Cyberpunk 2077 News – 3 Studios Helping With Cyberpunk 2077 Production, QA, Optimization & Porting!

Today we are jumping into some rumors (update: now confirmed) via GRY-Online.pl that run parallel with rumors about Cyberpunk 2077s delay earlier this week via Borys Niespielak about the game currently running into technological issues and limitations on mainly the base level Xbox One.

If you guys are unaware there was a Polish Podcast with a well-known Polish journalist who is known for his movie and game industry connections, where he lists things about Cyberpunk 2077 and CD PROJEKT RED, mostly correlated to why CDPR issued their delay and how the game is struggling on the basic versions of modern consoles. If you want to check out that video I’ll link it in the pinned comment.

Earlier today however there was yet another article posted by Polish publication GRY-online via the publisher of PolskiGamedev.pl and previous head of journalism at CD-Action monthly with more rumors regarding some of the internal workings of CDPR, and how they are tackling this alleged problem.

The publisher mentions that native teams of QLOC, Testronic and Crunching Koalas are participating in the work on Cyberpunk 2077, due to the immense scale of the project CDPR is working on. CDPR seems to have outsourced companies who all have niches in converting, optimizing and testing games to help with the project which backs what Bory Niespielak has mentioned in the delay of Cyberpunk mainly being console oriented.

QLOC is a polish company that is recognized worldwide as one of the best porting vendors, with a team of over 300 specialists who are experienced in Quality Assurance, Localization + Art Design. They have worked on big AAA titles like BioShock, Devil May Cry, Dark Souls, Hellblade, Steet Figher and more in various porting and quality assurance.

Testronic has 20 years of experience partnering with video game and entertainment companies, who also work mainly on Quality Assurance, localization, compliance and certification and customer support.
Finally we have Crunching Koalas who seem to be a studio more focused on indie titles, in again porting, co-development and publishing support.

Now in addition the article mentions there may be additional studios helping at the moment, and Marcin Iwinski also allegedly mentioned that 4 studios worked on Cyberpunk, but the video in which he supposedly says this is in Chinese, so I can’t verify this. If you do speak Chinese, I’ll link the video in the pinned comment, but as it stands this has not been confirmed.

My obvious and not revolutionary assumption here is that CDPR are really aiming for quality and there is likely a substantial amount of bugs holding this release back, and CDPR is bolstering their team with companies who have a specialized niche in the final stage processes of cleaning up a game for release. In this sense, it seems like the more cooks in the kitchen, the better to catch most bugs and glitches before Cyberpunk goes gold.
Corey Balrog has chimed into the delay and optimization conversation, and as someone who went through his fair share of hiccups with God of War having something like 3000 bugs when it was supposed to be 0 and ready for launch, I think his words are assuring in knowing that its not about f the studio will get there, its just when and to what efficacy.

In my opinion, if this is true, more power to CDPR, fly in the experts get things sorted properly get more eyes on the issue, get more people in there to brainstorm solutions, double down and make sure things go right the first time around on launch.

In some additional news, there are allegedly some layoffs at polish publisher CDP, which is oddly enough not related to CD project or cd projekt red, which seems to threaten the release of the game in Poland. CDPR has responses saying that all pre-release orders for cyberpunk 2077 placed from them will be honored, so if you were worried about that one, rest assured you will get your copy.

Cyberpunk 2077 Has Been DELAYED! (September 17th, 2020!)

Cyberpunk 2077 has been delayed due to not being able to make the release window. The game is playable from start to finish, but its likely that CD PROJEKT needs that extra time.

VIA CDPR on Twitter:

“We are currently at a state where the game is complete and playable, but there’s still work to be done,” CD Projekt Red wrote in a press release, embedded below. “Night City is massive–full of stories, content, and places to visit, but due to the sheer scale and complexity of it all, we need more time to finish playtesting, fixing, and polishing. We want Cyberpunk 2077 to be our crowning achievement for this generation and postponing launch will give the precious months we need to make the game perfect.” CD Projekt Red added that there will be “regular updates” on the game’s progress as the September 17 release date approaches.

Cyberpunk 2077 News – Apartments, Weapons & Optimization!

In today’s Cyberpunk 2077 news we’ll be talking about how CD Projekt Red are balancing Smart, Tech and Power weapons, how they are using pro gamers to refine their shooting mechanics, Some small details which could mean big things for an imminent Cyberpunk 2077 release date, What we can expect from apartments and customization, CD Projekt Red’s plan to optimize the game for lower end hardware and modern consoles, the amount of writers working on the project and how they collaborate in creating Cyberpunk’s quests, as well as a bionic man who is creating REAL cyberpunk 2077-esque augmentations.

So first up we have weapon balance and shooting mechanic details and news. According to information from a livestreamed interview with CD Projekt Red developers at Gamescom, they have brought on some significant help when trying to get the feel and smoothness of their shooting and weapons system down. Lukas LUQ Wnek, has joined the team to help CD Projekt Red in their first foray in to designing a First Person Perspective Shooting experience. Shooter games with Strong RPG elements, or how CD Projekt Red has called Cyberpunk 2077 an RPG with shooter elements, tend to suffer from underwhelming shooting mechanics and lack of weight to the weapons. Bethesda and Fallout 4 experienced this to a degree, and one of the main complaints from the Cyberpunk 2077 Gameplay Demo was that the shooting didn’t have enough impact.

For those who aren’t great at shooter games, fret not as weapons will be able to become modified into smart weapons.

CD Projekt Red has also addressed damage numbers that pop up when shooting enemies, and are making sure there is an option to turn those off if you so choose. A lot of people seem to want to turn the damage indicators off, so this is great knews for players who are 100% invested in immersion. You can also turn other HUD indicators off.

Next up we have some details via Twitter that could tell us just how close to the end CD Projekt Red is on Cyberpunk 2077. First we have CDPR releasing a job listing looking for an automated test engineer. They’ve also been looking for a cinematic cutscene designer as well, which is again generally a final phase step for game development.

We also have Kyle Rowley leaving CD Projekt Red to join another game studio. Now he was a designer at CD Projekt Red, so this can mean that he’s no longer needed on the game, in terms of overseeing development or anything of that nature. He has presumably finished his role on Cyberpunk, which as a pivotal designer must be a huge part of it, leaving again only bug detection and playtesting to be one of the only things CDPR needs employees to do on Cyberpunk 2077. There also is a rumor that some Gwent devs are moving from Gwent into the 2077 team. This is substantial news for the Release date, knowing the game is already playable from start to finish.

Next up we have optimization details about how the game will take into account the aging technology of modern consoles like the Xbox 1 and the PS4. Many people are doubting the ability of Cyberpunk 2077 to run on current generations consoles, let alone PCs. With a beefy i7, 1080ti build running the Cyberpunk 2077 gameplay demo in 4K, locked at 30FPS, Cd Projekt red has also addressed their optimization process to those who are skeptical. Starting from the very beginning Maciej Pietras claims that they started the developmental process with optimization in mind, thinking from scratch on how to implement features like global illumination, without bottle necking or stressing the hardware too much.

Pietras also mentions every platform only has so much performance. He also mentions You can distribute where you want to root this performance, whethere that’s in larger city scapes, more destructibility, more NPCs, better lighting or more complex AI. This is a task CDPR feels like they are ready for, and by the way the gameplay demo looks, I’d say they’ve struck a meaningful and impressive balance.

Next up we have news on Apartments, megabuildings, and the upgradability and customization of our dwellings. We have confirmation that we will be able to have multiple apartments from CDPR, which will feature Radios, Computers to surf the net, scenic vistas, and weapons lockers and closets for all the gear you collect in your travels. There is also a Night City Vending Machine, where you can order drinks, braindance experiences and one night stands from JoyBoys and Joygirls.

Next up we have some details about the writing and writers working on the script for Cyberpunk 2077. Now there are other writers focused on the side quests, dialogue options and cinematic scripts amongst other things, but as for main writers, there is quite the contrast between the witchers last installment and Cyberpunk so far. The Witcher’s script had 450,000 words, which equals around 4 fully fledged novels.