Cyberpunk 2077 development at full speed, but still not playable at E3 2019

By Aaron Mamiit May 26, 2019

CD Projekt Red is “proceeding at full speed” with the development of Cyberpunk 2077, but the highly anticipated game will not yet be ready for the public at E3 2019.

“The development of our next flagship game — Cyberpunk 2077 — is proceeding at full speed, with over 400 people currently involved in the project,” said CD Projekt Red’s CFO Piotr Nielubowicz in the company’s latest quarterly report. He added that E3 2019 is the “most important” one in the developer’s history.

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More information about Cyberpunk 2077 is expected to be revealed at E3 2019, as CD Projekt Red will have a dedicated E3 Coliseum panel. However, this does not mean that attendees will be able to try the game out. The developer’s global community lead, Marcin Momot, confirmed on Twitter that in the gameplay presentations planned for the annual event, it will be the developers themselves playing the game.

CD Projekt Red President Adam Kicinski, meanwhile, dropped some hints about Cyberpunk 2077 during the developer’s quarterly earnings call. One of the questions that came up was whether the game will have a version for virtual reality.

“As for VR — technically speaking, it is not terribly difficult to add support for it,” Kicinski said. However, he said that the current focus in development is on the PC and console versions of the game, and while it appears that there are no plans for taking Cyberpunk 2077 into virtual reality, the door is not completely closed.

Kicinski was also asked one of the most important questions surrounding Cyberpunk 2077 — its release date, and whether that information will be revealed at E3 2019. Interestingly, Kicinski did not shoot down the possibility.

“Sorry, but we cannot say that — I mean, we can neither confirm nor deny this,” Kicinski said to answer the question. This opens up the chance that the Cyberpunk 2077 release will finally be revealed at E3 2019, though the final confirmation will not happen until two weeks from now when the annual event kicks off.

CD Projekt Red said November last year that it is looking to release Cyberpunk 2077 with the same quality as Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption 2, not like its own The Witcher 3 that was plagued with launch bugs that took three months to fix with patches. This may be why the developer is taking so long to reveal a definite release date for the game.

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For over 20 years, the ESA held an event called E3 each June, where companies from around the video game industry would come together and show off their upcoming games. It got canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and the ESA took 2022 off after a rough digital-only show in 2021. The expo was set to return in 2023, but was canceled in March after Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Ubisoft, and other game companies pulled out of the event. E3's future was put into question after that, and now it looks like it might not be coming back for the foreseeable future.

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With E3 2023 gone, other gaming events need to step up

Despite how inevitable the complete downfall of E3 felt over the past several years, E3 2023’s official cancellation still strings as it’s a significant loss for the game industry. For gamers, press, and developers, the show served multiple purposes that digital livestreams and scattered publisher-specific events don't currently replicate. In lieu of E3’s cancelation this year, and potentially forever, it’s time for other gaming events to step up and help push the video game industry forward.
Why we lost E3
I’m lucky enough to have the experience of attending three E3 shows across 2017, 2018, and 2019 and many publisher-run events focused on specific games or tighter game lineups. In its final years, E3 felt like the perfect middle ground to the gamer-focused PAX and industry-focused GDC, where people from all walks and sides of the video game industry could come together, see what’s coming in the future, and share their love for games.

It also felt more freeing than publisher-run events, as I discovered and experienced games of all sizes that I may not have otherwise and got to meet many people from every angle of the game industry. Apparently, the Entertainment Software Association struggled to convince enough people that this style of expo was important four years after the last physical event.
In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Entertainment Software Association president Stanley Pierre-Louis blamed E3 2023’s cancellation on the Covid-19 pandemic, “economic headwinds” due to the current recession that impacted marketing budgets, and the fact that “companies are starting to experiment with how to find the right balance between in-person events and digital marketing opportunities.”
The first two are understandable and have impacted a lot of physical events over the past couple of years. Still, the last reason speaks to a bit more worrying of a shift for those looking to network, get attention from the press, get a broader look at the industry’s future, or even pitch a game.
What we lose
Events are a great way for indies to get unexpected and much-needed attention from players and the press; look at the chance encounter that got one of our team’s freelancers hooked on Homeseek at PAX East. Now, indies will have to hope to gain attention at those more indie-focused events like PAX or be cherry-picked to be featured in a more prominent company’s showcasing. There’s also the networking and pitch factor to it.

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E3 2023 has officially been canceled by the ESA and ReedPop

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https://twitter.com/E3/status/1641546610218811393
E3 was once a prominent annual video game industry trade show but has struggled to re-emerge since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. E3 did not take place in 2020 or 2022, and a digital-only attempt at the show in 2021 did not live up to expectations. The ESA was attempting to bring the show back this year with the help of PAX organizer ReedPop, and even approved press passes for the event already, but it appears the developers and publishers have lost faith in E3. Ubisoft pulled out of the show earlier this week after initially committing to be there, while Sega, Bandai Namco Entertainment, and Level Infinite confirmed they wouldn't be there in the following days.
While E3 2023 is not happening, there are going to be many other things for people to look forward to. Geoff Keighley will host a Summer Game Fest show on June 8, Microsoft is holding a Starfield direct and larger showcase on June 11, while Ubisoft will have a Ubisoft Forward Live event in Los Angeles on June 12.