CD Projekt Red Discusses Upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 Patch Plans
The situation around CD Projekt Red’s futuristic action role-playing game Cyberpunk 2077 has been a rollercoaster, with the company simultaneously experiencing one of the most controversial launches in modern gaming history while also gaining one of the world’s largest fanbases in the past year, surpassing even Marvel and the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Perhaps this dichotomy is due to fans’ faith that CD Projekt Red is actively working to fix Cyberpunk 2077’s numerous problems with regular patches and hotfixes.
In May, the company appointed Gabriel Amatangelo to be the new game director for Cyberpunk 2077, and his role will be to oversee the game’s future expansions and presumably address the ongoing issues with the game. A chart included in CD Projekt Red’s Q1 2021 financial document tracks Cyberpunk 2077’s crash rate from January to May 2021, showing a steady decline thanks to the release of two patches and three hotfixes during that time.
During an investor call about the company’s Q1 2021 financial results, President and Joint CEO of CD Projekt Group Adam Kiciński discussed the company’s plans regarding game patches over the next few months. According to Kiciński, the next patch for Cyberpunk 2077 will be coming in a couple of weeks, although it will not be a major one. While he wouldn’t give a precise number to the patches fans can expect in the next two to three months, Kiciński specified that future updates will focus more on “improving things” and “enhancing the [game’s] quality further.”
Up until now, the patches released by CD Projekt Red have been more technical in nature, aimed primarily at fixing Cyberpunk 2077’s myriad of glitches and bugs, and the company’s focus was on improving the game’s overall performance and stability, as evidenced by the aforementioned crash rate chart. “Those were the most important aspects, in our opinion,” Kiciński said in the investor call.
Now that those issues have largely been addressed, the development team can hopefully turn more of its attention towards fixing or adding Cyberpunk 2077 features that fans have been asking for. Demos of the game shown at expos like E3 2018 seemed to include gameplay features that were cut from the final release, such as optical camo and allies using their own cybernetic enhancements during missions. Fans were also expecting a much more robust customization system, not only for character creation but also to personalize V’s car and housing. Additionally, there are a number of locations in Night City that are inaccessible or seem incomplete, such as train stations and parts of the Pacifica region.
It’s also unclear how the controversy surrounding Cyberpunk 2077’s launch has actually affected CD Projekt Red’s bottom line. In April, the company’s official Twitter account posted a graphic that seemed to show that the company had record-breaking revenue in 2020, with a net profit of roughly $303 million. However, a little over a month later, a company representative stated that CD Projekt Red's net profits in Q1 2021 fell by 64.7%, due in part to the costs of fixing the game and the loss of sales on the PlayStation Store, a primary revenue source from which Cyberpunk 2077 is still delisted.
Cyberpunk 2077 is available on PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One, with PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions currently in development.
Source: DSO Gaming
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