Cyberpunk 2077 is definitely having a major second wind at the moment. The massive, futuristic open-world RPG is seeing plenty of renewed interest two years after its somewhat disastrous launch. That’s thanks in no small part to the success of the recently-released Cyberpunk: Edgerunners anime on Netflix. In addition, the excitement for the game’s first and possibly only DLC Phantom Liberty is cranking up ahead of its estimated release next year. However, one thing that remains missing from the title is its originally-planned multiplayer mode.
Despite this, it seems that CD Projekt RED is keen to give credit to those who worked on the as-yet-unreleased multiplayer mode in Cyberpunk 2077. One keen-eyed player over on Reddit has spotted references to the game’s multiplayer mode developers in the end credits of the game. This is in spite of Cyberpunk 2077 not actually having a multiplayer mode in place even now, two years after the game’s original release.
In March of last year, it was revealed that the team at CD Projekt RED were reconsidering the game’s multiplayer element entirely, despite it being originally on the cards for Cyberpunk 2077 at some point in 2022. A lot of this boiled down to technical issues and glitches encountered when trying to run the intense title on last-generation consoles, as well as confusion from the game’s investors as to whether or not trying to implement a multiplayer mode in a game that was struggling with bugs and crashes would be a sensible move at that point in time. As of yet, we’re still to hear anything further about the game’s intended multiplayer mode, although the inclusion of it in the credits is certainly an interesting twist.
The game had its most recent update, Edgerunners, at the beginning of this month, which coincides nicely with the release of the anime series. Despite this, the game is still only playable in single-player mode. However, could the inclusion of the multiplayer dev team in the credits signal a bit of hope that a multiplayer element is on the way at last? Possibly. It may simply be a case of the studio giving credit where credit’s due for work done on a multiplayer aspect during the development process, which is only right and proper, even if the mode didn’t end up coming to fruition. Either way, we’ll probably just have to watch this space to see if the game brings in multiplayer as an option either before or as a part of the game’s upcoming Phantom Liberty expansion.
Cyberpunk 2077 is available now on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PC. The Phantom Liberty DLC will be released at some point in 2023. We’ll be keeping an ear to the ground for further news on a specific release window for the expansion.
