The Cyberpunk 2077 launch is approaching
Cyberpunk 2077 is almost here, and quest director Paweł Sasko expresses gratitude for the wave of positive reviews since the RPG game’s Steam launch, but acknowledges that CDPR still has “lots to be done” to win back player trust before the Cyberpunk 2077 release date.
“It’s great to read so many positive reviews lately,” Sasko says in a Cyberpunk 2077 developer diary, “but I want to stress that we still have so much work ahead of us to regain your trust.” Though over 80% of all Cyberpunk 2077 scores on Steam are positive, with the overwhelming majority of all ratings falling on the positive side since launch, Sasko’s statement suggests the team is not taking the positive reviews for granted.
Cyberpunk 2077’s Steam review turnaround is certainly impressive. The game’s positive ratings cover all scores since launch, indicating a significant improvement in player satisfaction since the game’s troubled launch in 2020.
While the team behind Cyberpunk 2077 is clearly aware of the game’s critical and commercial success, the game’s turnaround in public opinion is important for CDPR as a whole. The team’s once-flawless reputation experienced a significant decline in 2020, following the game’s controversial launch.
The only expansion for Cyberpunk 2077
While Cyberpunk 2077 is launching to much better reception than before, with many eager to move past the game’s troubled launch, the upcoming expansion, Phantom Liberty, will be the only expansion for Cyberpunk 2077. So, with the expansion on the horizon and the game’s lifecycle seemingly nearing the end, we ask CDPR about future Cyberpunk 2077 expansions.
When we ask about future Cyberpunk 2077 expansions, CDPR confirms that there are no more planned. “There will be only one expansion for Cyberpunk 2077, Phantom Liberty,” a CDPR representative says. “There are no plans for additional add-ons at the moment.”
While some developers might be tempted to start planning expansion ideas while their core game is still being updated, CDPR’s commitment to addressing the issues and improving the quality of Cyberpunk 2077 suggests that the team is confident it has already delivered a complete Cyberpunk 2077 experience.
In an interview with The Guardian, CDPR’s vice president of PR, Michał Platkow-Gilewski, suggests that the team feels the game was received worse than it actually deserved. “The community was just really aggressive and really loud,” Platkow-Gilewski says, “but we feel the game was actually better than it was received.”
While some developers might want to forget the game’s troubled launch and focus on the future, CDPR acknowledges the reported issues and is working to improve the game’s quality. “We want to be very open about what’s happening [with Cyberpunk 2077],” Platkow-Gilewski says. “When there’s an issue, we’re not hiding it. We’re communicating with the community and saying, ‘Hey, this is what we’re working on.’”
While CDPR’s turnaround in player opinion is evident with over half a million user reviews on Steam, not everyone seems ready to move on just yet. Despite the overwhelmingly positive reception to Phantom Liberty and the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 update, some are still calling for a Cyberpunk 2077 2 or a completely new game entirely.
