Cyberpunk playable from beginning to end already, according to CDP Red

Ugicywapih

New member
May 15, 2014
179
0
0
link [https://www.engadget.com/2018/08/23/cyberpunk-2077-daylight-interview/?guccounter=1]

Just dug it up on Reddit, apparently they're still missing assets and there's QA to be done, but the game is more or less playable.
 

Dansen

Master Lurker
Mar 24, 2010
932
39
33
The marketing of this game is such a shit show.

"Hey guys, the main story is pretty much done but we wont give a release window or show off anything to the public. We totes got this, you can play it when its ready!"

Its not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, i just find it irritating that CD Projekt Red essentially release a second teaser trailer after five years with little info and expect interest to maintain itself indefinitely. I just need a rough release date so I know how long I need to forget about this game.
 

Gethsemani_v1legacy

New member
Oct 1, 2009
2,552
0
0
So they're in late alpha or early beta? They could have just told us so.

Dansen said:
The marketing of this game is such a shit show.
I actually think it is kind of genius. They know that they have a bunch of hardcore fans that eat up their every word and they are using that to maximum effect by releasing tidbits like this to keep the conversation going.
 

Phoenixmgs_v1legacy

Muse of Fate
Sep 1, 2010
4,691
0
0
Dansen said:
The marketing of this game is such a shit show.

"Hey guys, the main story is pretty much done but we wont give a release window or show off anything to the public. We totes got this, you can play it when its ready!"
Well, how asinine the gamer community acts now, it seems like slightest mistake will trigger them like how killing Nazis became political... CDPR might as well just ride the whole "CDPR are the best devs ever" train and not show a damn thing about the game, then let the "best game ever" reviews advertisements sell the game on hype and CDPR reputation alone.
 
Apr 5, 2008
3,736
0
0
This was more or less a given. I have listened closely over the years for any news about the game and the only thing I knew for certain was that CDPR had taken the decision, shortly after the teaser trailer (and weirdly setting up a site for dev updates!) to not say anything at all until they felt the game was close enough to being done that there was something worth saying. And that's what they've done.

Personally, I prefer this approach to a) early access drivel, encouraging players to spend money while a game is still even in Alpha/Beta, get a mediocre/incomplete experience WITHOUT a guarantee that the game will even be finished/fully realised or b) the buggy "Release now, Fix later" approach EA, Ubisoft and the like seem to be adopting now. Games like ME:Andromeda, SW: Battlefront II and the last few AssCreeds (but Unity most notably) are from supposedly reputable, so-called "AAA" publishers but are broken, incomplete or barely playable messes.

The fact is game development, especially on TW3 and CP2077 scales, takes many tens of thousands of man hours by hundreds of staff for several years. They got on with the hard graft in peace, knowing there's no point in hyping a game 5 years from release, particularly since they aren't going to release it in Beta/Early Access/unpolished/Ubisoft form. They've been making the maps, models, textures, sounds, music, voice work, scripting and writing, combat mechanics and systems, etc and now they've released more substantial in-engine trailers and gameplay demos it's because the big bulk of creation is done, and now is the last stretch. Adding the polish, fixing the bugs, plugging the gaps and placeholders, changing things within reason/budget to enhance the experience, etc.

This game is not vapourware, CDPR have done everything they promised with this game, and are going to release a DRM-free, single-player game without real money stores, something Ubi/EA/ActiBlizz/Squeenix are all incapable of doing. While I would pay double right now for the ability to play, this game WILL be worth the wait. Would I have liked and preferred to have some news over the years instead of silence? Yes, absolutely. Would I like a release date? Of course I would. But I would prefer to receive the best possible game in the best possible state and would rather wait for THAT game. Note what happened to rushed games like VTMB, KotOR2 and Alpha Protocol, flawed gems all, great games marred by rushed releases.

The game is coming, it will blow anything made by EA/Ubisoft out of the water and be one of the best single-player experiences we'll ever see.
 

Dansen

Master Lurker
Mar 24, 2010
932
39
33
Gethsemani said:
So they're in late alpha or early beta? They could have just told us so.

Dansen said:
The marketing of this game is such a shit show.
I actually think it is kind of genius. They know that they have a bunch of hardcore fans that eat up their every word and they are using that to maximum effect by releasing tidbits like this to keep the conversation going.
I'm subbed to sub reddit where all these super fans lurk. It is backfiring, I've noticed a huge uptick in negative comments. The strategy is to drip feed cryptic tweets that allow the imaginations of obsessive fans to run wild. They then get disappointed when their expectations aren't met. Its not a huge deal, its a small community and I'm sure the game will be good, I just wanted to point out that this "marketing" isn't exactly generating good buzz. It smacks of arrogance and inexperience.
 

Adam Jensen_v1legacy

I never asked for this
Sep 8, 2011
6,651
0
0
This doesn't mean much. The Witcher 3 was playable from start to finish before E3 of 2014 and they still needed a whole year to optimize the game and make other changes and, of course, downgrade it so it would run on consoles.
 

Gethsemani_v1legacy

New member
Oct 1, 2009
2,552
0
0
Dansen said:
I'm subbed to sub reddit where all these super fans lurk. It is backfiring, I've noticed a huge uptick in negative comments. The strategy is to drip feed cryptic tweets that allow the imaginations of obsessive fans to run wild. They then get disappointed when their expectations aren't met. Its not a huge deal, its a small community and I'm sure the game will be good, I just wanted to point out that this "marketing" isn't exactly generating good buzz. It smacks of arrogance and inexperience.
That actually makes me pretty happy. CDPRs current trend with Cyberpunk makes me think less of the friendly, by-gamers-for-gamers company that they've tried to paint themselves as for the last decade and more like a bunch of arrogant newbies trying to cover up the holes in their game. That an old and proven PR technique to over-hype gamers is failing is a good sign.
 

sageoftruth

New member
Jan 29, 2010
3,417
0
0
I'm withholding my hype. As others have said, this game is probably still far from finished. I'm just glad I can have some faith in knowing they won't release it until it's finished.

I've got other games I can play until then, and when it finally does come out, I'll be watching with hope and interest, wallet ready, in case it turns out to be as great as I'd hoped.
 

sageoftruth

New member
Jan 29, 2010
3,417
0
0
KingsGambit said:
I'm with you on most of this. As you said, so far, they've been a company with far more integrity than most, when it comes to how they treat their customers. Also, as you said, their under-hyped marketing reinforces that trustworthy image, as a company that will give you exactly what they promise.

It's because of this that their product has my attention. I'm still against hype and jumping the gun when it comes to buying games, but knowing that this game is their game is enough to ensure that I'll at least be watching it with interest when it comes out, and I'll at least be surprised if reviews end up slamming it. It's a game that I'm very ready to buy, based on the company alone, but I haven't yet ruled out that it could still flop.
 

Baffle

Elite Member
Oct 22, 2016
3,459
2,746
118
I'm always much happier with a game that is playable from beginning to end. Doing it the other way round is a pain. All the levelling down. :(
 

Dalisclock

Making lemons combustible again
Legacy
Escapist +
Feb 9, 2008
11,228
7,007
118
A Barrel In the Marketplace
Country
Eagleland
Gender
Male
An important step to be sure. Hopefully that means the next year or so is spent polishing and tweaking. I'm happy to wait until it's finished.
 

Addendum_Forthcoming

Queen of the Edit
Feb 4, 2009
3,647
0
0
Gethsemani said:
So they're in late alpha or early beta? They could have just told us so.

Dansen said:
The marketing of this game is such a shit show.
I actually think it is kind of genius. They know that they have a bunch of hardcore fans that eat up their every word and they are using that to maximum effect by releasing tidbits like this to keep the conversation going.
That sounds like a good strategy until you realize that if the game tanks, or assets are leaked, they've effectively spent the good will of some of their fans, and they aren't liable to attract new consumers.

Out of sight, out of mind.

Not only that, by releasing a decent amount of info youcan gauge player interest through discussion. Make changes. Be prepared to ascertain true market appeal. By effectively going this long into development, and showing fuck all for it, they've effectively blinded themselves in their own dev cycle and that can be dangerous.

Artists are egotistical shitheads already, and so too are people who cloister in closed off corner offices away from their general staff. A good manager knows to make routine public appearances on the working floor ... and it's no different here. If you do not take opportunities to generate speculation and discussion, get a real and grounded understanding of the floor and how operations should be, you're already courting problems. Doing effectively bothof mere academic rather than market focussed thinktanking on a project, while cloistering your property off from public speculation, is a recipe for disaster of alienating consumers who, in the end, are their bread and butter.

By basically going so many years of prodding market interest and doing nothing about it, you haven't inculcated a more efficient production schedule tobegin with. I mean, think about it ... it sounds likea good strategy, but the best strategy is putting a brazier under your own arse, generating the greatest possible speculative gaze, getting the public geared to buy your game, and because of routine appearances you've created every reason for your artists and coders to meet deadlines.

By doing anything else, you're only setting yourself for possibly creating a massive boondoggle or not meeting expectations for such a longwinded dev cycle.

There's no worker more unproductive, more pointless, than an artist or writer with no deadline or too flush with cash they don't need to worry about eating and putting a roof over their head.

William Hogarth's The Shrimp Girl is a certifiable masterpiece. And he agonized over it because he wanted, set out, to create a masterpiece portrait of the common people on London streets and thought it was never good enough to truly capture the innocent beauty of London's less fortunate whoalways lived in hopes for something better through their gruelling labours.

It never got finished, and any glories of its actual extents ofcompletion were earned only after he had died and because his wife personally invited people to view it. And as if a loving widow's angry blade at his detractors; "They said he could not paint flesh! There's flesh and blood for you!"

Honestly, they should really make a movie about Jane and William Hogarth ... The Shrimp Girl could make a nice centre focus of the film that helps act as an allegory for the pair's relationship, their works of charity, and his endless jabs at continental artists and aristocracy with his social satire... artists who fawned and were fawning over aristocratic graces, and him viciously tearing at the immorality of the world. How these decadent continental artists' works cover every square inch of a fallen aristocrat's house rife with the chaos of distance from the true industry and artistic nature of humanity.

"The Shrimp Girl" in a florid font...

A BBC1 6 parter period piece...

That being said ... still incomplete, still dead, and many years agonizing over a masterpiece that would still have been a masterpiece if he finished it prior to carking it.
 

PsychedelicDiamond

Wild at Heart and weird on top
Legacy
Jan 30, 2011
1,923
746
118
On one hand it's easy to roll your eyes at CDPRs handling of Cyberpunk 2077 seeing how we've still not seen a minute of actual gameplay footage on the other hand I can't really blame them, seeing how much of a shitstorm there was when they had to downgrade Witcher 3 to a point that the early gameplay footage wasn't representative of what it actually looked like. So I can see why they're not gonna show gameplay footage before they can be absolutely sure that the footage they show will actually look like the game that's gonna come out. The problem, and it's a problem with most games in general, is that it was announced way too early. Had it been announced first this year, when the trailer came out, I imagine people would be much more patient. But seeing how this was announced well before Witcher 3 even came out people want to see results now. I don't think the timeframe between a games announcement and a games release should ever be longer than 2 years, honestly.
 
Apr 5, 2008
3,736
0
0
PsychedelicDiamond said:
On one hand it's easy to roll your eyes at CDPRs handling of Cyberpunk 2077 seeing how we've still not seen a minute of actual gameplay footage on the other hand I can't really blame them, seeing how much of a shitstorm there was when they had to downgrade Witcher 3 to a point that the early gameplay footage wasn't representative of what it actually looked like. So I can see why they're not gonna show gameplay footage before they can be absolutely sure that the footage they show will actually look like the game that's gonna come out. The problem, and it's a problem with most games in general, is that it was announced way too early. Had it been announced first this year, when the trailer came out, I imagine people would be much more patient. But seeing how this was announced well before Witcher 3 even came out people want to see results now. I don't think the timeframe between a games announcement and a games release should ever be longer than 2 years, honestly.
Not sure if you're aware but it's a point worth mentioning in regard to your point about gameplay footage: the E3 trailer was in-engine footage. It wasn't pre-rendered or FMV so while I make no comment about snazzy camera work or editing, the visuals in the trailer are very much representative. And personally, I consider that a great point in its favour. I think FMV trailers are generally rubbish and tell us nothing about the advertised product.

If you mean actual gameplay vs just game footage, then you are right. The only gameplay demo was shown behind closed doors of the first mission in the game, but only journalists got to see it. Hopefully we'll get to soon also. You may be right about too soon, or maybe not. I think they know what state the game is in and picked the time they felt was right. If they wanted to release it at an E3, gaming's biggest event, then the choice would've been this year or next years, and if they chose this one it's probably for a reason. Maybe it is still a year away and E3 2019 there will be a huge demo and release a couple of months later. That wouldn't be unusual...I've seen titles announced at E3s several years before release (and some that never even got released).

I'll go with you on the 2 years thing. Or maybe even go as far as 12-18 months. I can't stay excited for a thing for 2 years, but as a maximum, sure. Wait a sec, let me find this article I remembered just now....

Here: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/169834-CD-Projekt-Red-New-Game-2019.

There are a bunch of reports like that around the web. My understanding is essentially that CDPR received a government grant to aid development of a variety of gaming technologies, from quality animation, seamless multiplayer and cross-platform play. As part of the deal, they were obliged to release four (or five?) titles by 2021, I believe. Somewhere else I read, but cannot remember where, that they had roadmapped those titles already. I'm not sure if TW3 was one of them, but Gwent certainly was. CP2077 is the second or third, widely predicted for 2019 and there'll be at least one other game from them by 2021.
 

Abomination

New member
Dec 17, 2012
2,939
0
0
They barely need to market at all anymore. As much as "hype" is great we all know that it'll fly off the shelves at launch.

I'm happy they've got it in a working state and are going to spend the next stage optimizing the game.

They can release it when it's done.

The "fans" are not entitled to anything beyond what they pay for the game when the game is released. CD Projekt will release it when they're satisfied it is release worthy. Apparently they do not believe it to be release worthy yet.