CDPR will avoid Gwent and Thronebreaker style spin-offs moving forward

After the success of The Witcher 3, CD Projekt Red invested in a number of spin-off games in an attempt to diversify its portfolio beyond massive single-player RPGs. Unfortunately, efforts like Gwent and Thronebreaker did not pay off, and now it sounds like CD Projekt Red won't be going down that path again.

On CDPR's podcast, AnsweRED, Marcin Iwiński and Adam Badowski discussed CD Projekt Red's spin-off attempts, saying that the experience has led them to the belief that the company needs to focus on the open-world RPGs it is known for, rather than branching out into new genres.

“In all that we’re doing, we’ve learned that we need to be razor sharp focused. We cannot do so many things we would love to do, we are tempted to do. We tried, and it didn’t work out. We have to focus on what we are good at and really put 100% into it.”

The quote is in reference to CDPR's previous attempts at new genres, like the standalone version of Gwent, the card game that first appeared as a mini game in The Witcher 3, as well as Thronebreaker, a small deckbuilding RPG that told a new story set in The Witcher universe. CDPR also made attempts to break into multiplayer gaming with Cyberpunk 2077, only for the game's multiplayer component to be cancelled.

Previously, a Witcher co-op game was also in development under the title Project Sirius, but previous concepts for the game were scrapped and now, the current status and scope of the project is unknown.

Moving forward, CDPR will focus primarily on what it is good at – single-player RPGs. The first new RPG coming from CD Projekt Red will be The Witcher 4, which just had a gameplay reveal earlier today.

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KitGuru Says: Thronebreaker was good but it fell into a very niche genre. Gwent unfortunately got too ambitious and turned into a far, far different game compared to what we had in The Witcher 3, which put many off of trying it. I'm not sure the answer here is to ‘only' focus on open-world RPGs, as I'd hate to see CDPR fall into the same trap as Ubisoft, where most games feel the same, with different coats of paint.

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