It’ll be at least two years before Cyberpunk 2077’s “triple-A” multiplayer launches

Well it’s going to be another 270ish days before Cyberpunk 2077 hits PC and console, and we’re mostly fine with that! Good things come to those who wait, and if there’s one studio that has earned that level of trust from gamers then it’s certainly the team behind The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt. While the fleshing out of Night City and all the various intricacies of the dark future around it may require some more time in the development oven, people are still curious as to how the multiplayer for Cyberpunk 2077 will function.

Announced back in September 2019 that some form of online play would be present, don’t expect to be cruising around the city with your post-human pals on launch day. According to CD Projekt Red, development on multiplayer is still at least two years away, but the wait will be more than worth it when it does finally make a splash. “In terms of multiplayer, one thing we need to make clear is the triple-A release we’re working on in parallel with CP2077 is Cyberpunk multiplayer,” said CD Projekt publishing head Michal Nowakowski said in an investors Q&A via Games Radar.

So that’s the first thing to say, and I think [president Adam Kicinski] was alluding to this, that things are going to be moving. Given the expected release of Cyberpunk 2077 in September, and frankly speaking the series of events which we expect to occur after that date, 2021 appears unlikely as a release date for the Cyberpunk multiplayer.

Whatever the end result is, CD Projekt Red wants the multiplayer to do more than just complement Cyberpunk 2077. They want it to exist on equal AAA footing with the original product, similar to how GTA Online carved its own path in Liberty City and has managed to remain a popular fixture years after the base game first launched. “Currently we are working on Cyberpunk and the multiplayer as the next big game,” Nowakowski explained.

The triple-A release we are working on is Cyberpunk multiplayer. We are trying to be as clear as possible in this regard. The date we’re releasing Cyberpunk multiplayer – I mean, that’s a code name for it – will probably move out of 2021.

So there you have it. It’ll be at least two years before Cyberpunk 2077 ventures into an online space that is aiming to be around for many years to come. Maybe by then, the game will have a grand relaunch on PS5 and Xbox Series X that makes the wait more than worthwhile.

Last Updated: January 17, 2020