In a new interview, CD Projekt Red CEO Marcin Iwinski states that the massive success of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has enabled the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 to be 'more ambitious'.

CD Projekt Red announced Cyberpunk 2077 back in 2012, but very little news was revealed over the next few years due to the developer's focus on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Now that The Witcher 3 is out, CD Projekt Red has been working hard on the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077, and the intervening years (and The Witcher 3's massive success) have only served to increase the game's scope and ambition.

In a new interview with Gamesindustry.biz, CD Projekt Red CEO Marcin Iwinski states the massive sales of The Witcher 3 have allowed the company to divert extra resources towards the development of Cyberpunk 2077. As for what those extra resources will be used for, Iwinski says that Cyberpunk 2077 will be "more ambitious on every single front, in the development and on the marketing side."

It's not the first time that CD Projekt Red has hyped Cyberpunk 2077 as being the studio's most ambitious effort yetJust a couple of months ago, the studio's president Adam Kiciński and studio head Adam Badowski proclaimed that Cyberpunk 2077 will be "better, bigger, and more revolutionary" than The Witcher 3. While there is danger of over-hyping a game, knowing that more resources are being poured into Cyberpunk 2077 indicates that CD Projekt Red might actually meet the hype.

In addition to discussing Cyberpunk 2077's intended massive scope, Iwinski states that not only is the development team continually growing for each new project - Cyberpunk 2077 included - but the company is also taking inspiration from Rockstar Games' approach to video game development.

Iwinski further states that the company has always been focused on the quality of its games, and that there's been a need to explain to investors that they "shouldn't expect [CD Projekt Red] to annualize or suddenly start releasing games just because there's a business opportunity". With that approach in mind, the plan over the next few years is for CD Projekt Red to become recognized as one the top developers in the world.

"The Witcher finished with 80 people, The Witcher 3 finished with 250, so Cyberpunk will probably be even more. Don't think about scale in terms of us doing 20 projects; no, we'll focus, we'll focus on certain things... We don't want to be a 10 project studio. The Rockstar model is nice.

"If we look at our role models, what Rockstar is doing is amazing. It's not like, 'We have to ship a game or we may not hit our financial goals.' It's, 'Here's GTA V, and by the way, it's the best game ever made.' We're all looking forward to Red Dead Redemption 2 because we know they'll show something and we'll be like, 'Oh my god.'

"But we still have to get there. We have to prove it. The Witcher 3 is a good example, but we have to keep on delivering."

Seeing as how Rockstar has been the model of video game quality over the past few years, basing a company on Rockstar's business model is probably a pretty solid plan. Given its track record with The Witcher series, and the growing level of commercial success with each new game, it's not outside the realm of possibility that CD Projekt Red could soon be mentioned in the same breath as Rockstar, Bethesda, Blizzard, and Valve.

While there have been rumors of Cyberpunk 2077 being scheduled for a late 2016 release, the game's growing scope may see that launch window missed. Having said that, though, the game has been in development for a number of years, so perhaps we may see some new gameplay footage or artwork some time soon.

Source: Gamesindustry.biz