WithCyberpunk 2077’s launch now behind it, publisher CD Projekt is looking towards the future. Obviously, that includes fixingCyberpunk 2077and delivering on past promises. But even more meaningful at this point is learning from the mistakes that led toCyberpunk 2077’s launch and doing better going forward. to that effect, CD Projekt SVP of business development Michal Nowakowski announced forthcoming changes at the company. At the center of those changes is one key area – marketing.
Nowakowski spoke about the issue in a recently-released video. In the video, he directly addressed the problems that led toCyberpunk 2077’s launch, with the company’s marketing strategies being a key focus. The two core ideas Nowakowski directed attention to were thatCD Projekt’s marketing campaign forCyberpunk 2077was started too early and that it ultimately created unrealistic expectations for the game.
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Regarding the first point, Nowakowski says that going forward CD Projekt’s marketing campaigns will be shorter and planned to coincide more closely with game launches. As such, CD Project will wait longer before showing “trailers, demos, or going in-depth about mechanics.” Note thatCyberpunk 2077had trailers available years in advanceof launch. That way, when the marketing campaign does start, it can better manage expectations while also providing more robust coverage of what the game actually offers.
As to the second point, Nowakowski points to errors leading up toCyberpunk 2077’s launch as examples of setting unrealistic expectations. For example, CD Projekt advertisedfeatures forCyberpunk 2077that were never finished, and only showed PC gameplay while launching an inferior experience on PS4 and Xbox One. Clearer communication that focuses only on showing content that “makes sense” should then prevent fans from building unreal expectations for what CD Projekt’s developers are doing.
There’s an underlying message here, as well. Bettermarketing campaignswill directly lead to better games. For example, advertising a feature early means developers have to work on that feature even if it eventually doesn’t make sense to include. Or, more generally, not announcing a game years early means developers aren’t under unrealistic timeframes for delivering that game and can instead focus on making the best game they can.
Fixing CD Projekt’s marketing and its game development cycles also means addressing crunch, a topic that created significant negative energy surroundingCyberpunk 2077prior to launch. That negativity doesn’t seem to haveimpactedCyberpunk 2077’s sales, but it very likely contributed to the controversies that spun out of launch. Needless to say, CD Projekt has a lot of issues to work out, from marketing to crunch and beyond, but being transparent about its efforts is a good start.
Cyberpunk 2077is available now on PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One, with PS5 and Xbox Series X/S support currently in development.
