CD Projekt acquires Cyberpunk 2077 support studio Digital Scapes
CD Projekt has announced its acquisition of Digital Scapes, a Canadian development studio founded in 2012 by veterans of BioWare, Radical Entertainment, and Relic that specializes in multiplayer game development. The buyout cements a long-standing working relationship between the two companies, which began when CD Projekt brought Digital Scapes on to help with the development of Cyberpunk 2077 in October 2018.
"Digital Scapes have put in a great deal of work during the making of Cyberpunk 2077, assisting with development of the game and optimizing its various features," CD Projekt Red CTO and head of production Paweł Zawodny said. "In addition to contributing to our projects the new team will help us perfect our technologies and will broaden our competences in this respect."
The studio will be renamed to CD Projekt Red Vancouver, and will work jointly with other CD Projekt Red operations in Warsaw, Kraków and Wrocław on "upcoming projects." Unfortunately, there's no indication as to what those projects might be. Digital Scapes’ role on Cyberpunk 2077 was never made entirely clear, but the assumption was that it was assisting with the creation of its planned multiplayer component. The fate of that aspect of Cyberpunk 2077, which was expected to be a major, effectively standalone production, is now unclear: In a "strategy update" video released after the Digital Scapes acquisition was announced, joint CEO Adam Kiciński said CD Projekt has "decided to reconsider" its multiplayer component.
“We are very excited to join a studio that forges the incredibly engaging, vastly scoped experiences, such as The Witcher trilogy and Cyberpunk 2077," Vancouver studio head Marcin Chudy said. "We believe our contribution in the area of gameplay and technology can make them even more captivating.
“Being a Polish Canadian, I personally take great satisfaction in building bridges between Canadian and Polish game development industries. This is a great opportunity for Canadian developers to get involved with CD Projekt Red’s incredible IP and for CD Projekt Red to tap into Canada’s deep talent pool and game-making craft.”
CD Projekt has previously said that Cyberpunk 2077 multiplayer isn't likely to arrive until sometime in 2022, but that was before the game's catastrophic launch (particularly on consoles), which forced the studio to delay planned DLC releases in order to focus on fixes instead. The 1.2 patch, with more than 500 fixes, went live yesterday.