Turning Criticism into Improvement: How CD Projekt RED Rebounded After Cyberpunk 2077's Launch

Paweł Sasko is an Associate Game Director at CD PROJEKT RED, currently working on the next mainline Cyberpunk game, codenamed Project Orion. Before becoming one of the founding members of the Orion team, he was a Quest Director for Cyberpunk 2077 and its expansion Phantom Liberty. Paweł also worked on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and both of the game’s expansions. In this interview, we sit down with Pawel to discuss the invaluable lessons learned during the development of Cyberpunk 2077. Sasko shares insights into the challenges faced, the strides made in response to feedback, and how these experiences will influence the future direction of the renowned game development studio.

What was the initial vision for Cyberpunk 2077 when development first started? How did that vision evolve over time?

From the very early stages of development until today, the vision of Cyberpunk 2077 as an immersive, open-world RPG with action-packed combat didn’t really change. What has changed for us is the execution of that vision. Since launch, we’ve worked hard to make sure Cyberpunk 2077 could unleash its full potential, and Update 2.0 is where that became fully visible.

Compared to launch, character progression and skill trees have been redone, almost from the ground up, and we also streamlined and cleaned up the game’s UI — adding much more clarity for the player. Some large gameplay systems, like the police, were reimagined, with multiple added layers of depth — and an optional boss fight against MaxTac included as the culmination of the player engaging with that system. All the available vehicles in the game have been improved, from handling to additional features, most game-changing of which being car combat, featuring weapons built onto some vehicles, and the ability to shoot while driving.

The peak of the vision for Cyberpunk 2077 was Phantom Liberty — a large, narrative-heavy expansion that introduced a completely new district called Dogtown, along with a cast of unforgettable characters. This spy thriller capitalized on what CD PROJEKT RED does best: characters, atmosphere, visuals, music — all coming together as an immersive experience for our players. Phantom Liberty was crafted to be played during Cyberpunk 2077, but it also introduced a completely new ending to the whole game, to address requests of some of our players.

Cyberpunk 2077 was announced in 2012 with the trailers released in January 2013, a long time before its eventual release. What was the strategy behind announcing the game so early, and how did you manage the expectations that came with such a prolonged development period?

As a game development studio, we had never worked on multiple different projects at the same time — The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077 were supposed to be the first attempts at that. That’s why Cyberpunk 2077 was announced when it was, so we could start hiring game developers from all over the world and enter an early ideation phase, that would help us understand and answer the questions of what the game is going to be. At the same time, The Witcher 3 was already in development — and much further along, as we knew the IP so well and working on another installment in the franchise was just easier.

With Cyberpunk 2077 we knew that the long discovery phase was going to be crucial for the project's success. We had a lot of ground to cover: trying out multiple different design solutions and approaches, studying all Cyberpunk 2020 pen & paper source material, and reading and watching everything about the genre. During this discovery phase we arrived at the conclusion that Cyberpunk 2077 should be executed in first person, as immersion was one of the primary goals for all elements of the game’s design. Such decisions impacted the game in a major way, which required a lot of time, consideration, and research.

What were some of the most significant technical challenges you faced during this prolonged development of Cyberpunk 2077, and how did the team overcome them?

From very early stages of development we knew that Cyberpunk 2077 was going to take place in Night City. We wanted it to be the most immersive, believable, vast, and captivating city ever created in video games. Knowing that, from the beginning our engine team started working on REDengine 4, the new rendition of our proprietary technology, built on all the experience of creating our previous games (The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was made on REDengine 3, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition on REDengine 2). We had a lot of in-house experience of how a powerful and modern engine for multi-platform projects should be done. This helped us out tremendously with achieving what you can currently see in Cyberpunk 2077.

As developers we were also aware that Cyberpunk 2077 would be a cross-gen project, which posed another set of major challenges, from optimization to testing. Working on PC and having all the features running is not the same as having it done for consoles. Each machine has its own limitations that need to be examined and understood well, so that as developers we can use the hardware to its full potential. This together with everything else we were facing while building a completely new type of game proved to be a significant challenge, and it impacted us a lot during the game’s initial launch.

Last but not least, Cyberpunk 2077 from the beginning was a game made on the bleeding edge of technology. Our players use Cyberpunk as a benchmark to test how their beefy machines handle things like ray tracing and path tracing. This has been part of our strategy all along, to make Cyberpunk 2077 the best-looking game it can be, and support it with new technology that we believe our game could benefit from.

What was it like working with Mike Pondsmith, the creator of the original Cyberpunk tabletop RPG? How did his input and vision influence the development of Cyberpunk 2077?

A lot of us at CD PROJEKT RED are lifelong fans of Cyberpunk 2020, the pen and paper role-playing game created by Mike Pondsmith, so naturally we approached the game with a lot of care for the source material. The concepts included in the original source book were incredibly vibrant and original, and we didn’t want to lose any of its charm. That’s why working with Mike has been a privilege and honor — he has served, together with Talsorian Games, as a consultant whenever we needed to discuss or align on anything. Mike took part in many early discussions about the plot, characters, and the lore, and everyone involved collaborated to make sure that the Cyberpunk IP could thrive in the future. And during the production of Phantom Liberty, our collaboration continued in the same way, which we greatly appreciated — I even personally had the chance to show Mike and his team Dogtown as a location, some characters, and the trailer for the expansion.

How did the collaboration with Hollywood stars like Keanu Reeves and Idris Elba come about? What was the experience like working with them, and how did their involvement shape the development and narrative of the game?

As a result of the work on Cyberpunk 2077’s storyline, we arrived at a pretty detailed story outline, including the character of Johnny Silverhand. We knew we needed the right person to carry the role, embody that character, and bring him to life. Very early in discussions, Keanu Reeves was mentioned, in part due to his cyberpunk legacy — a lot of us remembered him for his roles in films like Johnny Mnemonic and The Matrix, so we reached out to him through his agents, and we found out that he would be interested to hear more. So we all met, pitched the role to Keanu, and he was almost immediately into it! When he recorded some of the first animations for Johnny, he had suggestions about the behavior of the character and seemed really curious about him. To the surprise of no-one, Keanu was an absolute professional; despite his heavy schedule packed with shooting multiple movies, he was present on the recording sessions and delivered a great VO performance. When Cyberpunk 2077 shipped, Keanu was pleased to hear how well his role was received, so when we needed him later to come back to the booth to record a lot of new lines for Phantom Liberty, it was very smooth!

Our cooperation with Idris Elba started differently. We didn’t yet have a full story for the expansion, but rather the foundation of an idea and the spy-thriller theme. We did know that we needed an actor with Idris’ charisma and dominant on-screen presence to be able to shape the role — we were ready to write it in a way that uses all the strengths of our actor. So we reached out to Idris very early on to see if this was something he would want to consider. It was great to see how receptive he was to the role, and how involved he was in the process. I can’t imagine anyone else playing Solomon Reed.

And similarly to Keanu, Idris was recording VO for us while shooting multiple movies and TV series, so scheduling at times was challenging, but because everyone involved wanted to make sure our cooperation worked out, we managed to make it happen.

The launch of Cyberpunk 2077 was met with significant criticism due to bugs and performance issues. How did the team respond to this feedback, and what steps were taken to address the problems post-launch?

The launch of Cyberpunk 2077 was a very difficult period for all of us, and for sure the lowest ever point in my career. At moments internally, we were even harsher on ourselves than the criticism from the outside. What helped us pick ourselves up was the fact that we had so much good will in the studio to make it right, coming from the Board and from developers. Everyone really wanted to make it right. We all remembered the incredible success we had with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and not having such reception for Cyberpunk 2077 was really crushing. Everyone wanted to improve it and regain the trust of our players. This belief, and keeping our players in mind, really pushed us when we started working on our first very big patches that improved what our players asked for: 1.2 and 1.3. This all led up to Update 1.5 and a native release on next-gen consoles. I think this was the first sign of our players telling us that the game is improving, but the return of the players to the game wasn’t as significant as I had hoped for. However, we also had something else cooking since before the game’s release: the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners anime series. With this in the works, and knowing it would be coming in 2022, we were able to prepare with our teams and make an update that introduced some hand-crafted, dedicated Edgerunners content. Update 1.6 marked a real change in sentiment toward Cyberpunk 2077. A lot of players came back, tried the game again after all the improvements, and gave it another chance. What followed were two really large updates: 2.0 (featuring a complete rework of many of the game’s systems) and 2.1 (a bonus update with a lot of highly requested features, such as the metro system and expanded romances).

As a studio, after the release of Cyberpunk 2077 we entered a stage of deep transformation, from Board members themselves to dev teams and back office. We created a RED 2.0 strategy, which signaled our change to an Agile production methodology, moving away from the waterfall structure. In essence, instead of working in separation, when pieces of the game are made one after another, we do work in collaboration from the get-go, keeping each other in the loop when cooperating in cross-functional teams. Those teams work on the game features and game content, and Phantom Liberty is our first release created with this approach in mind. Cyberpunk 2077’s launch triggered this process in the company, and currently we are way better organized and informed as ever before.

Looking back at the launch of Cyberpunk 2077, do you think it would have been better to skip releasing the game on last-gen consoles given the performance issues encountered? What factors influenced the decision to support those platforms, and what lessons have you learned from that experience?

That launch period was a real wake up call for us. We learned a lot of lessons during this difficult period, and we implemented a lot of these lessons with the launch of Phantom Liberty: the game was shipped in a very solid state and did not require any immediate patches. In fact, we had Update 2.0 and Phantom Liberty ready for shipping a couple months before the deadline, but we kept playing it, polishing it, fixing bugs, and looking for any problems we might have missed. This is one of the solutions we employed to ensure a successful launch of the expansion, ensuring the game was in top condition on every platform it was available on.

How did the team handle the pressure and public scrutiny following the game's release? What measures were taken to support the developers during this period?

It was an incredibly hard period for all of us and a tough pill to swallow. From being praised after The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt to being scrutinized for everything just after we shipped Cyberpunk 2077, it was a quick and difficult adjustment. We were able to channel a lot of our frustration into our work by preparing the best patches we could, supporting our players, and figuring out how to turn things around. Slowly improving public perception with every patch we made helped us to keep going. It inspired us and gave us hope that not everything was lost.

In that time, our studio gave us help and support on both individual and group levels. Every single member of the team had the option of using psychological help, depending on their needs. Our Training team inside the studio organized a series of workshops called Minding Your Mind that took place regularly for a couple of years, with acclaimed psychologists who spoke about mindfulness, well-being, and various chosen topics in the form of webinars. I think these initiatives were incredibly valuable for many of us. Just knowing there were support systems in place helped us during stressful moments, and definitely helped us adapt as time went on.

Where did the idea to switch to a political thriller storyline for the Phantom Liberty expansion come from? What were the key influences and inspirations behind this narrative direction?

When work on Phantom Liberty was starting, Game Director Gabe Amatangelo, and a few others (me included), were searching for a direction we could take with the expansion. We knew that we wanted something similar to the tone and themes of Cyberpunk 2077, but it had to be different enough to give the expansion its own character and feel — something distinct that could guide us and our developers during the production process. From early conversations and research, the idea came up to tell a spy story. A bit later, with more discussion, we solidified the vision and landed on the umbrella of a spy thriller. Our whole group of directors felt that this was a unique narrative frame not yet done in the video games of Cyberpunk 2077’s scale — and crucially also fit very well with the tone, themes, and noir atmosphere of the base game.

With this direction settled, we started talking about our inspirations. For example, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was a big factor, and came up over and over again in our conversations. Bridge of Spies, Ocean’s Eleven and plenty of James Bond movies were also discussed — and all of those inspirations pushed us toward designing and crafting unique spy sequences in various quests in Phantom Liberty. The genre is also very visible in the expansion’s side content.

Defining the direction early, together with the genre and the themes of expansion, helped us a lot with cascading the vision of the game from directors to all members of the dev team.

What was the main driving force for the changes and updates in version 2.0? How did player feedback and internal goals shape these significant updates?

We had numerous goals for Update 2.0, but the most important was to expose all the brilliant and creative elements of Cyberpunk 2077’s gameplay to our players. We wanted to remove the friction points that made playing the game less enjoyable for some. We achieved this by examining and analyzing all the gameplay loops and introducing elements and changes to complement, or complete, them.

Together with Gabe Amatangelo, we identified that the game was suffering from the issue of “Death by 1000 cuts” — so many small elements added up to obfuscate those standout moments and elements we wanted players to freely enjoy, hindering its overall impression. So a lot of work we did for Update 2.0 was to remove as many friction points as possible. Player feedback here was the key to getting it right. We watched many different reviews of Cyberpunk 2077, read feedback on Steam, our forums, and social media; we gathered all of it with the help of our Community and Technical Support teams. Thanks to that we were aware of the main problems and how they should be addressed.

Version 2.0 of Cyberpunk 2077 was also meant to unleash the game’s full potential; that’s why we decided to do such a deep rework of our gameplay systems, from skills and perks to the police system and the addition of MaxTac arriving as a dynamic bossfight anywhere in the world. This update was designed to show players that we care deeply about their opinion, but also that we are willing to go above and beyond to introduce new features to the game and keep working on it.

With the recent release of full-fledged modding tools for The Witcher 3, do you plan to release similar tools for Cyberpunk 2077? How do you see modding impacting the game's longevity and community engagement?

I don’t have anything to share with regards to modding tools for Cyberpunk 2077, but I’m thankful to see the reception of The Witcher 3 REDkit — it’s very heartwarming! I’m really looking forward to seeing what our community can make (and some of the first mind blowing mods already dropped!). We support modding because it not only improves the longevity of the game, but also allows new creators to train and learn about game development. Almost half of the members of the Quest team that I had the pleasure of hiring are, in fact, former modders. We have so many modders in different positions in our studio and I’m sure in time The Witcher 3 REDkit modding tools will introduce plenty of new creators to the scene who, in time, will become developers. Supporting the modding scene is supporting game developers themselves all over the world. I’m proud that, at CD PROJEKT RED, we embrace it so much.

Looking back on the entire development and release process, what are some key lessons the team has learned? How will these lessons influence future projects at CD Projekt Red?

Every game we have ever made is a learning experience, and every time, we bring something new into the next project and make improvements in many different areas. The whole transformation process that happened inside CD PROJEKT RED after the release of Cyberpunk 2077 is probably the most significant improvement, as far as the studio is concerned. It’s very easy to see and pinpoint as it had a massive impact on the way we develop our games.

Another learning relates to technology. As part of our transformation, we made the decision to use Unreal Engine 5 for future titles. Our strategic partnership with Epic gives us a great chance to work with their team on UE5, while also allowing us to focus on telling amazing stories and building believable, immersive worlds. REDengine 4 served us very well, and we’re definitely taking a lot of our experience and technical know-how into our work on UE5. Anything more I can’t really add, but one thing is for certain: we have learned a lot over the last few years and I see the effects every single day in our studio.