CD Projekt Red had its Investor Day on October 5 in Warsaw, and it was quite revealing. During the presentation, the studio talked about its changes in video game production as part of its RED 2.0 transformation.
The studio also talked about the gameplay and technology used in Cyberpunk 2077’s expansion, Phantom Liberty. Most importantly, the studio’s board summarized Phantom Liberty’s expansion from a business perspective as well as laid out plans for the future of the franchise.
The first thing that we learned was that Phantom Liberty has sold more than 3 million copies while the base game, Cyberpunk 2077 has sold more than 25 million copies. Altogether, The Witcher trilogy and Cyberpunk 2077 have sold more than 100 million copies.
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CD Projekt spent about $85 million to make and promote Phantom Liberty. The preliminary report shows that the production expenditures touched 275 million PLN (approx. $63.5 million) while the global marketing campaign gulped about 95 million PLN (approx. $21.9 million).
That was significantly lower than what it cost the studio to make the base game. According to Kotaku, it cost CD Projekt $174 million to make Cyberpunk 2077 and a further $142 million in marketing costs.
Another thing that we learned from the CD Projekt Investor Day was that a new AAA game codenamed Project Orion is currently in the conceptualization stage. Also, the game will be set in the Cyberpunk 2077 universe. This has made many believe that it will be a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077.
The upcoming game will be developed by CD Projekt Red North America studio “with support from developers at its Polish studio”. Also, CD Projekt will be collaborating with Anonymous Content, an independent global media company, for the creation of a live-action project set in the Cyberpunk 2077 world. See the full video broadcast below.
CD Projekt Red has no regret in presenting Cyberpunk 2077 in first-person view
The Witcher trilogy enjoyed a positive reception and many expected that CD Projekt Red’s next game would also be in a third-person view like The Witcher. However, Cyberpunk 2077 was a clear deviation from that expectation.
Cyberpunk 2077 quest director, Pawel Sasko spoke about the studio’s transition from third-person in The Witcher to first-person in Cyberpunk 2077 during the Q&A session of the Investor Day broadcast. When asked whether the company regretted the choice of view decision and whether players would be allowed to toggle between both views in the sequel, he gave an interesting answer.
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“That’s a great question, but there are no regrets on our part,” Sasko said. “I was one of the people who started developing the first prototypes of this system for cyberpunk using the Witcher technology. What we wanted to do was for Cyberpunk to have its own identity and to be noticeable as this different thing.”
According to Sasko, a first-person perspective sets Cyberpunk apart from other games the company has made. He emphasized that even though the game is first person, players could still see outstretched hands or limbs.
“I wanted to say that the first-person perspective is the main characteristic of Cyberpunk and its perception by the players too,” said Sasko. “It’s also noticeably different from The Witcher, and this helped us craft the product identity as such.”
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CD Projekt Red appears to challenge their creativity continually. Sasko revealed that this mentality was imbued in him during a discussion with Adam Badowski, the company’s chief creative officer, a long time ago.
“As creatives, we also need to shift the mindset, not stay in a rut,” Sasko said. “I don’t want to give you examples, but you know there are many companies or IPs out there that are a bit like line production or copy-and-paste production. We didn’t want that to happen to us.”
Are you satisfied with having Cyberpunk 2077 in first-person view or would you rather have it in third-person? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.
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