Interview: CD Projekt RED has learned its lessons for the next Cyberpunk

[Gamernyc78]

Interview: CD Projekt RED has learned its lessons for the next Cyberpunk

Plus: America's newest, biggest video game union, and Nintendo's 2024 calendar mystery

www.gamefile.news

Interview: CD Projekt RED has learned its lessons for the next Cyberpunk​

Plus: America's newest, biggest video game union, and Nintendo's 2024 calendar.​

Cyberpunk 2077. Screenshot: CD Projekt RED

Game director Gabe Amatangelo believes his team at CD Projekt RED can repeat what the studio did on Cyberpunk 2077.

He’s not talking about the bad part.
Not the disastrous 2020 launch that produced a heavily hyped game (13 million copies sold in 10 days) that was so buggy and so disappointing that Sony removed it from the PlayStation’s online store for six months. Not the part that led CDPR, trying to contain the damage, to offer refunds.
Rather, he’s thinking of the good part: the development of Cyberpunk 2077’s expansion, Phantom Liberty, one of the best-reviewed releases of 2023. That add-on, launched last September alongside a 2.0 patch that overhauled the base game, turned a debacle into a darling.

It didn’t come easy, and it didn’t come cheap.

investors don’t seem sold yet; CDPR’s stock trades at about a quarter of what it did on the eve of Cyberpunk 2077’s release, though it has rebounded from 2022’s lows).

“I think what we did with Phantom Liberty is very achievable,” Amatangelo told me during an interview last month at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas, when I asked if they could pull it off again. Some of his confidence is due to evolving the game design in Cyberpunk. But a lot of it, Amatangelo said, is about finding better ways to make a game.

“It comes down to the composition of the team, the talent. And, really, kind of trusting each other and believing in each other.”

Getting the gig​

Amatangelo joined CD Projekt in early 2020, after a career that included work on online multiplayer games such as Star Wars: The Old Republic and single-player expansions to Dragon Age Inquisition.

He became Cyberpunk 2077’s game director in spring 2021, after the game had been patched several times.

He held the reins for 2.0 and Phantom Liberty, an expansion he said the team approached as a sequel. They focused on iteration, on reviewing how protagonist V and the game world of Night City functioned for the player—and how it could be improved.

“A lot of what we did on the road to 2.0 was just to be like, ‘Okay, if this is supposed to be functioning in this world, why is it not? And let's address as many of those as we can: AI, police system, other other activities happening with or without V.’”

.... More in article.

 

[Polyh3dron]

But they're using the Tim Epic engine now.

The REDengine, and CP2077 by extension, at least runs beautifully on a high end PC. Unreal Engine always seems to run badly even with top of the line PC hardware.

 

[JAHGamer]

They won’t learn anything, Witcher 2 was (and still is) terribly optimized, Witcher 3 was terribly optimized, CP2077 was terribly optimized, and even the Witcher 3 “next gen upgrade” was terribly optimized. These guys are no different from Bethesda just with better graphics and writing. I’m worried how poor the next games will be since it’s UE5

 

[Johnic]

I'll believe it when I see it.

 

[Maverick]

I don't care what people say about Cyberpunk 2077. It's a great game and Phantom Liberty even made it better. I've played it over 80 hours on PS5 and performance mode was so smooth. Just don't wait for 3 years to fix the game again.

 

[Gamernyc78]

I don't care what people say about Cyberpunk 2077. It's a great game and Phantom Liberty even made it better. I've played it over 80 hours on PS5 and performance mode was so smooth. Just don't wait for 3 years to fix the game again.

My son loved it.

 

[Yurinka]

I'd say this is the typical PR bullshit from CD Projekt. I bet they didn't learn anything and as always will release their next game full of bugs and with horrible performance in consoles following their tradition.

 

[anonpuffs]

They won’t learn anything, Witcher 2 was (and still is) terribly optimized, Witcher 3 was terribly optimized, CP2077 was terribly optimized, and even the Witcher 3 “next gen upgrade” was terribly optimized. These guys are no different from Bethesda just with better graphics and writing. I’m worried how poor the next games will be since it’s UE5

Comparing cdpr to bethesda is laughable, cdpr are 2 tiers above in technical proficiency. Will wait to see how they handle the switch to unreal though

 

[JAHGamer]

Comparing cdpr to bethesda is laughable, cdpr are 2 tiers above in technical proficiency. Will wait to see how they handle the switch to unreal though

That’s why I said “with better graphics”. It’s not laughable at all, they’re both equally bad when it comes to optimization, that can’t be denied.

 

[Polyh3dron]

That’s why I said “with better graphics”. It’s not laughable at all, they’re both equally bad when it comes to optimization, that can’t be denied.

Hard disagree. Source: performance of both games on my Ryzen 7950X/RTX 4090 PC.

Cyberpunk runs great on it. Pathtracing is achievable in 4K at high FPS with DLSS frame generation and it runs smoothly. Starfield runs terribly on it.

 

[JAHGamer]

Hard disagree. Source: performance of both games on my Ryzen 7950X/RTX 4090 PC.

Cyberpunk runs great on it. Pathtracing is achievable in 4K at high FPS with DLSS frame generation and it runs smoothly. Starfield runs terribly on it.

So cuz your $3000+ PC can run the game fine years later, that means they’re good at optimization?

 

[Polyh3dron]

So cuz your $3000+ PC can run the game fine years later, that means they’re good at optimization?

Cyberpunk 2077 is considerably more graphically ambitious than Starfield is, and performs way better so yes, it means that CD Projekt Red, using their REDengine, is objectively better than Bethesda Game Studios at optimization.

 

[anonpuffs]

That’s why I said “with better graphics”. It’s not laughable at all, they’re both equally bad when it comes to optimization, that can’t be denied.

LMAOOO no, the graphics are what make it hard to run

 

[Gediminas]

 

[xollowsob]

Cdpr might have learned their lesson but have the gamers? Because eif they haven't, then what cdpr does is irrelevant.

 

[Box]

I don't care what people say about Cyberpunk 2077. It's a great game and Phantom Liberty even made it better. I've played it over 80 hours on PS5 and performance mode was so smooth. Just don't wait for 3 years to fix the game again.

Same here, loved it even before all the updates and the game has gotten even better. I'm doing a second playthrough right now and I love all the changes they made

 

[JAHGamer]

Cyberpunk 2077 is considerably more graphically ambitious than Starfield is, and performs way better so yes, it means that CD Projekt Red, using their REDengine, is objectively better than Bethesda Game Studios at optimization.

LMAOOO no, the graphics are what make it hard to run

you guys missed the entire point, what do graphics and ambition have to do with optimization? Does cp2077 now run 100x better than it did on launch? On the same hardware?

 

[Box]

you guys missed the entire point, what do graphics and ambition have to do with optimization? Does cp2077 now run 100x better than it did on launch? On the same hardware?

Most people don't care all that much about bugs if the game is good, it's why bugthesda has so many loyal fans

 

[JAHGamer]

Most people don't care all that much about bugs if the game is good, it's why bugthesda has so many loyal fans

It’s not just bugs, the game just ran like trash

 

[Box]

It’s not just bugs, the game just ran like trash

So do most bugthesda games, with optimisation mods the fans just fix it up anways.

Like I said most people really don't care, look at minecraft. One of the most poorly optimised games ever made.