CD Projekt Red's CEO Adam Kiciński has mentioned that the next major game for the studio, the highly anticipated Cyberpunk 2077, will contain 'online elements' of some capacity.

In an interview with Polish investment site Strefa Inwestorow, Kiciński discussed all of the current projects from the studio, including the future of the Witcher franchise, the card game Gwent, and of course, Cyberpunk. Kiciński primarily discussed the future of the company, citing Gwent and Cyberpunk as the driving mechanisms going forward.

"We want to experiment in new fields that were not yet explored in the Witcher," says Kiciński. "I can't say much about Cyberpunk, although our ambitions are set really high because that is our style of work. We want to go even higher, and especially seeing how we're having a business chat, we're interested in Cyberpunk being commercially even more significant."

Kiciński noted that the company will be investing heavily into Cyberpunk in hopes that the game will be a greater commercial success over The Witcher 3, and the hopes of the development studio to keep costs within the confines of their budget. When asked about online multiplayer, Kiciński was quick to point that it is a way for the company to meet their commercial expectations for Cyberpunk. "Online is necessary, or very recommended if you wish to achieve a long-term success," noted Kiciński. "At some point, we have mentioned that there will be a certain online element related to Cyberpunk."

Many have speculated that the rumors regarding Cyberpunk's "social hub" may be the online element hinted at. The sources came from a pair of YouTube channels, The Triple S League and The Madqueen Show, who have been known to leak information about the games in the past. Both have claimed that Cyberpunk 2077 will contain a hub section that bridges play between the game's single-player and multiplayer modes, and has been likened to the Farm hub in Destiny 2 as a comparison.

Both sources of the rumor stressed that CD Projekt Red is not looking to turn Cyberpunk 2077 into an online MMO, but the rumors now have a lot more credit to them with Kiciński's comments. When discussing their online card game Gwent, Kiciński noted that next year the company will start applying a service model to Gwent, citing it as a core part of the company's strategy going forward.

"Multiplayer is strategically important, playing online is strategically important, because we want to have a commercial leg for service type games, games which generate stable income, period to period, which are built. Of course, every game ends after a number of years, some service type games function even after 10 years, but outside our main source of income, meaning big names, it's building a stable source of income. And in the future, we can imagine a lot of connections between big games and service type games - We have to acknowledge it, it is obvious."

Cyberpunk 2077 is based on the tabletop RPG Cyberpunk 2020, originally designed by Mike Pondsmith in 1988. CD Projekt Red first announced they will be making a new Cyberpunk game in May of 2012, and have constantly teased the title over the past few years, notably discussing a few tidbits on the game's design, such as potential character classes, as well as controversially defending the game's trademark.

There is currently no release date for Cyberpunk 2077, with CD Projekt Red stating the game will be released when it is ready.

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