FILE PHOTO: Boxes with CD Projekt's game Cyberpunk 2077 are displayed in Warsaw, Poland, December 14, 2020. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/File Photo
GDANSK (Reuters) -Phantom Liberty, the long-awaited expansion to Polish video game developer CD Projekt's flagship game "Cyberpunk 2077", received a "very positive" rating on the Steam platform that sells digital copies of games for PCs.
Phantom Liberty, CD Projekt's first major game premiere since bug-ridden launch of Cyberpunk 2077 in December 2020, got the positive response based on 1,215 user reviews just few hours after its launch on Tuesday.
Cyberpunk 2077, which is on sale at a 40% discount, has led the top sellers chart on the Steam platform since Monday, after CD Projekt released a free update 2.0 to the game on Sept. 21 and as Phantom Liberty is only available to owners of the Cyberpunk game. Phantom Liberty was in second place in Steam's chart.
"So far, all the parameters of the expansion look very good," Trigon DM analyst Kacper Kopron said in a note to clients. But he also said some investors might want to take profits now.
At 0805 GMT CD Projekt's shares were down 2.8%. The shares had risen nearly 24% in three days in June after the premiere date for Phantom Liberty was announced.
The expansion was released on PC and current-generation consoles. It offers a spy-thriller adventure, featuring Keanu Reeves, known from Cyberpunk 2077, who is back in the role of Johnny Silverhand and Idris Elba, who is playing the completely new character of Agent Solomon Reed.
The price of the expansion had been set at 99 zlotys ($22.74) for all platforms.
Phantom Liberty's PC version scored 89 points on the Metacritic 100-point scale after 47 critic reviews, with PlayStation 5 version scoring 88 points based on 43 critic reviews and Xbox Series X|S version hitting 89 points based on 12 critic reviews.
"Phantom Liberty is Cyberpunk 2077 at its best. CD Projekt Red has taken the lessons from the original release and focused on the parts that mattered most to deliver a thrilling and impactful experience...", GameSpot, an American video gaming website, said in a review.
Just after the launch of "Phantom Liberty" on Tuesday, the number of players simultaneously playing Cyberpunk 2077 reached 167,465 on Steam.
The expansion is the last project to be developed on CD Projekt's own technology RED Engine, with the company switching to external Unreal Engine for its upcoming developments, that include Cyberpunk sequel.
($1 = 4.3537 zlotys)
(Reporting by Adrianna Ebert; Editing by Kirsten Donovan, Michael Perry and Jane Merriman)
