Cyberpunk 2077 multiplayer: What is it and when is it coming?
CD Projekt Red has already confirmed Cyberpunk 2077 will have some sort of multiplayer, but what will it be and when is it coming?
Cyberpunk 2077, one of the most anticipated games of the year, officially released today. While the primary focus leading up to release was on the single-player story campaign, Cyberpunk 2077 will have a multiplayer component; however, it’s not available at launch.
Details surrounding multiplayer for the RPG are vague at best. We don’t quite know what it will entail or how it will coexist with the single-player game.
Based on previous comments from CD Projekt Red, it sounds like it’s more of a companion to the main game and not just some tacked-on mode. . CDPR executive Adam Kicinski referred to it as a “separate dedicated production, a big production.”
“We think about it as a standalone product,” he said. It’s more of an “independent production,” and CD Projekt Red has already brought on Canadian developer Digital Scapes — best known for Dying Light‘s Be The Zombie PvP mode — to help with development on multiplayer.
Considering the size of Cyberpunk 2077 and the potential of Night City and the surrounding Badlands, it’s possible CD Projekt Red and Digital Scapes could deliver something along the lines of Rockstar’s GTA Online or Red Dead Online.
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Both are massive multiplayer experiences that exist alongside their respective games, Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2, but have no influence on the main campaign. While the story of Red Dead Online is related to the main story of RDR2, nothing you do in the single-player portion of the game impacts your online play and vice versa. Something in the same vein as Red Dead Online or GTA Online would certainly be an ambitious goal and that could explain why multiplayer is a far way off.
According to Kicinski, Cyberpunk 2077’s multiplayer won’t launch until Q1 2021. PC Gamer thinks that may be a stretch and suggests we may be waiting longer. The site referenced a recent Q&A call with investors back in January in which CDPR suggested multiplayer is more likely to arrive in 2022. The studio’s publishing head Michael Nowakowski said, “2021 appears unlikely as a release date for the Cyberpunk multiplayer.”
So, unfortunately, it sounds like we’ll be waiting quite a while before we get our hands on any sort of multiplayer for Cyberpunk 2077. The good news is that when it does arrive, it will be free for anyone who owns the game.