Cyberpunk 2 Director: Phantom Liberty Development Was "Group Therapy"

It’s been almost four years since the launch of Cyberpunk 2077. The orange section of "negative reviews" on the Steam review chart is like a scar, reminding the buggy launch or "absolutely crushing" situation, as Paweł Sasko, director of Cyberpunk 2 and Phantom Liberty, described.  

In a recent interview with Flow Games (spotted by Games Radar+), Sasko recalled the game’s launch, describing the team's feeling at the time and their journey to rescue the game out from the bottom of the valley.

Then, the subsequent production of Phantom Liberty was serving "like our group therapy," as the team was "trying to go through this and work through those issues."

The subsequent journey was not an easy one. The 1.2 and 1.3 patches were primarily focused on fixing gameplay-breaking bugs, which Sasko referred to as "stepping stones." Despite these improvements, Sasko admits that it was not enough to alter the players' perception of the game.

However, the 1.5 update and the Edgerunners Update (Patch 1.6), released together with the Netflix anime series, were turning points. The anime was an even better introduction to the universe than the game itself. Fianally, with help of the positive reception brought by the anime, as well as Edgerunners update and the the prior updates, the team started to have the "additional motivation" needed to believe in the possibility of a true fix, and that's when they thought that "maybe this is possible, maybe we can fix this for real."

The road was easier later and gradually, the game became one with "very positive" reviews today. You can check out the original report from Games Radar+ here and don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Reddit, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.