CD Projekt touts Cyberpunk 2077 as a 'blockbuster franchise'

CD Projekt spoke a bit about its big new project Cyberpunk 2077 at the Pareto Securities Gaming Seminar last week, describing it as a "true RPG" set in an open-ended world that's even more ambitious than The Witcher 3.

The presentation is very dry and as far as Cyberpunk goes there's really nothing new said, but the studio certainly doesn't appear to be interested in dialing back expectations at this point.

"Cyberpunk is our new Witcher 3, but even more ambitious. Our goal is to establish a new blockbuster franchise from the beginning. We work [in a] new universe, futuristic universe. We believe it's very appealing to players, not only RPG players—but this is [a] true RPG, like Witcher, like Witcher 3, for mature audiences. It's handcrafted, detailed, of course open-world, with open-ended gameplay ," CD Projekt CEO Adam Kicinski says in the video.

"Great game, more ambitious than Witcher 3, and we believe that we can aim [at] more ambitious business goals as well—of course, still having gamer-centric focus and quality focus as a main priority."

It's always good to hear more about Cyberpunk, even if it's only to hear that it's still coming along. (Remember all the recent excitement over a *beep*?) But the presentation serves up some interesting information about Gwent and GOG as well. The Witcher-based CCG Gwent seems to be coming along nicely—"It's not very big stuff, but it's going pretty well," Kicinski says at one point—and a chart shown during the presentation indicates it's making some bucks, too.

"Recently, in the first half of 2017, we enjoyed a really huge increase of our own internal sales via GOG distribution channel," Kicinski says. "A big part of that was coming from the Gwent project."

Despite the importance of CD Projekt-driven revenues to GOG's bottom line, Kicinski confirmed that Cyberpunk 2077 will be available on Steam as well. And, alas, he shot down a suggestion about a possible Witcher 4: "We can't create Witcher 4, because that was a trilogy from the beginning," he said. "No one said that one day we won't decide to develop something in the Witcher universe. But now we're focusing on Cyberpunk and Gwent."

Cyberpunk 2077 is expected to (finally) make an appearance at this year's E3 in June. CD Projekt's Pareto Securities Gaming Conference presentation can be seen below, beginning at 3:16:00.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.