Today is the day that finally, after years of development work, CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 has gone gold. The massive open world RPG was announced way back in 2012, a full three years before The Witcher 3 launched from the same studio. For anyone who doesn’t know, this means the base version of the game is now complete, and ready to be pressed onto discs.
Of course, in the modern world, that’s by no means finished. CD Projekt Red will now be working on bug fixes and general polish for a pre-release patch, likely to fix lingering issues. The developer was recently called out for its declaration that the team would need to crunch from now until launch, after previously expressing the desire to eliminate the practice from its development cycles.
Although the game was initially announced eight years ago, full production began once development on The Witcher 3 and its DLC wrapped up. That makes roughly four and a half years of full development time, which isn’t a massive amount for a game of this size. It’s no surprise then, that game has seen multiple delays and will be worked on right until mid November.
Cyberpunk 2077 has gone gold! 📀
See you in Night City on November 19th! pic.twitter.com/s6U266Y1fp
— Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) October 5, 2020
On the way to market
In the days following the crunch story, CD Projekt Red released a TV ad for Cyberpunk 2077. It showed snippets of game footage mixed in with live action commentary from Keanu Reeves, who stars in the game. While it was short and sweet, it sent a message out that regardless of circulating stories, CD Projekt Red was still aiming for November 19. Cyberpunk 2077 going gold confirms this date.
Expect to see more on Cyberpunk 2077 in the coming weeks. Even though a native next-gen version isn’t shipping in 2020, this is still one of the biggest launches of the year. The Witcher 3 managed to make $50 million on Steam alone between October 2018 and February 2020, more than three years after launch.
