Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty literally feels like another standalone game rather than DLC. Probably the fact is that it took $60 million to develop it and another $21 million for marketing. The total came out to be almost half of the Cyberpunk 2077 budget, which amounted to $174 million (and that’s just development).
After the release of Cyberpunk 2077 in 2020, CDProjeckt Red did everything possible to ensure that the game not only remained afloat, but also became even more popular. Of course, many players already dubbed it an irreparable failurebut after the release of Phantom Liberty (and the free update 2.0), the picture completely changed.
Unfortunately, it was extremely expensive. The DLC cost a whopping $85 million, and it took another $40 million to bring the game to next-gen consoles and make the 2.0 update.
Spending that kind of money on additions and fixing problems is crazy. And it shows not only how expensive development and marketing in our time, but also that such projects should not be failures.
Was it worth it? The game, along with the new expansion, has skyrocketed in sales and is clearly bringing in significant profits. And the development of the sequel Cyberpunk 2077 and news about the spin-off show that CD Projeckt Red is willing to invest as much money as it wants to ensure that Cyberpunk’s legacy isn’t limited to a failed launch and bad console ports.
