GamesRPGCyberpunk 2077Cyberpunk 2 director says CP 2077’s catastrophic launch ‘crushed’ the developers and the subsequent redemption arc was basically ‘group therapy’When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

GamesRPGCyberpunk 2077Cyberpunk 2 director says CP 2077’s catastrophic launch ‘crushed’ the developers and the subsequent redemption arc was basically ‘group therapy’When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

(Image credit: CD Projekt)

Cyberpunk 2077

CD ProjektRed, beloved and much-garlanded for its Witcher series, found itself in a new position: pilloried from all sides. Given the length of the game’s development cycle, many staff had been heads-down on this for years and, regardless of whether the blowback was proportionate, it must have been devastating to be in the eye of the hurricane.

Oddly enough, Sasko feels that what made the biggest difference was the decision to tie-in the 1.6 update to the release of theNetflix Cyberpunk anime Edgerunners. Sasko says this was a better introduction point to the wider Cyberpunk universe than the game itself and “tipped the scales” with the audience, who were now more interested in checking out the many improvements CDPR had made.

ESPECIAL THE WITCHER 3 e CYBERPUNK 2077 com PAWEL SASKO, DA CD PROJEKT RED - #113 #flowgames - YouTubeWatch On

ESPECIAL THE WITCHER 3 e CYBERPUNK 2077 com PAWEL SASKO, DA CD PROJEKT RED - #113 #flowgames - YouTube

ESPECIAL THE WITCHER 3 e CYBERPUNK 2077 com PAWEL SASKO, DA CD PROJEKT RED - #113 #flowgames - YouTube

ESPECIAL THE WITCHER 3 e CYBERPUNK 2077 com PAWEL SASKO, DA CD PROJEKT RED - #113 #flowgames - YouTube

With the general uptick in sentiment and the momentum CDPR had building up to Phantom Liberty, Sasko says the mood among the developers changed: “Maybe this is possible, maybe we can fix this for real.” The director recalls feeling that the long march to get there and the development of Phantom Liberty itself became “like our group therapy” after the initial reception.

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The 2.0 update and Phantom Liberty expansion together completed Cyberpunk 2077’s redemption arc, with the game now sitting pretty on “Overwhelmingly positive” Steam reviews. “That couldn’t have been possible if the initial reception of the game wasn’t as negative as it was,“said Sasko in another recent interview. “It changed me and us as a studio.”

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