One of the biggest surprises of E3 2018 came at the end of Microsoft's press conference as CD Projekt RED finally showed off its highly anticipated title, Cyberpunk 2077. Originally announced in a stylish teaser trailer back in January 2013, the game then completely dropped off the map completely leaving many to wonder what was going on with the game. After racking up piles of Game of the Show awards at E3 this year, fans finally found out what's taking the game so long.

In an interview with Jason Schreier during E3 week, co-founder and co-CEO of CD Projekt Red, Marcin Iwinski, was asked about the development of Cyberpunk 2077 and how it has evolved over the past five years. According to Iwinski, the studio initially attempted to have both Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3 in development at the same time. Due to the sheer size and scope of The Witcher 3 and its two expansions, the idea wasn't going to work out and threatened to undermine the game's quality if the studio continued down its dual game path. Still, attempting to develop two games wasn't a waste, however, as enough pre-production work was done on Cyberpunk 2077 that it was easy for teams to jump back onto the project after The Witcher 3 shipped.

The biggest element of the long development cycle of Cyberpunk 2077, however, is that the game did go through a reboot and ended up changing directions. With the fact that CD Projekt RED is self-publishing and that this game represents a new IP for them, the studio is focused on quality above all else. Throwing out months of work is never easy, especially for the people that spent that time on development, but for the studio it was necessary. Iwinski also reaffirmed the importance of E3 as not only a way to see what people outside of the studio think about the experience but also a tool to help galvanize the studio internally.

While fans weren't able to see the game as it was only shown off behind closed doors, Cyberpunk 2077 appears to be another ambitious title from the Polish developer. Unlike The Witcher series, CD Projekt RED is focusing on first-person perspective with combat focused on both melee and range. From a technical standpoint, the studio plans to do away with loading screens completely, providing players with a seamless, open world after the initial load into the game. This would no doubt be an impressive feat especially if the team sticks to its plans to release the action-RPG on current generation consoles.

Cyberpunk 2077 is currently in development without a release date or confirmed platforms.

Source: Kotaku