We heard earlier this week that CD Projekt's next RPG epic, Cyberpunk 2077, will maybe—maybe, I said!—be out in 2016. As it turns out, a release date has actually been set, but CEO Adam Kiciński said in an interview with Money.pl (translated by NeoGAF) that the studio won't reveal it until it's ready to start the marketing campaign. And that's not likely to happen for a good while yet, because the focus in 2016 will remain firmly on The Witcher.
CD Projekt has said in the past that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will wrap up Geralt's trilogy, but now it sounds like the studio isn't quite ready to walk away from the White Wolf just yet. "This and the next year will be devoted to The Witcher. Apart from the second expansion we have some additional ideas. They should help us animate sales in 2016," Kiciński said. "The game is selling so well, that we are convinced there are still many people who will buy it if we promote it further."
That, he explained, is a big part of why CD Projekt hasn't made any real noise about Cyberpunk 2077, even though it's been working on the game for a long time. "We already have the release date for Cyberpunk 2077 planned, but we won't announce it until we are ready to start the marketing campaign," he continued. "At the moment we're concentrating on The Witcher and don't want to distract users from that product, which we are still monetizing."
In spite of that emphasis on "monetization," a word that doesn't always carry that happiest connotations for gamers, Kiciński insisted that the studio doesn't view its fan base as anonymous money-spouts. "We are trying to quickly fix any wrongs/problems and want players to talk to us as equals. And that's how we really look at things," he said. "We don't want to exploit gamers for their money (which is what many other gaming companies do) and that's why we don't want to become a part of a larger structure."
The second and, presumably, final Witcher 3 expansion Blood and Wine is set to come out in early 2016.
Thanks, CGM.
