When a game gets this much good press, a bidding war is likely to ensue. The CDProjekt guys seem mostly immune to that kind of thing given that PC is their preferred platform, but I suspect both Sony and Microsoft will be throwing truckloads of money at them hoping they can secure some sort of exclusive… whether that’s timed DLC on one platform, launching first on one platform over the other, or simply having them be a launch window title on new hardware to show it off. Positioning on a potentially hot title like this will be huge for the start of the next round of consoles.
I hear what CDProjekt are saying in that article, but they also announced the game in 2012… It seems like 2019 is realistic for a release at full speed ahead for three years, but we’re already halfway through 2018.
I still wouldn’t count out a Holiday 2019 Sony or Microsoft console at this point. It really depends what sort of machine they intend to build as a next generation box. The last generation was 7 years for Sony and 8 years for Microsoft. Those are abnormally long generations given everything prior (Typically it was five years… with it lengthening to six for the PS2->PS3 switchover). We can expect that to flip this time because Microsoft is behind. That means 2020 is likely, but sales may dictate them moving sooner.
Let’s say they did currently intend to release in 2019, but Microsoft threw a truckload of money at them to delay until their next console was ready and for it to be a console exclusive. I’m betting they’d see that as an opportunity to polish the game that much further.
They are going to release the game in the actual consoles, because it’s where the huge player base is, and later they will release the ‘real/definitive’ version of the game in the next generation, one year and a half later, with parity with the pc version: increased resolution, better textures, better lod, and crowds with double the density.
In fact they are going to do so much a GTA5 that the multiplayer seems to be the same: it will come, but after launch.
This is a project with a huge budget, and it wasn’t locked up early. There’s no way this will go platform exclusive, unless CDPR is insane, or they get like … hundreds of millions of dollars from a platform holder (extremely, extremely, extremely unlikely).
Sure, but that would need to be hundreds of millions of dollars to forgo launching a multi-platform title that will likely sell 10 million units or more.
CDProjekt has GoG to worry about so we know it’s coming to PCs. The DRM free bit I’m not so sure about if this is the megahit it looks like it might be. They might have to break their own rule there, especially if someone pays them to do so.
Microsoft has clearly opened the purse strings for some acquisitions. CDPR fits the bill for them very well. A lot can change in a year and a half. Even more in two and a half years.
Awful lot of hiring still happening for this game… I think it’s further out than anyone would like it to be.
So yeah, if Microsoft purchased CDPR, they could make it Xbox only. Given their lineup and likely revenue, the purchase would be over a billion dollars.
Certainly possible, but I would classify this as “highly unlikely.”
That’s hardly a good comparison. Bungie was expecting only a PC\Mac release of the title, and had been looking to get purchased for a while, so that move made sense, and was a total company acquisition. CDPR isn’t in that position, and they can probably expect to realize a lot of revenue on this game given the success and goodwill garnered by WIII. Going single platform would severely cut that revenue potential.
When Microsoft bought Bungie, they were a struggling, small to mid-sized developer with no big hits. They had some decent quality games - Marathon was big on the Mac, but Oni and Myth were not blockbusters.
They had no guarantees with HALO, and in fact it was positioned as a big Mac title (they were showcased on Apple’s stage at a Macworld event), which at the time meant selling around 15,000 units.
So Bungie needed Microsoft to realize the success that HALO could possibly be. It gave them more runway to finish the game.
CDPR does not need Microsoft or any third party to finish Cyberpunk. They are one of the few remaining independent developers that can fully finance gigantic AAA projects. They don’t need outside investment, kickstarter, etc. They are in the position that most developers dream of being.
They can reasonably expect to make $300 million+ from sales in its release year alone.
Let’s not pretend these are similar circumstances.
Independence is something CDP fought for, bitterly, for years. They have it, complete full creative independence.
With Witcher 3, they did one exclusive thing for MS - in the Collector’s Edition, the MS version had a gwent card package that other CE’s didn’t get.
CDP got ton of bad rep for it from its fans and learnt their lesson. They don’t need MS’s money when TW3 made them hundreds of millions of dollars and Cyberpunk seems likely to make even more.
Let him have his fantasy, though it’s a weird one because I don’t know what getting bought by Microsoft buys you, other than exclusivity on a console, which is only good for the console maker. And I guess people who are irrationally bought into the console wars.
But yes, if Microsoft was so inclined, there is probably some price at which the owners would sell CDPR.
