Cyberpunk 2077's Problems Had Direct Impact on Phantom Liberty DLC's Success
The negative reception of Cyberpunk 2077 at launch contributed to changes in the way the CD Projekt Red studio operated. As a result, the Phantom of Freedom expansion avoided the problems of the base game.
We all know that the premiere of Cyberpunk 2077 was, to put it mildly, problematic, and it will be hard to forget about it. Fortunately, as stated by the lead quest designer Pawel Sasko, something positive emerged from this, as the negative reception significantly aided in the development of the Phantom Liberty expansion.
The service TheGamer conducted an interview with a developer, during which they discussed the difficulties associated with working in the gaming industry. At one point , Sasko stated that if it weren't for the base game situation that forced the studio to make changes, the expansion wouldn't have achieved such success.
Phantom Liberty worked significantly better at its launch because we completely changed the production style, something that couldn't have been possible if the initial reception of the game wasn't as negative as it was. It changed me and us as a studio.
Cyberpunk 2077 was a technological disaster upon release, particularly the notorious console versions. Sony chose to temporarily remove it from the PS Store due to the game's poor condition at the time. The Phantom Liberty DLC, released less than 3 years later, fortunately performed well right from the first day. While it wasn't perfect and bugs were still present, the difference was significant.
We can only hope that the insights gained will also be evident in the studio's future titles, and that the forthcoming Witcher 4 and the continuation to Cyberpunk 2077 will perform at least as impressively as, or even better than, Phantom Liberty.
