For Better or Worse, CD Projekt Red is Putting the Witcher and Cyberpunk's Eggs in the Same Basket
After years of speculation and rumor-mongering, CD Projekt Red has effectively confirmed that Cyberpunk 2077 sequel Project Orion will have a multiplayer mode. This news comes by way of a CDPR job listing for a Lead Network Designer for “Cyberpunk 2,” wherein the company explicitly mentions multiplayer infrastructure and other specific items like matchmaking optimization. Cyberpunk 2077 was initially meant to receive a multiplayer rider post-launch, but CDPR opted to focus on fixing the single-player campaign instead.
Cyberpunk 2077 isn’t the only major CD Projekt Red property to be taking a turn into the realm of multiplayer; The Witcher will be receiving a standalone multiplayer game courtesy of CDPR subsidiary The Molasses Flood. At the moment, the greatest commonality between these two projects, aside from the fact that they are both based upon CDPR properties, is their enigmatic nature: audiences know next to nothing about what they will look like. This sense of mystery is compounded by novelty, as CD Projekt Red has never made a multiplayer game before, and both Cyberpunk and The Witcher are often seen as quintessential single-player franchises. On the one hand, this is an exciting prospect, the breaking of new ground for both franchises. But the pivot to multiplayer is also a major risk.
CD Projekt Red Is Taking a Big Leap with Project Orion and Project Sirius
Multiplayer Games Are Far from a Surefire Success These Days
The true multiplayer gold rush was during the 2000s and early 2010s, when it felt like virtually every major release had some sort of competitive or cooperative multiplayer add-on. At some point, developers must have viewed such modes as having diminishing returns, and tacked-on multiplayer mostly died out. Then, the live-service model arrived and changed everything again. This is the market that Project Orion and Project Sirius, AKA The Witcher‘s multiplayer game, are entering.
It’s not clear whether Project Orion and Project Sirius will feature GaaS staples, but CDPR has spoken out about microtransactions in the past. However, this was specifically in reference to single-player games, leaving the door open for such contentious features in the developer’s multiplayer releases.
Heavy-hitters like Fortnite, Helldivers 2, and Call of Duty: Warzone are competing for players’ time and money—two resources that are starting to run thin. Gaming audiences have seen what happens when big developers attempt to break into this increasingly competitive market and strike out—no one needs to be reminded of infamous debacles like Concord and the troubled-looking Marathon. In other words, multiplayer is risky, and even riskier for a company and IP that has almost no experience with it.
If Project Orion and Project Sirius Find Multiplayer Success, CD Projekt Red Will Be Having a Moment
Of course, it’s no use being dour about CDPR’s prospects in this space: Project Orion and Project Sirius could wind up being a big deal for their respective franchises. The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 have proven to have incredible staying power, remaining part of the gaming zeitgeist even after years of no new content. One can only imagine what could be possible with multiplayer, which is usually designed with longevity in mind.
The AAA multiplayer scene is incredibly competitive and messy, and it’s getting messier by the day. But if CD Projekt Red can succeed in bringing both of its major IP into this ecosystem, presented with the same clarity of vision and panache as their single-player counterparts, it could spark a new era for the famous Polish company. This could be an era of rampant in-game spending and FOMO-leveraging, but it could also be the start of something special—for CD Projekt Red, certainly, but also for the multiplayer industry as a whole.
