Years ago, Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt RED announced that it was creating a multiplayer game set in the same sci-fi world. The RPG came out two years ago, but there's still no sign of a multiplayer spin-off, the developer has finally explained why and, well, the reason is pretty obvious when you hear it.
"The priority was to get the core experience running for people in very good shape," Cyberpunk 2077 campaign manager Phipp Weber (opens in a new tab) told Eurogamer. "We wanted to do a lot of things at the same time, and we just needed to focus and say, 'Okay, what's the important part?'"
The developer has turned its attention to creating fixes and updates for Cyberpunk 2077 and has put multiplayer on the back burner. Like way back in the background.
enough on your plate
When Cyberpunk 2077 was released at the end of 2020, people spoke up for all the wrong reasons. Plagued by bugs, CD Projekt RED found itself so busy fixing the most obvious problems with its existing game that any idea of a multiplayer mode was scrapped. Building the buggy launch cost them dearly, and the company's stock plummeted soon after.
Glitches like the infinite money cheat are still being removed from the game, so it came as no surprise that Weber commented how "the change in priorities meant other R&D projects had to go."
This delay, as we found out last year, turned into a full cancellation.
At the time, CEO Adam Kiciński clarified the company's position on entering the multiplayer scene. “Let's stress this here: CD Projekt RED creates AAA story-driven single player RPGs, that's not going to change. What is changing is our long-term focus online.
This was reflected in CD Projekt RED's announcement that only one of the five upcoming Witcher games has multiplayer elements. Kiciński also said that "rather than focusing primarily on a great online experience, or one game, we will one day focus on being online across all of our franchises, online elements in our games where they make sense."
However, we're still patiently waiting for this long-awaited Cyberpunk DLC, so while we'll get to explore Night City with our friends one day, you can hope that won't happen anytime soon.