Comprehensive Overview of CDPR Q1 Financial Results for 2018

[Suhiira]

It really depends what sort of multiplayer CDPR has in mind.

We know CP2077 is not going to be an MMO.
We strongly suspect multiplayer won't be the currently popular team deathmatch thing.
It's possible there may be some sort of PvP in the Combat zone, but game wide PvP is highly unlikely.
We hope it'll be some sort of cooperative "invite a couple friends to play with you" thing.

 

[sv3672]

This is my guess as well. It could be a ways after SP release. I mean we all know that a story driven campaign is their bread and butter but their hiring still lists positions for MP design.

If The Witcher 3 is anything to go by, 99% of the content of substance is either in the base game (as released on 19th May 2015), or in the paid DLCs. In other words, I would find it surprising if a core feature was implemented only in a patch. Of course, that does not mean patches will not improve what is already in the game (good MP does require ongoing maintenance), what I mean is if something is considered important by CDPR, it will probably be included on the day of release, or come in the expansions. That is why I mentioned the government grant, the fact that CDPR requested it for MP in my opinion suggests that they do consider it important. Regarding the job postings, they still have positions even for concept artists, so that does not necessarily tell much about what phase the development is in.

 

[Suhiira]

Multiplayer really has to be built into a game from the beginning (that doesn't mean it has to be implemented).
The game code needed to run a strictly single-player game will not handle multiplayer well (perhaps not at all). We've seen the sorts of horrible things that happen when a multiplayer mode is tacked onto a game because someone thought it would increase profits. This is one of the major reasons MMOs take longer and cost more to create then (most) single-player games.

 

[Snowflakez]

If The Witcher 3 is anything to go by, 99% of the content of substance is either in the base game (as released on 19th May 2015), or in the paid DLCs. In other words, I would find it surprising if a core feature was implemented only in a patch. Of course, that does not mean patches will not improve what is already in the game (good MP does require ongoing maintenance), what I mean is if something is considered important by CDPR, it will probably be included on the day of release, or come in the expansions. That is why I mentioned the government grant, the fact that CDPR requested it for MP in my opinion suggests that they do consider it important. Regarding the job postings, they still have positions even for concept artists, so that does not necessarily tell much about what phase the development is in.

Well said. This is probably one of the first times I agree with you on anything, even if it's small. This calls for celebration.

Post-release in the form of a paid (maybe free, so as not to make people mad? Tough to say...) DLC seems the most likely, as it allows them to not only recoup costs through people getting excited and buying the base game, but also through people buying the DLC.

I'm betting this hypothetical DLC doesn't just include multiplayer, though. That'd piss off singleplayer fans. They'll probably throw in a nice new zone or story for SP fans to toy around in as well, but the bulk of the content will almost certainly be MP.

It could be in the base game, but that'd be really strange to me. Even GTA V didn't include GTA:O in the base game, for precisely the same reasons I've laid out here (they could then take the revenue from the base game and shovel it all into the development and release of MP - even if it was a bit delayed).

Multiplayer really has to be built into a game from the beginning (that doesn't mean it has to be implemented).
The game code needed to run a strictly single-player game will not handle multiplayer well (perhaps not at all). We've seen the sorts of horrible things that happen when a multiplayer mode is tacked onto a game because someone thought it would increase profits. This is one of the major reasons MMOs take longer and cost more to create then (most) single-player games.

Probably correct. They can probably spend time working on netcode and other important multiplayer aspects without dedicating too much of their resources to it early on. They can then later focus on the actual content, the stuff that will take the most time.

 

[BaalNergal]

There's also the problem that, often, multiplayer stuff has to be differently balanced than single player if the game starts out single player. Building around multiplayer from the beginning allows for the proper balance to be baked into the game, rather than it being an infinite series of patches in a failed attempt to get it to work. Or, worse, stripped of features that would make it well liked simply because you can't get it to work with them without rebuilding the game engine from the ground up (I've seen this happen).

 

[Sneky]

There's also the problem that, often, multiplayer stuff has to be differently balanced than single player if the game starts out single player. Building around multiplayer from the beginning allows for the proper balance to be baked into the game, rather than it being an infinite series of patches in a failed attempt to get it to work. Or, worse, stripped of features that would make it well liked simply because you can't get it to work with them without rebuilding the game engine from the ground up (I've seen this happen).

Unless they are separataly working on singleplayer and multiplayer, design principles also differ for multi and single. Kicinski said in march that they wont release multiplayer with singleplayer except maybe some minor MP stuff, so there is possibility that it will be separate "game" like GTA Online or something released later.

 

[Suhiira]

Probably correct. They can probably spend time working on netcode and other important multiplayer aspects without dedicating too much of their resources to it early on. They can then later focus on the actual content, the stuff that will take the most time.

Look as something as "simple" as an inventory.
Keeping track of the individual inventory of a dozen or hundred players requires VASTLY different code then tracking one character, or even a character and a handful of companions.

There's an entire specialty in programming dedicated to data base administration and manipulation.

The best net code in the world is useless if something as "simple" as the inventory system used by the game isn't designed from the very start for multiplayer. While important, the net code is just the tip of the iceberg.

 

[Snowflakez]

Look as something as "simple" as an inventory.
Keeping track of the individual inventory of a dozen or hundred players requires VASTLY different code then tracking one character, or even a character and a handful of companions.

There's an entire specialty in programming dedicated to data base administration and manipulation.

The best net code in the world is useless if something as "simple" as the inventory system used by the game isn't designed from the very start for multiplayer. While important, the net code is just the tip of the iceberg.

I'll take your word for it. Not familiar with multiplayer game development.

 

[BaalNergal]

Look as something as "simple" as an inventory.
Keeping track of the individual inventory of a dozen or hundred players requires VASTLY different code then tracking one character, or even a character and a handful of companions.

There's an entire specialty in programming dedicated to data base administration and manipulation.

The best net code in the world is useless if something as "simple" as the inventory system used by the game isn't designed from the very start for multiplayer. While important, the net code is just the tip of the iceberg.

Some single player games run across this problem as well; Sims 3 has a known bug where parts of sim inventory can be lost simply because of how many inventories the game is keeping track of. Add container inventories and it's insane how many there can be for a single lot. I noticed that, in Sims 4, they simplified this through linked inventories between type of container.

I also noticed most MMOs don't have complex inventory systems, so I'm thinking it's probably an ongoing problem even when the game is designed with it in mind.

 

[Suhiira]

Really depends how it's designed.
In the original EverQuest, much to my surprise, the inventory system was quite robust. In each of my bank slots (8 I believe) I placed a chest (8 slots as well), in each chest slot I had a bag, each bag was 8 slots (as I recall), some "magic bags" had up to 16 and varying amounts of weight reduction, and each slot could hold a stack of up to 100 stackable items ... for a theoretical total of 512 Individual) to 51,200 (stackable) items.

It's really a question of how the system is designed and more importantly how much data volume the designer wants to allocate. In an MMO with thousands if not millions (WoW) of players it can add up to a LOT of storage in a hurry and disc packs (a desk sized cabinet with multiple hard drives) ain't cheap.

 

[Gizmo0]

"Q: CDPR stated that they considers 5 month campaign between the announcement and the release to be a short campaign. You should take this more in lines of that campaign will be more than likely 6+ months long rather than 6 months exactly."

Not sure I'm understanding it. Are they saying when they show the game off they intend to release it in 6'ish months time after that?

What they are trying to say is that there won't be a short marketing campaign, which in their eyes is 5 months, however, this does not mean game will release on 6th month. It could be 6 months it could be 10 months it could be 18 months. We don't know.

 

[Gizmo0]

Has that been confirmed officially? I do recall a statement about single player being the higher priority (i.e. the majority of resources will be spent on that, which is unsurprising), but not sure about an outright confirmation that multiplayer will not be in the game at all on release. With the government funding received for the feature and employees apparently having been hired to work on it since years ago, I would have thought multiplayer might at least be more important than something that is patched in post-release. Although it is possible that it would be in an expansion or other major addition.

All they said, they do not plan to release Multiplayer element alongside with SP, thus more than likely it will be after main game release. Thats just the plan, its more than likely down to them not wanting to commit to something that might take longer to develop.

 

[dani168]

Thanks for the hard work.

Interestingly enough, one of the game designers at Strange New Things, Jacek Brzezinki, was one of the initial Polish translators for the original Cyberpunk 2020 PnP game.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nephaarite/

Jacek Brzeziński was a project lead of Witcher 1 and 2, so it's a great comeback after many years