CD Projekt Red Cites Red Dead Redemption 2 as a Source of Inspiration

When you think of praised and well-loved game developers, it’s usually a coin flip if you see CD Projekt Red on the list. On one hand, you can’t deny the quality of their games, and they’re one of the few studios that does monetization and DLC right, given their limited yet comprehensive portfolio so far. On the other hand, they reportedly treat their employees like crap, which is becoming an increasingly important issue now that people are starting to become more aware of the poor treatment game developers often receive.

Given that history, then, it should come off as equally encouraging and disconcerting when, in a call between CD Projekt Red and their investors, CD Projekt CEO Adam Kiciński cites Red Dead Redemption 2 as a prime source of inspiration, another game with a troubled history of forcing “crunch hours” on its devs.

“Without a doubt, quality is of paramount importance. We strive to publish games which are as refined as Red Dead Redemption 2, and recent Rockstar releases in general. That game is excellent, by the way, we are rooting for it. Rave reviews, excellent sales."

“What does that teach us? Well, it teaches us that we need to publish extraordinary games, and that’s exactly what we are planning.”

 
He also pointed out, which doesn’t really help the case, that development is moving along quickly and as-planned, and that they plan to iron out all the major bugs and issues out of the game before it launches: rather than in post-launch patches, as was the case with The Witcher 3.

Nothing in here says explicitly that CD Projekt Red is back to its own tricks, but it certainly suggests as much. Hopefully, though, I’m inferring incorrectly.

All the same, Cyberpunk 2077 is still a long ways from launch: we don’t even have a release date. So just about everything about it is merely speculation at this point.