That is the yr of Cyberpunk 2077’s about-face. Between the sport’s wide-ranging 2.0 replace and its slick Phantom Liberty growth pack, most onlookers now agree that the sport is—if not the awe-inspiring masterwork it was hyped as much as be previous to launch—fairly good. However over at CD Projekt, the sport’s disastrous launch nonetheless looms massive in devs’ reminiscences, they usually’re eager to keep away from a repeat efficiency.
So says Colin Walder, CD Projekt Crimson engineering director, in a chat with InvenGlobal. Walder informed the outlet that morale at CDPR “took a major hit” following Cyberpunk 2077’s sad launch. “Sustaining morale post-release,” mentioned Walder, recalling the widespread disappointment of followers once they lastly obtained their palms on the sport in its early days, “was certainly a problem”. However hey, he says the studio’s realized its classes, and also you—and CDP’s devs—can count on a greater launch for the following Witcher sport, presently codenamed Polaris.
Walder says CDP now makes positive it is “on high of sure issues from the beginning,” pointing particularly on the studio’s growth for consoles. “We’d like to verify they’re performing from the get-go. For our subsequent mission, Polaris, we’re already working our demos and inside opinions on the console from the very starting.” That is one thing the studio solely began taking note of “later in Cyberpunk’s growth,” mentioned Walder, which in all probability contributed to the sport’s horrible efficiency on console and its wholesale removal from the PlayStation store.
Which may not sound enormously related to you and me right here on PC Gamer dot com, however what’s good for the goose is nice for the gander, and a extra strong growth pipeline for CDP’s future video games ought to—at the least in principle—work out higher for all of us when these video games lastly come out.
In fact, one thing that is additionally a little pertinent to staff morale is the crunch that Cyberpunk devs needed to endure with a purpose to get that sport out of the door in any state in any respect. Walder addressed that too, saying that the corporate needed to “show dedication” after admitting that Cyberpunk’s launch was a disappointment and that it was “decided to vary issues”.
“As an example, when a deadline is looming, as a substitute of reverting to crunch, we would say, ‘let’s regulate the schedule,’ or ‘let’s strategy this in another way’,” mentioned Walder. “As soon as this turns into a repeated behaviour—as soon as the staff sees a real effort to forestall crunch—that is when belief and morale begin to rebuild.”
In fact, it is price mentioning that CDP made guarantees about crunch forward of Cyberpunk’s launch too. Particularly, that it could be dedicated to the unusual prospect of “non-obligatory crunch” that devs may take or go away. That went out the window when push got here to shove, and crunch was ultimately made obligatory. Solely time will inform if this new dedication is any extra sturdy than the earlier one, however at the least devs have the lately established Polish Gamedev Staff Union to again them up this time spherical. Let’s hope it is sufficient.