CD Projekt Red (The Witcher Devs) Making Video Game Based on Cyberpunk

RC Cola · May 30, 2012

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/171358/CD_Projekt_ventures_beyond_The_Witcher_with_Cyberpunk.php

CD Projekt, the Polish developer and publisher behind The Witcher series, announced a new game that will be based on R. Talsorian Games' pen-and-paper roleplaying game Cyberpunk.

This new title, which is billed as a "triple-A RPG," is the first new IP that CD Projekt has tackled since the company found success with its Witcher franchise in 2007. The developer has formed a new group made up of veterans from the Witcher team to work on it.

At CD Projekt's Summer Conference today, R. Talsorian Games chairman and Cyberpunk creator Mike Pondsmith claimed that his franchise has more than 5 million players around the world across its various pen-and-paper RPGs and collectible card games.

Like the similar Shadowrun series, Cyberpunk debuted in the late 1980s and featured many staples from the cyberpunk genre established by authors like William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, such as hackers, cybernetic implants, and megacorporations.

CD Projekt is collaborating with Pondsmith on the title, and says it intends to create a whole franchise of games based on Cyberpunk, just as it did with The Witcher book series created by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The company hasn't yet discussed planned platforms or release timing.

Though Cyberpunk's near-futuristic setting is very different from The Witcher's, CD Projekt says its new game will feature many hallmarks from that series, such as morally ambiguous choices, non-linear progression, and a complex story designed for mature audiences.

The Polish developer also made several other announcements at its Summer Conference, revealing that Spike Chunsoft will publish The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings for Xbox 360 in Japan on August 23. CD Projekt will put out The Witcher 2 for Mac this fall, too.

Launched for Windows a year ago and for Xbox 360 last month, The Witcher 2 has so far sold more than 1.7 million copies.
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Love these guys (and their sister company, which runs GOG). Really liked the "Thank You!" video they showed at the conference, thanking fans for buying their games.

On a side note, for all of you 360 owners who have yet to purchase The Witcher 2....why?

(already having it on the PC doesn't excuse you, you need to buy 2 copies at least!)

KingCheetah · May 30, 2012

Hawt.

HI Mana · May 30, 2012

RC Cola said: ↑

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/171358/CD_Projekt_ventures_beyond_The_Witcher_with_Cyberpunk.php

Love these guys (and their sister company, which runs GOG). Really liked the "Thank You!" video they showed at the conference, thanking fans for buying their games.

On a side note, for all of you 360 owners who have yet to purchase The Witcher 2....why?

(already having it on the PC doesn't excuse you, you need to buy 2 copies at least!)
Click to expand...

While I don't know their internal practices, as an avid gamer CD Projekt is truly top notch in terms of their visions and goals for the player/publisher relationship.

1. DRM doesn't work, it only pisses off your legit players. I'm looking at you, Diablo 3 and your single-player de-synching that has made the game unplayable for me this week.

2. DLC is a gift to the fans. CD Projekt adds 10GB of data, 4 hours and VIDEO to their enhanced edition, which is given free to everyone. CAPCOM takes a scalpel to their finished products, locking a few hundred MB ON THE DISC to have Day 1 DLC or timed platform releases. Or in even a bigger FU; putting the "true" ending of Asura's Wrath as a $15 add on.

3. HD collections are nice, but working games are better. Having copies of Baldur's Gate/Planescape Torment that have been optimized for windows 7, along with a step-by-step guide to adding mods for widescreen and HD for $10? Awesome. Buying the Silent Hill HD collection for $40, and getting a game that looks awful and is borderline unplayable? Sony.

I seriously wish I could devote the 40+ hours it would take to really get into the Witcher/Witcher 2; the depth is just so mindblowing though, I just dont' have the time or energy until the summer. I hope these guys have a kickstarter sometime, just so I can throw some money at them...

RC Cola · May 30, 2012

HI Mana said: ↑

While I don't know their internal practices, as an avid gamer CD Projekt is truly top notch in terms of their visions and goals for the player/publisher relationship.

1. DRM doesn't work, it only pisses off your legit players. I'm looking at you, Diablo 3 and your single-player de-synching that has made the game unplayable for me this week.

2. DLC is a gift to the fans. CD Projekt adds 10GB of data, 4 hours and VIDEO to their enhanced edition, which is given free to everyone. CAPCOM takes a scalpel to their finished products, locking a few hundred MB ON THE DISC to have Day 1 DLC or timed platform releases. Or in even a bigger FU; putting the "true" ending of Asura's Wrath as a $15 add on.

3. HD collections are nice, but working games are better. Having copies of Baldur's Gate/Planescape Torment that have been optimized for windows 7, along with a step-by-step guide to adding mods for widescreen and HD for $10? Awesome. Buying the Silent Hill HD collection for $40, and getting a game that looks awful and is borderline unplayable? Sony.

I seriously wish I could devote the 40+ hours it would take to really get into the Witcher/Witcher 2; the depth is just so mindblowing though, I just dont' have the time or energy until the summer. I hope these guys have a kickstarter sometime, just so I can throw some money at them...
Click to expand...

Yep. And the list could go on too.

I like how they basically said publisher relations be damned, and patched the DRM out of the retail release of Witcher 2 (putting it on par with the GOG/DD release). Guess it would have been nice to not have it period, but I'm guessing Namco-Bandai wouldn't like it (I'm sure they didn't like it being patched out too, but who cares at that point).

All the little things add up. I don't even have a Mac or have any interest in Mac gaming, but I love seeing them add Mac support for their games. Maybe only a small portion of gamers wanted that (and probably none expected it), but these guys will go the extra mile to make their fans happy.

As for Kickstarter, I'd love that too. Although I don't think they need it. They seem to have plenty of control, good funding, enough work to do (maybe too much work to do since it seems they're desperate for new hires), etc. I still can't believe how the manage to do so well with (IMO) relatively small sales. Guess it helps that they can make a big RPG with a brand new engine, lots of voice acting, branching storylines (done right), and arguably the best visuals in a game for under $10M. I'd love to see what they could do with a budget like Dragon Age or Mass Effect...although they're shaming BioWare and other devs enough as it is.

Kickstarter for some GOG projects might be an idea, although I think they've secured the rights to most of the big name titles...at least those that could be somewhat reasonably obtained. System Shock 2 might take $5M or something ridiculous.

Here's the video I was talking about earlier:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/8tHLhT_-kFY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

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CD Projekt Red (The Witcher Devs) Making Video Game Based on Cyberpunk

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