LogInBut the company is determined to avoid the same mistakes with the next Witcher.
Image credit: CDPR | Cyberpunk 2077
When I think about disastrous game launches, Cyberpunk 2077 is the first to come to mind. The highly anticipated RPG arrived with a bang – just not the one the developer CD PROJEKT RED expected. It was criticized to pieces for its unbelievable number of bugs, glitches, and other issues. I'd say it affected the studio's reputation forever, and from then on, its every new title would be met with fear of history repeating itself.
But don't worry, that launch was a very important lesson for CDP, which destroyed the mood in the company but made it determined to never repeat the same mistakes – the Phantom Liberty expansion and the 2.0 update are proof of that.
In an interview with InvenGlobal, CD PROJEKT RED engineering director Colin Walder confessed that morale at the studio "took a significant hit" after the Cyberpunk 2077 release, and maintaining it "was indeed a challenge." But the team has come to terms with it and will approach the next Witcher game, codenamed Polaris, differently.
"The crucial thing was to acknowledge what happened. We had to admit that the outcome wasn't what we'd hoped for and that we were determined to change things. But it's one thing to say it; it has to be put into practice, you know? Actions speak louder than words."
Image credit: CDPR | The Witcher 3
Walder says that CDP is running demos and internal reviews on the console from the very beginning for Polaris – something it started later in Cyberpunk's development.
Something else the company might do differently is how it deals with crunches, which should be actively fought against to boost morale and trust.
"You've got to demonstrate commitment. For instance, when a deadline is looming, instead of reverting to crunch, we might say, "Let's adjust the schedule," or, "Let's approach this differently." Once this becomes a repeated behavior – once the team sees a genuine effort to prevent crunch – that's when trust and morale start to rebuild. People need to see it to believe it."
It's really admirable and optimistic. While I'm not sure the power of handling crunch is in developers' hands, I wish them all the luck they need to make it happen.
Maybe luck is not what CDPR requires now when it's busy with a bunch of The Witcher projects, including a new trilogy and a remake, and an original IP.
We'll have to wait for a while for the results of this labor as The Witcher 4 is still at least 2 years away from release. The new saga will be directed by Cyberpunk 2077 head of animation Sebastian Kalemba.
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