The mega project Cyberpunk 2077 has now enlisted help – and these are specialists for multiplayer. Digital Scapes helped create the PvP in Dying Light. Is there hope for a Cyberpunk 2077 Online?
CD Projekt announces: The Polish studio states that it has entered into a “long-term partnership” with Digital Scapes.
The Canadian partner studio will work closely with CD Projekt Red to create and optimize technical solutions that will then be used in the development of Cyberpunk 2077.
Who is Digital Scapes? This is a Canadian studio that employs former employees of BioWare, Relic, and Radical. The studio describes itself (via linkedin) as specialized in
- AAA multiplayer for PC and consoles
- Cloud computing
- and the development of tools
- and producing assets
They created the PvP mode for Dying Light. And the “cloud-based online service” that helped developers collect data in real-time.
What could be behind this? It is likely that this is primarily about development tools for which Digital Scapes was brought in.
Cyberpunk 2077 at launch without multiplayer … but afterwards?
New speculation about Cyberpunk Online: However, this news stirs up speculation again about whether Cyberpunk 2077 might actually receive an online mode for multiplayer.
The studio is wavering:
- It was long assumed that Cyberpunk 2077 will offer online features to ensure long-term financial success
- then the studio shifted more towards “We are focusing on singleplayer” and emphasized that more strongly.
- The official position on multiplayer at the moment seems to be: “Not for now, maybe later. We’re leaving a backdoor open.”
At launch, Cyberpunk 2077 will not include any multiplayer elements. No commitments are being made for the time after launch.
Why is there so much talk about multiplayer? Although there is no mention of multiplayer in CD Projekt Red’s statement about Digital Scapes, it actually seems likely to bring an online mode for a project like Cyberpunk 2077 to monetize it in the long run. For example, Red Dead Redemption 2 does it with “Red Dead Online.”
In the single-player series “The Witcher,” CD Projekt Red separated the in-game card game “Gwent” and made it its own games-as-a-service. CD Projekt Red had announced that it could envision something like that for the future.
But at E3 2018, they then shifted to emphasize the single-player character of Cyberpunk 2077 and have since refrained from online references.
