By now, we all now that Cyberpunk 2077, which will hit consoles and PC next spring, is being sold on its single-player experience, as, for right now at least, it won’t feature a multiplayer mode upon release. But, will one be added post-launch?
Following the somewhat disappointing news (at least to some fans) that Cyberpunk 2077’s world will be smaller than The Witcher 3’s, Marthe Jonkers, who is the senior concept artist for CD Projekt Red, revealed that there might be a multiplayer mode coming to the game post-launch.
During an interview with Eurogamer during this past week’s Gamescom event, CD Projekt Red’s senior concept artist revealed the following about a multiplayer mode potentially coming to Cyberpunk 2077 after it’s released on April 16, 2020.
“If you add multiplayer functions it has to be right. Immersion is super important for us and we have to make sure everything fits together. We’re not just going to slap some multiplayer feature in and that’ll be it.”
Of course, CD Projekt Red’s previous release, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, didn’t feature a multiplayer mode upon release, nor was one added post-launch because in the words of CDPR’s communications director Michal Platkow-Gilewski, the game “had no place for multiplayer.”
With Cyberpunk 2077 being an open-world first-person shooter where you can customize everything about your character, it only makes sense for a multiplayer expansion to be added after the game launches next spring.
So far, there haven’t been any hints as to what the potential multiplayer mode will include, nor has CD Projekt Red said anything about a potential release date for it.
But, while the developers haven’t yet officially confirmed a multiplayer mode for the game, recent job listings for CD Projekt Red have led many to believe that they’re currently hiring people to help develop an online-based mode for Cyberpunk 2077. Specifically, the company is looking for senior tech programmers who have experience with shooters and multiplayer games.
At this point, it seems like a multiplayer mode will be added to Cyberpunk 2077 at some point. Of course, if it’s going to have any shot at taking off, CD Projekt Red will probably need to have it completed and added within a couple of months of the game’s release at the latest.
It’s not unusual for some games to release without a multiplayer mode attached, as some developers, such as Rockstar Games, added online-based modes to both Red Dead Redemption 2 and Grand Theft Auto V post-launch.