Cyberpunk 2077 dev asks for "trust" in light of cut content concerns
"Cutting features and scope is a very normal part of game development"
A CD Projekt Red developer has addressed concerns about cut content in Cyberpunk 2077. Fans have been talking about the old alpha footage of the game that came out back in 2018, pointing to features shown, like wall running, that the devs have since announced will no longer be part of it.
Senior level designer, Miles Tost, explained that content gets cut from games a lot, and asks fans to trust that they know what they're doing with their own game.
As he explains in a statement on the game's forum, the amount of content CDPR have already shown of Cyberpunk has likely led to fans seeing a lot of stuff that won't be in the final game. But that's OK, because this happens a lot.
"Cutting features and scope is a very normal part of game development. You can witness it so openly with our game, because we happily gave in to community wishes and showed you that 2018 demo."
"Think about it," he adds. "The game - two years from release. Of course we iterate and change stuff and of course we also have ideas that sound great on paper but then don't end up working out well in the game with all the other features."
That demo, which Brendy called "a vivid drug-huffing first-person romp of guns and butts", originally showed the cool wall running, but unfortunately it was cut "due to design reasons". Usually this sort of talk just means it just didn't fit in with what they were trying to do, or it was simply proving too much hassle to create and implement. Either way, fans shouldn't feel slighted by these decisions, because, as Tost says, ultimately they're made so the game isn't weighed down by features that don't work as intended.
"Witcher 3 we also cut a ton of stuff, but in the end all of it made the game better," he says. "Now I understand this is disappointing for everyone when it happens, and also it's difficult to understand without the context of the development environment, but in this case I just kindly ask for your trust. "
I find it interesting that people can get so up-in-arms about things like cut content before a game has even come out. You would think that developers know what is and isn't working in their game well enough to make a decision on what features should stay. Wall running, for example, sounds well cool, but without knowing how it would've fit into the world, I'm not hurt by the fact we won't see it in Cyberpunk.
"Just look at stories of so many other games you might enjoy," Tost says. "Believe me when I say that during development some loved features were also cut and you still enjoy them today, maybe even because of the cuts."
"In the end, it is all about how much fun the game and its systems provide you and we are doing our best to make sure it is as great of an experience as it can be. Sometimes for that, you have to make some hard decisions, and this time around you were here to witness it."
It's not long now until we find out what Cyberpunk 2077 has in store for us, because it comes out in just three weeks on November 19th. It's worth noting that the devs are reportedly crunching to reach that date. Update: And now Cyberpunk 2077 is delayed again, this time to December 10th.