Many of the answers for these potentially catastrophic questions will make fans happy and relieved, we are glad to report.
Next-Gen Pricing
Next-gen pricing has been a hot and controversial topic with the release of the PS5 and Xbox Series X looming over us. Many AAA companies have made the decision to bump up the list price of new titles to $70, citing the fact that game prices have stayed fixed for decades even though the development costs of producing these products grew explosively. They often neglect to mention, however, the even more extreme growth of the audience, as well as the millions and billions of dollars of quarter-over-quarter revenue growth these companies post. Similarly, multi-million dollar bonuses to executives also go unmentioned, as well as the scourge of microtransactions.
You may have deduced that the people raising those prices are the bad guys in this narrative. Some of the AAA publishers that have made this announcement are also the ones often getting into controversies surrounding monetization and anti-consumer practices. CD Projekt Red President Adam Kicinski and VP of Business Development Michal Nowakowski has clarified that next-gen versions of Cyberpunk 2077 will stay $60. You can breathe easy, the game is sticking to current-gen prices.
DLC
Previously, CDPR also spoke about the DLC schedule planned for the title. The Witcher 3 was brought up as a comparison, which received two large paid expansions packing entirely new areas, storyline and dozens of hours of gameplay each, supplemented by several smaller free DLCs. The same model will be followed with Cyberpunk 2077, but upscaled. The developers have yet to go into detail, but we can expect more of both the small free goodies and the large premium expansions.
Multiplayer
That said, CD Projekt Red does plan to add smaller paid cosmetics as microtransactions - in multiplayer. Multiplayer was the other big question still floating around Cyberpunk 2077. We knew it will appear in some form, but just what kind of form it would take was a mystery. Now we know - CD Projekt Red also listed a mystery AAA game release for 2022 in the past which was unidentified. As it turns out, that’s Cyberpunk multiplayer. The standalone multiplayer mode won’t leak over into the main experience, and will only feature cosmetic microtransactions, described as non-aggressive.
Delay / Release Date
Cyberpunk 2077 has also been wracked by several delays since its announcement, with some fans worried about the last announced release date to be in question due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many games have delayed with most companies switching to a home-office setup. That said, CFO Piotr Nielubowicz recently reconfirmed the December 10 2020 release date, and promised that there will be no further delays.
