Why the Cyberpunk 2077 is not an exclusive Epic Games Store

Projekt Red Developer's CD a said since march Cyberpunk 2077 is available on most game distribution platforms. This means that Cyberpunk 2077 is not an exclusive Epic Games Store. But now, the studio explains why he makes this decision.

When the Cyberpunk 2077 debuts on April 16 on PCs and consoles, you will be able to download it on Steam, Epic Games Store and CDPR's own GOG (among others). This large version is somewhat of an anomaly in PC games recently. Epic Games, which owns and operates Fortnite, spends millions of dollars to prevent many blockbusters from working with Steam. Even publishers with their own stores enter into contracts with Epic. Ubisoft, for example, launched Tom Clancy's The Division 2 on Uplay and Epic – but not on Steam.

So, what sets Cyberpunk 2077 apart from CDPR? Well, that goes back to the company's experience with Thronebreaker, the adventure derived from The Witcher. In an interview with PCGamesN, Marcin Traczyk, Head of Global Communications at GOG, explained his reasoning.

"With Thronebreaker, we started with exclusivity and decided to share it with a wider audience," said Traczyk. "It proved to us that exclusives may not work for us because we do not want to limit the number of people who can access the game."

Thronebreaker debuted last October. At first, Thronebreaker was only available on GOG. But having fallen short of commercial expectations, the company has opened it to a wider audience on Steam as well.

"The game first appeared on GOG for fairly simple reasons," said Adam Kiciński, chief executive of CD Projekt Red, during a conference call with investors. "However, the scope of GOG is incomparably less than that of Steam. We know that there is a big Witcher community of fans on Steam and that's why we also released the game there. "

Until now, CD Projekt has seen a third of its preorders for digital PCs go through GOG. This is crucial for the studio because it does not have to share a share of this revenue with other platforms.

Cyberpunk is not exclusive, but GOG is still competing with Epic and Steam.

The CD Projekt group launched GOG, then called Good Old Games, in 2008. It has since used the platform to launch its own games as well as updated and DRM-free versions of PC classics. But, although this niche has worked, the company has never tried to compete seriously with Steam.

Now, GOG is not likely to try to emulate Epic's business model. CDPR will not launch Cyberpunk 2077 on Steam and Epic, but will suddenly start paying for exclusives.

But that does not mean that GOG will not change.

"We are always open to competition," Traczyk told PCGamesN. "And as in any business, we adapt [our go-to-market] At the same time, with the solutions we offer, we give players the opportunity to choose. "

GOG fired dozens of employees in February of this year. So, the company probably never intended to beat Steam or Epic Games Store at its own game. Instead, expect the company to continue to focus on publishing classics and games without DRM.

Correction: This article originally stated that CD Projekt Red had laid off GOG employees, but that is not correct. GOG operates independently from CD Projekt Red under the parent company CD Projekt Group.