With a multitude of delays this year, the release of Cyberpunk 2077  is finally on the horizon, which launches only with the single-player component of the game. While the hype surrounding the game is at an all-time high, many analysts are looking further down the line and are speculating what the game's ambitious multiplayer component could look like.

CD Projekt Red, the Poland-based studio behind the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077, has been fairly quiet as far as the game's multiplayer mode is concerned. During a Q/A session with the investors back in January, CD Projekt's publishing head Michal Nowakowski did confirm that this multiplayer project is of AAA scope, and it's working side by side on it.

The studio also confirmed that this project won't see the day of the light until 2022, at the earliest. While there wasn't any news on what the multiplayer mode would look like, CD Projekt did reaffirm the addition of microtransactions in this upcoming component of the game.

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While CD Projekt, as well as the Cyberpunk 2077 fans across the globe, are currently focused on the game's single-player launch, a new report from M Science, a data-driven research and analytics firm, may shift everyone's attention towards the foreseeable future. M Science is a company that focuses on publishing analytical reports on the games industry for investors to look upon. This also means providing useful insights on how to make a game financially successful. According to M Science's latest report on Cyberpunk 2077, "the multiplayer model sounds similar to that of Grand Theft Auto Online, with a series of free DLC's and expansions."

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M Science further went on to elaborate on how such a model seems feasible for the long term revenue of a game of scope and caliber as that of Cyberpunk 2077. According to it, "While the paid DLC model can be successful,  and makes sense for a title such as Cyberpunk, we view multiplayer as the larger opportunity long-term and the best opportunity to create a robust, multi-year recurrent consumer spend model for the franchise." Furthermore, M Science also believes that "multiplayer success is critical to Cyberpunk's long-term monetization potential."

It's no surprise that Grand Theft Auto Online turned out to be a huge success for Rockstar Games and will continue to be in the future. The game made over $1 billion in its first four years and saw its best-ever fiscal quarter this year as the player count continued to soar. The prominent reason for the game's immense success is the addition of a multitude of free expansions over the course of years. This includes the ever-popular Doomsday Heist that brought unprecedented popularity to the game's online mode. The world of Cyberpunk 2077 has a similar, if not more of a scope for an extensive and dynamic multiplayer component that would be frequently updated with a ton of new and diverse things to do. In contrast to Grand Theft Auto Online, Cyberpunk 2077 is an RPG which further elevates the scope of its multiplayer component as it can borrow and improvise upon elements from some of the popular MMO's out there.

Cyberpunk 2077 releases December 10, for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One, with a free PS5 and Xbox Series X/S upgrade also available at launch.

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Source: TheGamer