What should the multiplayer of Cyberpunk 2077 look like? After the change of the developer strategy, many questions remain unanswered, we collect all the info.
- The developers of Cyberpunk 2077 are changing their business strategy, which will also affect the multiplayer.
- The development of the multiplayer is currently not a high priority for CD Projekt Red
- Multiplayer may not be a standalone game, but rather online features
- At the moment, the focus is mainly on updates and patches for Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
What will the multiplayer mode for Cyberpunk 2077 actually look like? A lot has happened since the launch of the game: In a presentation and an investor call on March 30, 2021, developer CD Projekt announced that the business strategy will be changed. And especially about the multiplayer, many questions remain unanswered.
Table of Contents
What is known about the multiplayer?
Multiplayer standalone or online features?
Since CD Projekt’s strategy change, it has been unclear whether the multiplayer will be released as a standalone game at all – or whether it will be an expansion of Cyberpunk 2077 that brings online elements with it. There is no concrete announcement on this, CEO Adam Kicinski said:
“We are changing our approach, we definitely want to have online elements in our future games, but step by step. We’re working on adding those features to our single player games, but we’re not working on releasing the next game as an online experience. So, we’ll enhance our single-player games with online experiences.”
He added that they would not comment on plans further in the future. When asked, CD Projekt confirmed that they are still planning “some form of multiplayer” for Cyberpunk 2077 and that “online experiences” in this case means players can play together in some way. There are no further details, however.
Thus, it is currently neither clear in what form the multiplayer will appear, nor when it will be ready. Patches and the NextGen updates for Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3 have priority first anyway. So it will be some time before we hear anything new about the multiplayer – and the project hasn’t appeared on the roadmap for 2021 yet anyway.
Release: When will the multiplayer be released?
In the roadmap for Cyberpunk 2077, the developer shows what content it is planning until 2022. For CD Projekt Red, aspects like updates to the existing game and also the previously promised free DLCs currently have top priority. The multiplayer mode itself is not mentioned on this roadmap.
This only confirms official statements from January 2020, at which time Michal Nowakowski, a member of CD Projekt Red’s board of directors, stated that a release in 2021 was “very unlikely”. The resulting forecasts therefore assumed a release in 2022 at the earliest. That could be further delayed by the hacker attack and the necessary patches.
Real-money purchases: will there be microtransactions?
Paid content planned: In a quarterly report, microtransactions for the multiplayer of Cyberpunk 2077 have already been confirmed. However, the developer is still keeping quiet about their exact nature. Thus, it is not known whether it will only be skins, or if other things will also be offered for real money.Currently, it is said that these should “make players happy” and will also be “non-aggressive”. This suggests that Cyberpunk 2077’s multiplayer will do without Pay2Win mechanics or in-game advantages available for real money. At the moment, however, this is still mere speculation.
Rumors, leaks and predictions
From here on, potential info on Cyberpunk 2077’s multiplayer follows information that was either leaked or unearthed with the help of datamining. This means that the developer has not officially confirmed it yet.Accordingly, it’s quite possible that this information will change before the multiplayer’s release, or that it will only partially correspond to the truth. So enjoy the following lines with caution.
DLCs: Are expansions planned?
Model similar to GTA Online: As the analytics company M Science (via TheGamer) claims to have read from CD Projekt Red’s comments, Cyberpunk 2077’s multiplayer mode could be expanded with free DLCs. A principle not dissimilar to Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto Online will be followed.
In concrete terms, this would mean that expansions for the multiplayer of Cyberpunk 2077 would be free of charge and the further development of the mode would be financed by microtransactions – as already mentioned above.
Game modes: What should there be to play?
Deathmatch: Dataminers found a number of text sections that indicate the existence of a deathmatch mode. Traditionally, this PvP mode pits everyone against everyone, and your goal is to be the player with the most kills at the end of the match.
Heists: the second game mode found in the files will let you perform some heists, judging by the name. The other details about this mode are still a bit vague. It seems that you will first meet up with other players in a gathering area before the actual heist starts.
How exactly this will work is unknown. It is also not yet clear whether you will fight against other players in the matches – i.e. PvP – or whether you will compete cooperatively against the AI in PvE style.
Will there be a co-op mode? The developer himself asserts that the MP component will be “handled like a separate game”. We don’t assume that you’ll be able to play the single-player campaign with one or more friends. However, that doesn’t rule out that there will be cooperative missions in the online mode. Concrete hints are still missing, though.
Classes: Will there be different roles?
Selection of prefabricated classes: From the game files themselves also comes the information that there will be at least four classes. So apparently, at least in Heist mode, you’ll be able to choose between the following four classes – whether there will be more remains to be seen:
- Solo
- Assassin
- Netrunner
- Techie
Each role seems to be unique. This is because some text sections indicate that the game won’t start as long as a character is represented more than once. Accordingly, in the course of a heist mission, the game seems to focus on a balance between different abilities, so that each player can take on a unique role for the heist. Once again, parallels to GTA Online become apparent here.
Online matches: Are there dedicated servers?
Multiplayer apparently Peer2Peer: According to dataminers, there are currently indications that Cyberpunk 2077 will not use dedicated servers. The connections will be established directly between the players. However, this could just be code left over from development.
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