CD Projekt Red won’t be putting microtransactions in single player games like The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 any time soon, according to comments recently made by the company’s Chief Financial Officer.
During an interview with Stockwatch.pl(translated via Google) Piotr Nielubowicz was asked whether future games will have microtransactions added into them. To this, Nielubowicz replied “we do not see a place for microtransactions in the case of single player games”.
The clarification arrives at a time when microtransactions are once again the subject of fierce debate, due mainly to the controversy surrounding Dragon’s Dogma 2’s lengthy list of DLC items which released alongside the main game. Although it transpired nearly all these items were acquirable in game anyway, players were nonetheless hacked off at Capcom’s attempting to flog them a bunch of extras when the game had literally just launched.
For its part, CD Projekt Red didn’t rule out using microtransactions at all. Following his comment regarding single-player games, Nielubowicz added “we do not exclude that we will use this solution in the future in the case of multiplayer projects.”
This could relate to Project Sirius, CD Projekt’s multiplayer witcher game currently being developed by Boston-based studio The Molasses Flood. Despite the game resetting development early last year, Nielubowicz confirms in the interview that it will still feature multiplayer components. He also clarifies the game is being treated as a “AAA project” while VP of Investor Relations Karolina Gnas says CDP is becoming “increasingly satisfied with the progress of work” with about 40 people working on it right now.
Microtransactions aren’t the only hot topic CD Projekt Red has addressed lately. Last week, Cyberpunk 2077’s quest designer Pawel Sasko said there was a “gigantic, really long way to go” before NPCs powered by generative AI can match the quality of hand-written characters. The company also shed some light on the Witcher 4’s development, stating the sequel is “not just repeating what was done before” as it confirmed 400 people are now working on the project.