CD Projekt announced yesterday that it has "decided to reconsider" its plans for the multiplayer component of Cyberpunk 2077, with CD Projekt co-CEO Adam Kiciński stating in November 2020 that the multiplayer component is "a separate, independent production and is being worked on by an independent team."

"Instead of focusing on one big online experience or game, we are concentrating on bringing online to all of our franchises one day. We are building online technology that can be seamlessly integrated into future game development."

Kicinski did not reveal what exactly would change, but my mind immediately went to Mass Effect Andromeda, another highly anticipated and much-hyped RPG that bombed at launch. At that time, BioWare chose not to release any single player updates or new story content after the 1.10 patch, effectively ending the game's development.

CD Projekt said it had no intention of doing the same with Cyberpunk 2077, but confirmed during a post-update conference call that despite the delay, the planned expansion and DLC were still in development.

"We have been talking for a while about the fact that there will be an expansion for Cyberpunk," said Michał Nowakowski, senior vice president of business development. 'We haven't said anything about names, SRPs [suggested retail prices], or any of those details yet, but yes. Those are in our plans."

Nowakowski added that the free DLC planned for Cyberpunk 2077 is still in the planning stages, as is the small piece of free content released for The Witcher 3.

On the same call, Kiciński went on to talk more about the shift in the multiplayer component of Cyberpunk 2077.

"We are changing our approach to multiplayer and as we said, we want to add an online component. We're not talking about DLC or mods, we're not ready to talk about the details yet, but we want to roll out big changes in phases, and we want to make sure we're not just adding online elements." To that end, we will have a parallel AAA development team and online will be a separate organizational unit, so to speak. The multiplayer/online component will one day enhance future single player games.

In a strategy video posted yesterday, Kiciński said that GOG, CD Projekt's online storefront and launcher, will play a central role in the company's efforts to "grow a global community of gamers." However, when asked another question about whether CD Projekt is looking to increase monetization of its games, he clarified that the new strategy is still focused on multiplayer.

"We are talking about multiplayer," he said. We are referring to the multiplayer element in the game, which first and foremost needs to fit in with the single player experience." It's too early to talk about monetization, but we definitely want players to have a shared experience and play together in certain areas in future games."

Unfortunately, there is no word on when these full-fledged "Cyberpunk 2077" expansions will appear. The studio said in a January update that it was forced to postpone the DLC release schedule as a result of its focus on fixing the game, and in accordance with its new strategy of not firing up the hype machine too soon, Nowakowski said, "I don't want to comment on the timing yet" .