Cyberpunk 2077 Dev: "It Must Be F**king Great"

After the huge critical and commercial success of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, developer CD Projekt Red is feeling more responsibility to deliver with Cyberpunk 2077, CEO Marcin Iwinski told us in a new interview from the Game Developers Conference.

Speaking to GameSpot's Danny O'Dwyer on The Lobby that the big success of The Witcher 3 also allows CD Projekt Red to be "even more ambitious" with the upcoming futuristic game.

"Right now, we have the success of the Witcher 3; people played it and people loved it," he explained. "So it's even more responsibility. The fact that Witcher 3 performed so well allows us to be even more ambitious with Cyberpunk 2077. Right now, it's on our shoulders to deliver here. The next time you hear about Cyberpunk 2077 we will show something and it must be f**king great.

"People really expect something great and that's what we have to stand up to and deliver."

Asked if the CD Projekt Red development team was excited to move on to Cyberpunk 2077, Iwinski said, "They definitely are." After a decade working with dragons, swords, and medieval themes, the team is feeling energized to work on a project involving guns, ammo, mutants, and implants, Iwinski explained.

During an investor meeting recently, CD Projekt Red studio head Adam Badowski said Cyberpunk 2077 will be "even better, even bigger, even more revolutionary" than what the company originally set out to do.

He went on to say the game is still "a long ways away" from launch, and further stressed that CD Projekt Red still has "a lot of work to do" to make it a "truly outstanding game."

Cyberpunk 2077 is also planned to be "much greater" in magnitude than The Witcher 3.

CD Projekt Red has been talking for a long time about the ambitious nature of Cyberpunk 2077. Speaking on a Polish TV station in 2015, studio boss Adam Kicinski said, "We need to create a game that will be even more successful" than The Witcher 3, which has shipped around 10 million copies. "We have a long way ahead of us to reach the biggest commercial successes in the world."

The Witcher 3 was a "good investment," according to CD Projekt Red management, but at the same time, the game was not a worldwide chart-topper for the full year.

"Sure, many people consider The Witcher 3 to be the best game in the world [in 2015], but this is not a game that broke any sales record," Kicinski said.

Cyberpunk 2077, announced back in 2012, puts players into a "dark future" in 2077 where advanced technologies have become "both the salvation and the curse of humanity." The game promises a nonlinear story designed for "mature" players and is set in the metropolis of Night City. It has also been revealed that Cyberpunk 2077 will feature sandbox elements, though this has not been specified.

The game is due to arrive sometime in the 2017-2021 window. Platforms have not been announced, but Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC would appear to be likely candidates.

For lots more on our discussion with Iwinski, check out the full Lobby video above.