The Witcher 2 was one of the most critically and commercially successful RPG of last year. People are hailing CD Projekt Red as one of the top RPG developers for this generation of games. Now comes word that maybe not even CD Projekt Red can keep making single player only games, as news today hit that they will be hiring a multiplayer programmer.
CD Projekt Red has released a statement to try an calm their fans fears that they will be forcibly putting multiplayer in one or more of their future games. Here is their official statement form studio head Michal Platkow-Gilewski:
“As for the job ad: this post should be named Multiplayer/Online Programmer, I don’t want to comment on what this guy will create, it’s way too early.
“We want to bring to the team someone experienced in this field to evaluate our concepts and ideas. He will be one of backbone elements of our R&D.
“We believe that there’s still a lot of space for innovation in the RPG genre. At this stage of our games’ development, we want to explore all possible directions, check what would be cool, what’s feasible and – always the most important for us – what suits our games the best.”
Here is a short description of what they want in a Multiplayer Programmer:
“CD Projekt RED is looking for an experienced multiplayer programmer to work in our core team. Your main responsibility will be to prepare our engine for challenges of upcoming online component of our future games.”
The job description goes into a lot more detail, but it is still unknown what exactly CD Projekt Red intends to do with a Multiplayer Programmer. It could be they actually want multiplayer aspects in their future games or it could be that they want to include some form of Dark Souls multiplayer into the Witcher 3. Or they might just need someone who can help design online components for games.
I am a little concerned though, as this is how companies like BioWare started out, stating they didn’t want to add multiplayer and that they were just hiring multiplayer staff for consulting. Then even though nobody wanted it they include multiplayer in Mass Effect 3, even though I actually have heard some good things about it. I would like to point out that CD Projekt RED didn’t deny that multiplayer would be included in any of their next games either, so it is possible they will be making the jump into multiplayer RPGs.
Does this announcement that CD Projekt RED is hiring a multiplayer programmer concern you Witcher fans or do you believe them when they say they are just exploring options?
