This week in The Controversy That Isn’t Actually A Controversy But Don’t Let That Stop The Internet, CD Projekt Red has (re-)confirmed that the game’s multiplayer mode includes microtransactions, same as before.
Cyberpunk 2077 is a single-player game first, the studio emphasises, with some kind of multiplayer mode dropping subsequent to its November launch. That’s a “separate project” entirely, and the microtransactions are exclusive to this.
Nothing changed. Cyberpunk 2077 is a single player game with zero microtransactions. One single purchase. No tricks. Don’t believe the clickbait. https://t.co/qX0iZwsAf2
— Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) September 7, 2020
CDPR has previously talked about monetisation models and Cyberpunk 2077, since 2017 even. And okay, maybe the “honest” thing was kind of ambiguous because it doesn’t explicitly cite microtransactions, but it doesn’t preclude them either, and I dunno how else people expect to fund the cost of servers and network maintenance and other tedious admin involved in supporting online multiplayer. It’s 2020, and the microtransactions are implied. Besides, the game’s multiplayer mode was a maybe-but-maybe-not until September 2019, and promises of free DLC were unequivocally about the single-player campaign. And because we’re on the subject, expect some DLC that isn’t free too because expansions like The Witcher 3’s Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine don’t spontaneously develop themselves, thanks for joining my TED Talk.