Back in November, CD Projekt Red has revealed the potential addition of online play into Cyberpunk 2077, which is an interesting element but could be a fearful one as well. Adding multiplayer into a single player game doesn’t only mean that its quality might be compromised but also that microtransactions may be added to enhance the experience. The company reassures players, saying that loot boxes will not be added to the game in any way.
During a recent talk with PC Gamer, CD Projekt Red co-founder Marcin Iwiński has given some context as to where the company stands on microtransactions. He defended Cyberpunk 2077 and the company as well, saying that their main focus is to give a complete product to the public, one that will feature at least fifty-sixty hours of gameplay a more than a hundred hours of side quests. This looks like a pretty good deal if you ask us. He stated:
“Conversation’ sounds way too nice to describe what was happening last year. I would rather call it community backlash. And this time around, it wasn’t just the hardcore community, there were a lot of really pissed off gamers out there and they decided to speak up. Where we stand is quite simple and you could see it with all of our past releases—most recently The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and GWENT. If you buy a full priced game, you should get a big, polished piece of content, which gives you many, many hours of fun gameplay”.
“The definition of ‘many’ may vary on a title-by-title basis, but in our case, it was always 50-60+ hours of the main story-line, with up to a couple of hundred of hours of side activities—if you really wanted to max out the title. To me, this is a fair deal. You get what you paid for, plus we are always trying our best to overdeliver. There is no better PR than a happy gamer recommending your title to their friends.”
Iwiński categorized the types of paid content CD Projekt Red provides, saying that they offered expansions and DLC through payments in Witcher 3: Wild Hunt but these were completely different than the payments offered in Gwent, where you are able to choose whether or not you want to proceed as a costumer or a free-to-play gamer.
When it comes to microtransactions though, CD Projekt Red has some strong values. The company believes that if a player has to pay in an unfair way, they’ll complain about it and they’re right to do so. His words were:
“The moment they feel you are reaching out for their wallet in any unfair way, they will be vocal about it. And—frankly speaking—I think it’s good for the industry. Things often look great from a spreadsheet perspective, but decision makers often aren’t asking themselves the question of ‘How would gamers feel, or is this offer a fair one?’. Gamers are striking back, and I really hope this will change our industry for the better.”
In the end of the discussion, Iwiński stated that if you want to get into the world of Witcher again then you should give Gwent a try. That means no announcements for the franchise though, so we might as well hope that Cyberpunk 2077 will be another amazing title to sooth the pain.
