CD Projekt already prepping Cyberpunk 2077 follow-up
And has 40 people messing about with multiplayer.
Cyberpunk 2077 maker CD Projekt Red has caused fan hearts to flutter with talk of its work on three games in the Cyberpunk universe.
Speaking to Polish financial site Bankier, CDPR exec Adam Kiciński mentioned the developer's various teams were now spread across the three games, as well as continuing support for Gwent.
But a lot of this - most of it, in fact - simply reinforces what we knew already.
One of those three Cyberpunk games is... Cyberpunk 2077 - now less than a year away from its 16th April 2020 launch.
Another is the next big AAA game from the studio, which we knew back in March 2018 would be released by the end of 2021 (this seems quite soon after the release of Cyberpunk 2077 - perhaps it will slip). What's new here is confirmation this will be another game in the Cyberpunk universe (rather than, as the internet might have you believe, The Witcher 4).
"Our next big project will also be in the 'cyberpunk' universe," CDPR exec Piotr Nielubowicz explained, "and we're already working on it and treating it as a really big and innovative project for us." No word yet, then, on a return for Keanu.
Finally, CDPR is working on Cyberpunk 2077's multiplayer. We knew that too. It's unclear if this will release standalone or simply be a separate mode playable via 2077, a la GTA Online. The multiplayer team is made up of around 40 people (for reference, CDPR employs around 800 total).
Some kind of multiplayer component for Cyberpunk 2077 has been talked of, played up and played down for donkey's years. Back in 2013, CDPR boss Adam Badowski told Eurogamer there would be "multiplayer features" in the game. Five years later, at E3 2018, CDPR quest designer Patrick Mills told us multiplayer was still being worked on.
"We have multiplayer in R&D, but the game we're shipping to you, the game you're going to buy is the single-player experience," Mills said. "At launch we're concentrating on the single-player game. That's what we want to give you."
Last month at E3 2019, I checked in with lead quest designer Paweł Sasko who told me plans had not changed and Cyberpunk 2077 will definitely be single-player at launch.
"Yes, 100 per cent," Sasko said. "We're not really working on multiplayer, our sole focus is single-player. We'll do that, then we'll see. We're not saying no but we're not saying yes. If something does happen it will definitely be post-launch and that's as much as I can say right now."
When contacted for further illumination on all the above, CDPR declined to comment further.
In short, then: Cyberpunk 2077 next April, probably a multiplayer thing after, then another big game a couple of years down the line.