The success of Cyberpunk 2077’s Phantom Liberty DLC came from learning from the base game’s negative reception. Senior quest designer Paweł Sasko explained that without the poor feedback from the original 2020 release, the team wouldn’t have made the improvements that helped Phantom Liberty do well at launch. This criticism pushed the developers to change how they made the game.
According to Sasko, the change in production style was essential for the improved launch of Phantom Liberty. The adverse reaction to the initial release forced the studio to reevaluate and transform its approach to game development.
This shift was a crucial factor in the DLC’s better performance and reception compared to the base game. Sasko emphasized that this transformation was necessary and only made possible by the original game’s poor reception.
Over three years after its problematic debut, Cyberpunk 2077 has undergone numerous patches and updates, including the release of Phantom Liberty. Despite these efforts, CD Projekt Red has now moved all its resources away from Cyberpunk 2077. By February 2023, only 17 people were still working on the game, and by the end of April, the studio had fully transitioned to other projects.
This transition marks a significant moment for CD Projekt Red, as the studio shifts its focus to its next major project, the new game in The Witcher series, codenamed Polaris. The studio’s experience with Cyberpunk 2077 and the changes made during the development of Phantom Liberty will likely influence their future projects, potentially leading to more successful launches in the future.
