Other than to say that something of the sort is in the works, CD Projekt RED never fully committed to a Cyberpunk 2077 multiplayer component. For now, the studio is making no promises that such a mode will even see the light of day, let alone be available at launch. Interestingly, the multiplayer mode currently is the very early stages of the creative process and is still in research and development (R&D), according to Marthe Jonkers, the studio’s Senior Concept Artist.
At gamescom 2019, Jonkers spoke with Eurogamer about how multiplayer has been coming along. Again, the work on it is still in its early days, but that doesn’t mean CD Projekt will give up on it just yet. For now, the bulk of the team’s focus goes to developing the single-player experience. Jonkers told the publication, “We are doing R&D into multiplayer, but we’re focusing on single-player experience and that’s what you’ll get in 2020. It doesn’t mean we’re saying no multiplayer, but it doesn’t mean we’re saying yes either. It’s still an R&D phase.”
However, should R&D not prove a fruitful endeavor with regards to quality, multiplayer will most assuredly get cast aside. CD Projekt RED isn’t in the business of merely tacking on features. Jonkers explained,
If you add multiplayer functions it has to be right. Immersion is super important for us and we have to make sure everything fits together. The single-player experience, it all fits together. We’re not just going to slap some [multiplayer] feature in and that’ll be it.
It’s possible if it doesn’t fit, it doesn’t fit. We would never make anything that’s not at least The Witcher standard for Cyberpunk. I don’t know what the future holds but we will make sure everything we make will be high quality.
Prior to Jonkers’ statements, the studio’s most recent update about Cyberpunk 2077 multiplayer’s progress came out of E3 in June. At the time, Lead Quest Designer Paweł Sasko didn’t divulge much, only saying that the team wasn’t focused on such features. If significant progress has been made since then, it isn’t likely to become public knowledge anytime soon.
Cyberpunk 2077 will launch next spring for the PlayStation 4, PC, and Xbox One on April 16, 2020.
[Source: Eurogamer]
