There's another Cyberpunk 2077 delay – but just for the DLC this time

[Karlston]

There's another Cyberpunk 2077 delay – but just for the DLC this time

Cyberpunk 2077's December release date stands firm

(Image credit: CD Projekt RED)

 

Cyberpunk 2077 is one of the most anticipated games of the year, and while it looks like its December 10 release date isn't about to be postponed again, we have now heard that the game's DLC isn't going to be unveiled as early as planned.

 

CD Projekt Red president Adam Kiciński reportedly told investors that “The initial plan was to do it before release, but after the recent delay, we decided to wait for the release to provide gamers with the game and then start talking about future projects. So, after release" (via Seeking Alpha).

 

It doesn't sound like there's been any change to the free nature of these expansions – in the same way that The Witcher 3 received free DLC after launch – though the studio's difficulties in finishing the base game this year makes the DLC delay wholly unsurprising.

 

Waiting to reveal DLC plans, though, may be better for CD Projekt Red in the long run, allowing for continual marketing pushes that keep the game in players' minds after launch – as with the Smash Bros Ultimate DLC fighters added to the game every few months. We expect this DLC to contain optional content such as side quests, as well as new customization options, weapons and skins for use in the game.

 

Of course, The Witcher 3 also got some paid expansions too, so we wouldn't be surprised to see a mix and match of paid and unpaid content in the pipeline.

Release date: 2077?

Cyberpunk 2077 was originally slated to release in April 2020, but saw a sizeable five-month delay to ensure development was completed. That then extended to a seven month delay, with an addition month thrown in taking the final release date to be December 10 – eight whole months after the game was first expected to ship.

 

Game development is difficult business of course, and we're always keener on a finished game than a timely one. If nothing else, the reported scale of Cyberpunk 2077 will keep us busy whenever we get our hands on it – and the delay throughout much of this year meant we paid more attention to other, equally worthwhile titles that might have been swept aside in the neon hype of this expansive open world game.

 

There's plenty for CD Projekt Red to do, even after launch, including promised full-blown next-gen iterations of the game for PS5 and Xbox Series X.

 

But at this point, with only a couple of weeks to wait at the time of writing, a new delay doesn't seem incoming – and we'll take some hand-waving around DLC plans if it means we don't have to wait any longer for the main experience.

 

 

There's another Cyberpunk 2077 delay – but just for the DLC this time

[x3r0]

I'd rather play a polished game rather than bugs ridden one. Forcing developers to crunch just to meet a certain deadline is not a good idea to release a well-done game.

[mood]

Cyberpunk 2077 website promised free DLC in early 2021 — but don’t bet on ‘soon’

That was then, this is now

 

Image: CD Projekt Red

 

In my opinion, Cyberpunk 2077 isn’t quite the disaster some have suggested. The game is fun. The bugs are fun! The bugs that really, really weren’t fun have been patched. Refunds were made widely available, and despite that refund option, the game sold 13 million copies in just two weeks.

 

But publisher CD Projekt still has a broken reputation to fix and an investor lawsuit to fight, so I wouldn’t put too much stock in the headline you might have read today: that we’re all getting free DLC for the game in early 2021.

 

It’s possible! And it’s totally what this official website promises. But that promise may be out of date.

 

 

As Engadget points out, the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine shows that this promise may have been live on the internet the same day the game launched — before the outcry began, and definitely before CD Projekt held an emergency conference call on December 15th to discuss how the company would react.

 

On that call (PDF transcript), CD Projekt president and co-CEO Adam Kiciński told investors that it was “too early to judge” when the company might be able to release DLC.

 

Specifically, he was asked: “How do you feel about your ability to release a couple of DLCs next year, and, obviously, multiplayer in 2022?” (CD Projekt had previously said that multiplayer would miss 2021.)

 

The full answer: “To be honest, it’s too early to judge. At the moment please let us handle the situation, and please let us make some more assessments – that’s still ahead of us; we don’t know yet, and we’re now focused on improving Cyberpunk. We’ll discuss this early next year.”

 

Currently, we’re expecting two major patches for the game in January and February respectively, like the company promised on December 13th in its apology post:

pic.twitter.com/jtF5WKCiro

— Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) December 14, 2020

Beyond that, some free DLC would of course be nice. Personally, I just want NPCs that know how to drive.

 

 

Source: Cyberpunk 2077 website promised free DLC in early 2021 — but don’t bet on ‘soon’