Cyberpunk 2077 Campaign Shortened After Complaints of The Witcher 3 Being “Too Long”

[Tsing]

Image: CD PROJEKT RED



Cyberpunk 2077’s main story may not be as grandiose as we’d imagined. According to senior quest designer Patrick K. Mills, who recently spoke on Twitch, the sci-fi RPG’s core campaign will actually be shorter than The Witcher 3’s. Apparently, a ton of people were upset at how long CD PROJEKT RED’s previous epic was, so the developer intentionally dialed down on Cyberpunk 2077’s primary narrative.



“…the difference between a completionist run and a single, main story run…we do know that the main story run in Cyberpunk 2077 is slightly shorter than The Witcher 3 because we got a lot of complaints about Witcher 3’s main story just being too long,” Mills said. “And looking at the metrics, you see tremendous numbers of people played through that game really far but never made it to the end...

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[Uvilla]

Things turn too long if they are boring, repetitive or both. 40plus hours is fine. Its not long at all if its loads of fun. I've played 100 plus hour games no problems, just loads of fun... If the game sucks then yeah. Witcher 3 most be fairly boring if people are calling it long at 50 odd hours.

 

[northrop]

Things turn too long if they are boring, repetitive or both. 40plus hours is fine. Its not long at all if its loads of fun. I've played 100 plus hour games no problems, just loads of fun... If the game sucks then yeah. Witcher 3 most be fairly boring if people are calling it long at 50 odd hours.

My first playthrough took a little over 100hrs... and since that time, I have finished the game multiple times with ex-packs, and at this point I don't even want to know my total time spent playing it. On the flip side, I could never push myself to finish a game like Bioshock, despite everyone telling me how great it is. Doesn't mean I find Bioshock boring.. it's just not my thing.

I suspect Witcher 3 has suffered similar fate. It's hyped up to be the greatest RPG of our generation with its countless awards from everyone and their brother, and it's basically always on sale for next to nothing. I bet many people that don't typically play games like that just wanted to try it, and just never finished it. Doesn't mean the game is boring, it's just not their thing.

 

[Uvilla]

My first playthrough took a little over 100hrs... and since that time, I have finished the game multiple times with ex-packs, and at this point I don't even want to know my total time spent playing it. On the flip side, I could never push myself to finish a game like Bioshock, despite everyone telling me how great it is. Doesn't mean I find Bioshock boring.. it's just not my thing.

I suspect Witcher 3 has suffered similar fate. It's hyped up to be the greatest RPG of our generation with its countless awards from everyone and their brother, and it's basically always on sale for next to nothing. I bet many people that don't typically play games like that just wanted to try it, and just never finished it. Doesn't mean the game is boring, it's just not their thing.

Yeah that's true.. boring to the person playing I should have said.
Seems they (CPR) took it, having to make something short in order to somehow make the game less boring just sounds weird.
Still, i guess it sounds better than what is probably the truth which is they can't meet the deadline again and had to make some decisions.

 

[hubaduba]

Hopefully CP2077 will have better fast-travel. The setting should allow for it. A lot of TW3 is riding back and forth on Roach.

 

[MadMummy76]

I don't think the marketing people are very happy with this guy now. It always sounds bad when they say they scaled something back even if it is ultimately for the best. It sets you up for a disappointment. "Man that was great 40 hour game, but I know it could've been 50 hours if only they didn't scale it back"

 

[MadMummy76]

I suspect Witcher 3 has suffered similar fate. It's hyped up to be the greatest RPG of our generation with its countless awards from everyone and their brother, and it's basically always on sale for next to nothing. I bet many people that don't typically play games like that just wanted to try it, and just never finished it. Doesn't mean the game is boring, it's just not their thing.

I never finished Witcher3, and I play games like that. To me the combat felt awful (I'm still worried about CP2077 in that regard), and I straight up abominated Geralt.

 

[Armenius]

Great, more game design dictated by data. How about going back to just making the game you want to make?

The Witcher 3 was not too long and it never got boring. Every quest and character felt unique.