00:00Now here's an interesting story. CDPR's co-CEO hopes Witcher 4 wins back players after heartbreaking Cyberpunk 2077 launch.
00:09I actually remember when I first played Cyberpunk 2077, or rather when I finished it.
00:15And even though I didn't have a lot of bugs like other people had, there was this omnipresent feeling that
00:22the game was underbaked. A lot.
00:24And that being said, I think Nowakowski is being more realistic than a lot of executives tend to be.
00:30They could have said something like, we've fixed Cyberpunk 2077, players love it now, redemption complete.
00:37Which from a certain point of view you could say that's true, especially when Phantom Liberty was released.
00:44However, instead he acknowledges something many fans still feel.
00:48Trust, once broken, doesn't automatically come back.
00:51And if you guys remember, the game was so buggy it was removed from PlayStation Store.
00:57They offered refunds and CDPR went from being one of the most beloved studios in gaming to a cautionary tale
01:04almost overnight.
01:06I mean, I was the one who pre-ordered Cyberpunk 2077, which is something I rarely do.
01:12And when I saw what happened with the game, it kind of made me rethink my future actions in a
01:19sense that should I pre-order Witcher 4 or Cyberpunk 2 when it finally gets announced, which means you will
01:27have the opportunity to pre-order the damn thing.
01:29And basically, even though the game is genuinely very good today, the pre-order element is something that many people
01:38will question first and then maybe buy on day one.
01:43But some people won't even buy on day one.
01:45And that's not irrational because once you break trust, it really is earned really slowly.
01:52Also, one thing about Phantom Liberty, that expansion showed CDPR could still deliver the kind of quality storytelling, world building
02:01and RPG design we expect from them.
02:03And if you play the game, they weren't just fixing mistakes.
02:07They were actually proving they could still make great games.
02:10And to be honest, they don't really need to prove that.
02:13We already know what they're capable of.
02:15But the problem here is delivering something that's properly planned and consistent and not having a situation where you definitely
02:24see that certain systems weren't developed till the end.
02:28Now, however, The Witcher 4 isn't going to be just another sequel.
02:32For many people, it will probably answer one question, which is did CDPR learn from Cyberpunk's launch?
02:38But here lies the problem.
02:40Not only Witcher 4 needs to be revolutionary, at least some people think like that, but it needs to launch
02:47polished.
02:48If The Witcher 4 launches in excellent technical condition across all platforms, that's probably worth more to CDPR than any
02:56marketing campaign they could run.
02:58Basically, you just need to play the game, see that everything works, see that all the systems are properly fleshed
03:05out and you basically won.
03:06However, if it launches broken again, the damage would be far worse than Cyberpunk because people would view it as
03:13a proof that nothing was learned.
03:14And to be honest, I don't think that we are going to see this, especially because they said they're not
03:20going to make the same mistake, which was basically launching the game on the all-gen consoles.
03:26I think that was a big issue, if not the biggest issue of them all.
03:30And when I was talking about that it needs to be revolutionary, if you take Witcher 3, for example, as
03:36a starting point, a benchmark for Witcher 4, there are a lot of things that need to be addressed.
03:43Some of them I talked about in my video titled things that I would like to see in The Witcher
03:484.
03:48I mean, I adore Witcher 3, I played it 10 times already.
03:52But I can still acknowledge there were issues that really didn't resonate well when you look at the game as
03:58a single package.
04:00Also, when you look at the interview, the most encouraging part of it wasn't the redemption talk.
04:06It was the part where Nowakowski said they don't want to become a studio releasing a major game every year.
04:12The industry is full of examples where aggressive release schedules hurt quality.
04:17And I think everyone knows which studio is doing that.
04:21Ubisoft.
04:22Because if you're trying to become an annual content machine, that would be a mistake.
04:27And a colossal one, to be honest with you.
04:30Things need to bake, things need to sort of mature.
04:34You need to see the proper feedback, what people are telling you.
04:38And that two, maybe three year break between the releases is actually what you need.
04:43Otherwise, you are just trapped in your own echo chamber, thinking that everything that you do is going to be
04:49amazing.
04:50I mean, sure, you're going to have a couple of these lucky releases where everything is kind of going to
04:55feel amazing.
04:56But ultimately, complacency is always going to hit you no matter what, if you are not looking at a big
05:03picture.
05:04If I'm being honest, my concern isn't The Witcher 4 itself.
05:08It's that CDPR now has The Witcher 4, Cyberpunk 2, Witcher Remake and other Witcher projects reportedly in development.
05:16The studio is much larger than it was during The Witcher 3 era, but managing multiple massive RPG projects simultaneously
05:23is going to be difficult.
05:25For example, scope creep, communication issues, and maybe deadline pressure could exactly be the problems that might mess up with
05:34their projects, which basically contributed to Cyberpunk's troubled launch.
05:39Overall, however, I think Nowakowski's comments are a good sign because they show humility rather than victory lap PR.
05:46CDPR has largely redeemed Cyberpunk 2077 as a game.
05:50And whether they're fully redeemed themselves as a company depends on what happens when The Witcher 4 launches.
05:57You know, people don't really care about redemption arcs.
05:59They care about the next release.
06:02And if The Witcher 4 ships polished and lives up to expectations, a lot of people will consider the lesson
06:08learned.
06:08And if it doesn't, the Cyberpunk launch will become the defining story of CDPR rather than a temporary setback.
06:15And as far as I'm concerned, I wish CDPR the very best, because I see the potential they have.
06:22It would be such a shame that something bad happens with The Witcher 4, and I definitely hope everything is
06:28going to be okay.
06:30And that's basically the news.
06:31Thanks very much for watching, and as always, like, share, subscribe, comment, all that good stuff.
06:37And that's it from me, until the next one.
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