CD Projekt Red has updated its development roadmap which will soon include parallel development on both Cyberpunk and Witcher franchises beyond gaming, including live-action/animated media and online gaming components.
CD Projekt Red Updates Franchise Roadmap
The developer revealed its plans for the future of its franchises in a new strategy update video, which you can watch above. In the video, CDPR talks about expanding its current franchises with The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077, with both expanding into areas other than gaming. We’ve already seen this start to play out with spin-off in various categories including live-action TV/movie production, mobile games, and even anime.
The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077 Expand Beyond Gaming
The Witcher franchise exists across mediums thanks to a Netflix show, an anime (in development at Netflix) as well as multiple mobile game spinoffs.
Cyberpunk 2077 is soon to follow in the same footsteps, with live-action as well as anime projects in the pipeline. The franchise will also make its way to mobile, although we don’t have any information on how CDPR plans to go about it.
Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3 Next-Gen Ports Arriving in 2021
Both franchises will also transition to the new generation of game consoles, with next-gen versions of both Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3 currently in the works. Both next-gen ports should be arriving sometime in the remainder of 2021. However, we expect the next-gen port of Cyberpunk 2077 will arrive in late 2021, as the developer is currently busy fixing the mess that was made after the game’s disastrous launch.
REDengine Being Updated To Support Parallel Game Development
The company’s proprietary game engine, called REDengine will also be updated to support this parallel development model. CDPR had previously updated its engine to support next-gen features for Cyberpunk 2077 when it completed development on The Witcher 3.
CDPR To Focus On Single Player RPG + Online Component
While the company has always focused on making single-player games, that doesn’t mean it will shy away from incorporating online elements where they make sense.
“We aim to make online technologies an important part of our future games and use GOG Galaxy to grow global communities of gamers. CD Projekt Red makes single-player, story-driven AAA RPGs – that is not changing. That is not changing.” – Adam Kiciński (President, CD Projekt)
It’s not a secret that CD Projekt Red lost a lot of the goodwill it had gained from gamers after the Cyberpunk 2077 debacle. The new strategy update is a step in the right direction, but given the broken promises made during Cyberpunk 2077’s marketing campaign, it remains to be seen whether CDPR will actually follow through with their new promises in 2021 and beyond.