After being delayed several times, developer CD Projekt Red announced on Monday morning that their latest open-world title, Cyberpunk 2077, has officially gone gold, thus pretty much guaranteeing that it’ll meet its November 19 release date.
The Poland-based developer revealed the news via their various social media platforms with the following message: “Cyberpunk 2077 has gone gold! See you in Night City on November 19th!”
Cyberpunk 2077 has gone gold! 📀
See you in Night City on November 19th! pic.twitter.com/s6U266Y1fp
— Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) October 5, 2020
For those who don’t know, going gold is the term given to a game when its release version is complete. But, just because the game has now gone gold doesn’t mean there’s no more work to be done.
Even though the release version of Cyberpunk 2077 is now complete, almost every major AAA release arrives with a day-one patch, and CD Projekt Red’s latest will likely be no different. Also, the game will have a ton of post-launch content — story expansions and multiplayer — so there’s still more work to be done.
Recently, CD Projekt Red told employees that they’ll have to work six days a week until the launch of their next game, which caused a bit of controversy. Shortly thereafter, the developer’s studio head, Adam Badowski, responded to the criticism.
“These last six weeks are our final spring on a project we’ve all spent much of our lives on. Something we care for deeply. The majority of the team understands that push, especially in light of the fact that we’ve just sent the game to cert and every day brings us visibly closer to shipping a game we want to be proud of. This is one of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make, but everyone is well compensated for every extra hour they put in, and, like in recent years, 10% of the annual profit our company generates in 2020 will be split directly among the team.”
CD Projekt Red hasn’t given a firm release date on Cyberpunk 2077’s post-launch DLC, nor have they given a release date for its multiplayer, and regarding the latter, it looks like it won’t be added until sometime in 2022. The devs also are developing the game’s next-gen version, which will arrive for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X sometime next year.
Cyberpunk 2077 will be CD Projekt Red’s first major AAA release since The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which is widely regarded as being one of the best open-world RPGs of all-time. So, naturally, expectations are high for their next project, and we’ll see if they’re able to meet them when the game comes to current-gen consoles and PC on November 19.