CD Projekt Red and its latest sci-fi RPG, Cyberpunk 2077, have been hot news topics for a while now. Easily one of the most anticipated games of the last decade, Cyberpunk 2077's glitch-infested launch became the cause of heated internet chaos and fan rage.
While a decent chunk of gamers has moved on from the debacle, others are still waiting out on CD Projekt Red to patch out the PS4 and Xbox One versions, as well as work on next-gen ports and the promised free DLC. It would be great to see these fixes and additions rolled out as soon as possible, but recent developments make such prospects seem unlikely.
Cyberpunk 2077's Changes To The Roadmap
After a disastrous launch, CD Projekt Red issued a video apologizing to its fans and simultaneously released a roadmap that highlighted a rough timeline of when to expect fixes. Sporting the same infamous bright yellow background used in all of the delay announcements, the roadmap was vague. According to the roadmap, Cyberpunk 2077's DLCs would start releasing shortly after Patch 1.2 goes live. While no specific dates were mentioned, most fans were assuming DLCs to start rolling in June or July with the next-gen console ports arriving around Fall 2021.
Despite a plethora of issues solved, Cyberpunk 2077 is still far from being perfectly playable. Many fans are still looking out for updates for Update 1.3, but not much information is known so far. However, CD Projekt Red revealed a new roadmap during its recent investor call, which doesn't seem any more encouraging.
This new roadmap now has mentions of hotfixes 1.21 and 1.22, which released back in April 2021. According to this roadmap, work has probably begun on DLC with a speculative release window of H2 2021 with some probability of shifting to 2022. While nothing can be said definitively, it's widely believed that H2 probably refers to the second half of the year starting July.
Keeping Expectations In Check For DLC
In addition to the aforementioned changes, CD Projekt Red might have shed some light on what the company plans to do with its DLCs. Fans expecting entirely new questlines and stories in a similar vein to The Witcher 3's Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine might be extremely disappointed, as the updated roadmap already highlights that free DLCs refers to small additional content.
While Cyberpunk 2077 was able to recoup its gargantuan development costs solely on pre-orders, profits seem to be dwindling for the Polish studio. The investor call also revealed numerous losses incurred by the company and missed projected profit figures, all of which have stemmed from an additional cost of "fixing the game" post-launch.
Despite that, CD Projekt Red aims to aggressively expand its workforce and infrastructure to develop multiple AAA projects at once. While it remains to be seen if it ultimately benefits fans or not, this doesn't seem to bode well for the game's DLC and next-gen ports. It's known that the studio is currently working on the game, but expanding aggressively in the face of such unprecedented loss and associated controversies is surely questionable.
Cyberpunk 2077 is available for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One. PS5 and Xbox Series X versions are slated to launch later this year.