A major critique of many modern video games is that they focus way too much on greed for profit rather than added value. Many publishers have become notorious for pushing in content to bilk money from gamers, or in some cases even cutting out content and locking it behind some kind of paywall. One company though, has become sort of a champion for gamers over the years, largely due to their commitment to quality and giving the fans what they want. That company is the same behind the upcoming sci-fi epic, Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red.
John Mamais, CD Projekt Red studio head, expressed his distaste for microtransactions in an interview at PAX Australia last month. “I think it’s a bad idea to do microtransactions after you release a game. It seems like it’s very profitable, though,” said Mamais. “It’s probably a hard decision for the guy that runs the business to decide if we should do it or not. But if everyone hates it, why would we do something like that and lose the goodwill of our customers?”
It’s not too surprising then that the company would say that any monetization in the multiplayer portion of Cyberpunk 2077 would focus on added value rather than ruthless extraction of profit from fans. During recent statements surrounding the new game, analysts and fans have asked about how the company plans to approach monetization.
CEO Adam Kiciński fielded the question during its Q3 2019 earnings call with investors. “As far as the monetization of multiplayer for Cyberpunk is concerned, we believe right now it’s definitely too early to share any details on that or give guidance; the project is in a relatively early stage,” he replied.
The singleplayer element of the upcoming RPG is still the top priority in terms of quality. In terms of when the actual multiplayer will be released, that has not been nailed down. CD Projekt is working on it, and multiplayer will come after the game has been released and accompanied by its DLC. The developer has previously said that the singleplayer portion will not have monetization, although some have doubted this based on these new announcements. The developer has also said they will try to limit crunch for Cyberpunk 2077 to mitigate the impact this new game will have on the studio’s staff.
Cyberpunk 2077 launches April 16, 2020 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.
