Cyberpunk 2077 Multiplayer Game Cancelled?
Looks like Cyberpunk 2077 isn't getting that promised multiplayer.
This article is more than 2 years old
It looks like Night City’s guns for hire won’t be teaming up after all, as CD Projekt RED cancels the Cyberpunk 2077 multiplayer game following the company’s strategy update. In the light of the game’s substandard performance, the company’s executives decided to “reconsider” their plans for Cyberpunk 2077 and multiplayer implementations for their other titles.
In CD Projekt RED’s strategic update video, Adam Kicinski, the company’s CEO, announced their focal shift from implementing multiplayer options into one title as opposed to bringing online play to all their franchises one day. Does that mean that Cyberpunk 2077 Multiplayer won’t happen? Not necessarily. According to him, the company will continue to maintain its focus on producing single-player triple-A RPG games, as it did so far. However, the online functionality will remain in development until the company is adequately prepared to implement it.
As far as fans are concerned, this is as good news as it is terrible. Some are sad, as they won’t be able to scour Night City with their friends, while others rejoice at the news of CD Projekt RED addressing the game’s current abysmal state, which probably was the reason for the company’s shift in focus in the first place. Whatever the case may be, the single-player story element of Cyberpunk 2077 is a worthwhile experience not worth completely left in the dust.
The game was released some five months ago (December 2020), breaking a 1-million concurrent players record. Not surprising, considering the eight-year-long hype, press releases, announcements, and development news that eager fans had to endure before finally getting their hands on an actual game. It was one of the most anticipated titles in the history of gaming, and one of the most disappointing ones, as well.
Following its release, Cyberpunk 2077 quickly became a controversial topic in the gaming world due to constant glitches, hardware issues, and bad overall optimization. Only four weeks after its release, one of the most anticipated titles ever lost over 75% of its player base. Now, the decline of the player base is a regular occurrence that plagues even the most prominent titles. However, a downward curve this steep is something that CD Projekt RED shouldn’t ignore. Luckily, they didn’t; a sizable Cyberpunk 2077 1.2 patch is released, which addressed hundreds of bugs and glitches that plagued the game. But a path to recovery might be a rocky one.
With everything said, the CD Projekt RED will focus on bringing multiplayer functionality to appropriate franchises when the time is right. Unfortunately, those statements only regard the company’s long-term goals and reveal nothing about Cyberpunk 2077’s multiplayer game, except that it’s on hold for the moment. According to Kicinski, the strategy update is meant to reinforce the company’s core values since its latest release [Cyberpunk 2077] failed to meet them.
It’s apparent that this strategy update won’t affect Cyberpunk 2077 alone, but also The Witcher series, whose release for the next-gen consoles is greatly anticipated. Will CD Projekt RED follow through with their core values, or is there another debacle around the corner?
