TGO Daily | March 31, 2021 | CD PROJEKT Strategy Update
March 31, 2021
Hey everyone! Once again, not a crazy day for news. I’ve got one major story for you today, and then various updates for games that might be worth having an eye on.
Cheers,
Adrian
CD Projekt Transforms
CD Projekt is planning on overhauling its development strategy following the Cyberpunk 2077 release. They are calling their internal initiative as “Red 2.0.”
One thing they are trying to commit to in the future is shorter marketing campaigns, with a more transparent review process. Part of the issues surrounding Cyberpunk was that they announced the game eight years in advance, which put a lot of pressure on them. Per their SVP of business development:
And when campaigns do start, we aim to properly manage expectations across all platforms. This means focusing on communication of polished game footage, not concepts. We’ll also showcase footage of our games on all platforms they will be released on.
^ That is in reference to the fact that they did not provide review keys to last-gen consoles, which ended up being the most technically buggy platforms.
Another change to their strategy is that they plan on developing multiple games and expansions at one time. This is going to require more employees, so they are aggressively hiring. They also recently acquired a Vancouver-based studio which have helped them on previous titles, renaming them from Digital Scapes to CD Projekt Red Vancouver.
Finally, part of the vision for CDPR’s future is introducing online components to all of their franchises. While they maintain that single-player RPGs will be their focus, they want to introduce multiplayer “where [it] makes sense.”
It’s pretty clear that they’re trying to take the company to the next level here, and hopefully turn Cyberpunk from a catastrophe to a learning experience.
On a slightly related note — it has also been confirmed that The Witcher 3 is getting a current-gen update in the second half of this year.
Various Game Updates
Evil Genius 2 released today — a sequel to the original released in 2004. This is a base building game with an aesthetic that reminds me a lot of Two Point Hospital. Reviews are generally positive, so if it’s your type of genre, it’s probably worth checking out.
Kingdom Hearts is on PC for the first time. It’s exclusive on the Epic Games Store, running a 20% discount on every game in the series until April 6th. Also, if you buy KH3 with its DLC, you’ll get a 3-month Disney+ subscription.
Disco Elysium has had its “Final Cut” released today. It adds full voice acting (which is crazy, there’s TONS of lines) and some additional content. It’s a free upgrade for anyone who owns it, and is 20% off for everyone else. Highly recommend it if you’re interested in classic RPGs.
Terraria has added Steam Workshop support. Apparently it doesn’t do much for already hardcore Terraria modders and players, but if you were ever hoping to play the game with mods, this should be an easy way to do it.
Say Hello!
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