CD Projekt to Develop Witcher, Cyberpunk AAA Games Simultaneously Starting in 2022

After a long, drawn-out development for Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt is preparing to shift gears for future AAA projects, and work on games in both The Witcher and Cyberpunk franchises simultaneously beginning in 2022. During a Strategy Update presentation today, CD Projekt outlined how it's going to achieve its goals to develop two AAA games in two different franchises simultaneously, saying it intends to staff up over the next year and have development teams working on both projects at once, including leads. It's also planning to adjust the capabilities of its internal game engine to allow features like NPC routines and player character control to be adapted in multiple games at once. "We want to be sure that we can work with two global brands at the same time while ensuring top quality of our products," said CTO Paweł Zawodny. "We emphasize technological advancements and we want to set up versatile teams which combine various specializations and competencies. These teams will be further assisted by a cross-projects group of experts, who – owing to their expertise – can contribute to key aspects of development. All these changes aim to enable us to work on multiple AAA games and expansions in parallel, starting in 2022." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/07/cyberpunk-2077-review"] Though the presentation did not specify what either of these games would be, as CD Projekt made a point to say it was going to be more careful with how early it made announcements in the future given criticism of Cyberpunk's transformations from its original announcement, it did say it wants to continue adding onto the traditional RPG. The Witcher, for instance, began as a traditional RPG, added action elements, and Cyberpunk took those genres and added shooter elements as well. It also addressed (albeit indirectly) criticisms of massive crunch at the studio ahead of Cyberpunk 2077 despite reassurances from studio leadership that they would do no such thing, saying that it was putting in place new support systems to "minimize stress" and "prevent burnout," including more mental health support -- though CD Projekt did not go into specifics. It also outlined its plans for 2021, saying Cyberpunk 2077 would receive patches and updates, free DLC, and a next-gen update, while the Witcher franchise would see The Witcher: Monster Slayer, next-gen updates for The Witcher 3, and further development for Gwent. CD Projekt also announced today it has acquired Digital Scapes, and gave an update as to how it will do its marketing going forward. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.