Cyberpunk 2077 is a pretty fantastic game now, but it launched in a completely abysmal state at launch and was hated by most players at launch. The negative reception did lead to CD Projekt Red improving everything, with the Phantom Liberty DLC learning plenty of lessons from this.
Lead quest designer Pawel Sasko spoke with The Gamer about how Phantom Liberty was able to learn from the base title’s launch mistakes. Sasko says that the Phantom Liberty expansion wouldn’t have done as well if it weren’t for the negative reception, for better or worse.
"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," says Sasko. "It changed me and us as a studio."
It seems that the negative reception for Cyberpunk 2077 lit a fire under the devs at CD Projekt Red, since it led to a complete overhaul. Everything about the base game was completely reworked a few weeks before Phantom Liberty’s launch, including an improved skill tree and more aggressive police AI.
While the negative launch did help with the DLC, it was still a massive mistake for CD Projekt Red to release it at that state. No game should ever be released in such a state and the fact that so many gamers went through these issues is unacceptable. CD Projekt Red has seemingly learned from this and we doubt the company will go through similar issues with the next Witcher game.
Both Cyberpunk 2077 and its Phantom Liberty expansion are now critical darlings, so most gamers can enjoy it now. Hilariously, it one “Best Ongoing Game” during the 2023 Game Awards and then support stopped this year. Regardless of that fact, fans who enjoy first-person RPGs can get the game now on PS5, Xbox Series, and PC.