Following a short bout of confusion, CD Projekt Red has clarified that its upcoming expansion pack for Cyberpunk 2077, the Phantom Liberty DLC, has the biggest budget a CDPR production has ever had. The long-awaited first (and final) expansion for the cyberpunk RPG promises a comprehensive addition to the base game in every way.
Even though Cyberpunk 2077 may have had a rough launch, CD Projekt Red successfully turned things around for the most part. The upcoming release of the Phantom Liberty DLC is supposed to be the one-two punch that may yet elevate the game to true greatness, though it goes without saying that only time will tell whether this ends up panning out or not.
One curious tidbit of information about Phantom Liberty came about just recently, with media reporting on CDPR Investment Manager Marek Bugdoł's interview with Parkiet, a native Polish publication. Bugdoł's statement was initially taken to mean that Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty would be the biggest DLC the studio's ever made. However, a CD Projekt Red employee later clarified via Reddit that the actual quote meant that the DLC has the biggest budget ever given to a single project under CDPR's umbrella, which is a fairly important nuance.
This doesn't necessarily take away from the importance of Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty DLC, of course, but one can't help but wonder how this new DLC compares with some of CDPR's previous output, such as The Witcher 3's own well-acclaimed expansion packs.
Notably, The Witcher 3's two major DLCs set a remarkably high bar for future post-launch content releases, and there will be no avoiding the comparisons with Phantom Liberty. Whether these pan out in CD Projekt Red's favor or not remains to be seen. The studio is sure to be trying its best to top its The Witcher releases, but getting the community to forget how badly bungled CP2077 was at launch would be quite the feat.
Of course, Phantom Liberty could steal from The Witcher 3 to keep things interesting. Certain features and design choices from the DLC will have hopefully served as an inspiration to the team working on the Cyberpunk 2077 DLC, and if everything goes to plan, Phantom Liberty may yet reinvigorate the game's fanbase and, indeed, the game itself.
Cyberpunk 2077 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: CD Projekt RED (via Reddit)