1.5 and the following updates were the groundwork that eventually culminated in 2.0.
“The groundwork we laid in 1.5, and 1.6 was all culminating in the plan in 2.0,” he explained. “It was mapped out. Loosely mapped out, and it got more refined over time, but it was mapped out.
“You can see some of it with the slight AI improvements in 1.5 – that was built upon to get to 2.0. The [thinking was] ‘what are the gaps, and how do we fill those gaps to do the complete experience that hopefully everyone imagined and wants to play?'”
Along with the release of the game’s expansion, Phantom Liberty, update 2.0 has been received incredibly well despite its rough launch and has essentially made Cyberpunk 2077 into a completely new game; the RPG even saw a massive boost in players on Steam shortly after the DLC’s release.
CD Projekt Red has also confirmed that no matter how well Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty and patch 2.0 have been received, they will be the final major updates to the game as the developer shifts its focus towards a sequel.
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