A developer from CD Projekt RED has summed up why their game has cut content.

Game development is creative work, so there is a vast distance between the basic concept and the version that becomes available in the retail format, and iteration is not left out of the process. We mean that there might be ideas that are eventually abandoned, or there could be a feature in the concept that is dropped later (for example, because it is technically unfeasible). This process affects almost all games and often leaves a trace in the code or files.

Cyberpunk 2077 is also affected. Speaking about the game, Pawel Sasko on Twitch said: “Unused content is unused for a reason: the quality is not there, you can see that there’s no way to bring it up to [the same quality as the other] nine out of ten quests, or locations, or gameplay features. We normally want to make our games as rich and deep as possible for you. We want to provide you with the best possible game we have. That’s always the goal.”

He added that it’s a designer’s responsibility to decide what content to cut. Players should also know that if something isn’t ultimately there in the game, there’s usually no underlying intention. Of course, we can suspect that some publishers cut something from the base game to offer it later for money. There have even been examples of a game’s DLC being included on the disc (Street Fighter X Tekken from Capcom was one example…).

As for Cyberpunk 2077, we wrote this week that CD Projekt RED’s Boston-based studio would be working on a sequel (a job offer openly hinted at it) and that the only add-on for the first part, Phantom Liberty, is currently in the works (and will only be available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series and PC; NOT for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One). We’ll hear more about it in June, during the E3 period (the event is not happening this year).

Source: PSL