CDP making a Cyberpunk 2020 game

It's time to start the hype machine.
The wait is nearly over
Cyberpunk 2077 will apparently be shown behind closed doors at E3, and we may get a trailer.
I still have the original Cyberpunk 2020 book somewhere. Do I get some starting gear with it ?
I want big cities, skyscrapers, neons, drugs, big corps, triads, cyberware, netruns & many more things
Oh man, CDPR, you've put the bar really high after the witcher 3.

 

Good timing! Altered Carbon will be a Netflix original series. Should help increase demand for a CP video game.



https://netflixcenter.com/official-trailer-altered-carbon-coming-to-netflix-february-2/

"I want big cities, skyscrapers, neons, drugs, big corps, triads, cyberware, netruns & many more things"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_Carbon

Though you need the sequels to help fill the list.

P.S. Ever wonder what an early cyberpunk era novel set in the Middle East, and with a New Orleans vibe, would be like?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Gravity_Fails

Edit: Lol! I just noticed this cool coincidence.

"R. Talsorian Games created a 'Budayeen' supplement for their role-playing game Cyberpunk 2020 titled When Gravity Fails (1992).[5] It is intended mainly for game masters who want to set campaigns in the Budayeen; there are no connections to the main game world."

 

You've made my day. I didn't know it was a book and considering the weather, I'm in the mood for some rainy hardboiled cyberpunk.
But should I read it before the first season ? It's just a few weeks, and I prefer to read books *after*.
Hopefully, the tv series is more like Stranger Things than the Defenders.

 

The casting of the two leads (though his lady cop superior could be called the third lead, and possibly the billionair's wife as another) suggests that Netflix is going big with this. The story is gripping, competent writers shouldn't struggle too hard in telling it. Though like in "Do Androids ...", the PKD novel, the protagonist has a hell of lot of internalized monologue going on. It will be interesting to see if they use a voice over, or depict his thoughts on screen by way of other means. Extra dialogue using a foil to explain what he's thinking, or really hammering home by way of visual and audio cues what's going on in his mind.

Speaking volumes with a weary sigh, a raised eyebrow, the stuff Bogart and Robert Mitchum used to good effect playing a hard boiled detective.

Altered Carbon oozed style, and a wise but tough sensibility. I don't feel I've got less to look forward by having read the novel. And it might be neat to be able to appreciate the methods the show's creators used to translate the novel to the screen. On the other hand, it is a detective story. Though I've already forgotten some of the surprises.

 

Does CD Projekt Red present a worrying trend that developers from lower wage countries can outcompete western developers?
In the coming decade or two are we going to see more eastern European, and perhaps Chinese, and Indian development houses with wages 6/10ths to 1/3rd of western developers, be able to spend significantly more time developing or significantly more staff create products with 1.4x-3x the production value and 1.4x-3x scale and scope of games from western developers with equal budgets?

 

Games could use more polish. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

The higher wage countries reap benefits from their location, among which is closer ties to the media. But yeah, no reason not to stay based in one country, and create units in lower paying ones. As long as you keep your AAA mojo, it can look like a win.

But let's look at Canadian TV and movies for an example of when that's happened in the past. Long story short, the Canadian industry now rocks, is the home to some of the best SF shoots, and I'm pretty sure their pay scale has been going up.

Thank you Canada, for all you've done!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_science_fiction_TV_and_radio_shows_produced_in_Canada

Edit: P.S. For a point of reference, Ben Bova once wrote a satirical novel, based on a contentious time of his and Harlan Ellison's life, about the early days of filming in Canada, when it was often used as a way to find a dirt cheap shoot, one that might even get government funding, and one that was certainly away from the union/guild rules/payscales of Hollywood. Great scene when the director finds out the studio decided not to pay for Canadian writers, and instead got high school students looking to volunteer for experience.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Starlost#Reception_and_impact

https://www.amazon.com/Starcrossed-Ben-Bova/dp/0749303905

 

Why would that be a worrying trend? Witcher 3 is an awesome game and much better than a lot of the stuff coming from devs in "high wage" countries. I don't care where my games are made as long as they are good. Of course if you are at EA making good money pooping out a new half assed NFS or whatever every other year then yeah, I can understand that is a worrying trend but it might be solved by simply making better games that people want to buy?

 

Which is, of course, arguably much more difficult if given the same budget in a high cost of living area. But then again, it's the Studio's own fault if they chose to have their development house in a part of the country that costs 3x what it would in another part of the country (San Francisco, CA versus almost anywhere else in the US for example). And that's not even going outside of a country to a country with far cheaper cost of living and doing business.

Granted top talent is going to be attracted to those high cost of living and development cities, but you're going to pay an arm and a leg for it.

I've seen some smaller development houses try to relocate to lower cost of living countries with varying degrees of success. If they are smart they just don't start in a place like the SF Bay area in the first place.

Regards,
SB

 

I was going to say the same thing.

A company can move to the rust belt where cost of living is extremely cheap and yea the first year or two will be rough but new small business will pop up to support the large company. Some talent may not want to move , but of course if you move to back woods Ohio or PA from San Fran you can get a mansion for half your rent in San Fran and cost of everything else is also lower. So it might not work for a small dev house , but if EA said they were moving all development teams there then it would most likely work.

Newark is one of the 20 finalists for the new Amazon head quarters. If amazon thinks they will attrack talent to that city which has to be one of the top 10 worse cites in America then you can pull talent anywhere

 

I don't think there are that many studios in SF.
A lot of the reactions to the end of Viscérale from other game developers was "What were they thinking dtayist in SF when you have competent people in Montreal for 1/3 of the price"