CD Projekt Red will not follow in Larian's footsteps. For Cyberpunk 2077's creators, “Ambition is a stunning, near-perfect first demo” like Phantom Liberty

The example of Baldur's Gate 3 proved that a game developed within so-called Early Access can achieve tremendous success. So it is not surprising that recently many studios have been creating large and ambitious projects, e.g There is no rest for the wickedI decided to take a similar step.

Although early access could theoretically work for many AAA games, Cyberpunk 2077's lead mission designer, Paweł Sasko, doesn't share that opinion. In conversation with Edited by PCGamer He admitted this in the case Baldur's Gate 3 Early Access was unique and practical due to several key factors.

According to Sasco:

• At the time of the creation of the third part “Baldur”, Larian Studios was a developer on the border of the AA and AAA sectors. – Only a successful premiere of this item guarantees the Belgians a place among the biggest fish in gamedev;
• The Baldur's Gate branding is of historical importance, and Larian's past experience with the series Divinity They were somehow forced by the necessity of consulting with the community about the vision of the game.

The CDPR employee added that not all games developed in early access are successfulnoting that Larian was “probably the first studio with a major hit” to decide to go this route.

Moreover, Pawel Sasko pointed out in that interview For the CD Projekt Red team, “the ambition is to have an amazing, near-perfect premiere […]just like it was Illusory freedom“. Thus, the main task of the designer in Cyberpunk 2077 He confirmed that instead of releasing games in Early Access, Reds will simply release them when they are ready.

In the interview in question, the expansion of Phantom Liberty was repeatedly an important reference point for Paweł Sasko when he referred to future productions from the CDPR stable.

1. CD Projekt official website