How Big Cyberpunk's Phantom Liberty DLC Is To Be CDPR's "Biggest Ever"

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Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty DLC will be arriving sometime in 2023, and new information paints it as one of CD Projekt Red's most significant projects to date. While no additional reveals were provided in the way of the expansion's actual contents, this update does grant some insight into how it could compare to the developer's previous DLCs, like those from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

Phantom Liberty will be Cyberpunk 2077's first and final DLC, as CDPR will be shifting its focus in 2024 and beyond. The developer has some exciting plans in store for upcoming years, such as a remake of the original Witcher game. The Cyberpunk universe will also be getting some love with a brand-new title named Project Orion (which can learn from GTA 5). Whereas this project has yet to enter the development phase, Phantom Liberty is seemingly right around the corner - and it could easily outshine all of CDPR's previous DLCs, even The Witcher 3's massive Blood and Wine.

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Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty Has The Biggest DLC Budget In CDPR History

Marek Bugdoł, a CD Projekt Red employee from the investor relations department, recently spoke to Polish financial publication Parkiet (via TheGamer) and claimed that Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty expansion will be the developer's biggest DLC to date, in terms of budget. Although this doesn't technically confirm anything about the size of Phantom Liberty, it strongly implies that it'll also outshine CDPR's previous expansions, content-wise. This is a tall order when considering The Witcher 3's Blood and Wine DLC - but by taking into account map size, completion time, and the number of quests, a general idea of what to expect can be formed.

Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty's Map Will Need To Expand Considerably

When comparing the maps of Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3, there are two main factors that come into play: square footage and map density. It can be calculated that Witcher 3's Continent has more square footage than Night City, whereas the opposite is true when it comes to how much content is actually packed into the map. With streets full of cars, characters, quests, and explorable locations, this is one of Cyberpunk 2077's greatest strengths. But in order for Phantom Liberty to compete with the magnitude of Blood and Wine, it will need to shift its attention to the actual, mathematical size of the map.

It's been revealed that the expansion will be set in Dogtown, Pacifica. This district is already one of the most dangerous in Night City, being home to the Voodoo Boys gang and increased rates of crime in general, thanks to the lack of law enforcement presence. But despite everything revealed in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty's second trailer, simply fleshing out a current region wouldn't be nearly enough. Blood and Wine's Toussaint is comparable to Velen, one of the game's largest regions (although it does have the advantage of being a separate map, unlike Night City's free-flowing world design).

Knowing this, Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty will need to introduce an entirely new area - and a sizable one at that. There have been rumors of the DLC granting players access to the Combat Zone, a blocked-off sector full of vicious cyberpsychos and all around anarchy, and this could be the perfect location. In fact, V can already find the entrance to the Combat Zone in Pacifica, upon which they'll hear an interesting NPC conversation about the dangers of the area. But size-wise, it will need to be on the scale of Watson or Santo Domingo to match Blood and Wine's Toussaint.

There Will Need To Be A Variety Of Side Quests In Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty

Since Phantom Liberty is Cyberpunk 2077's only planned expansion, the number of new quests available will also be a crucial factor. Of course, the main storyline will be the most detailed of them all - and according to a Tweet from Idris Elba, who will be playing FIA Agent Solomon Reed in the DLC, it will be "the deepest game narrative ever." But side quests can arguably be even more important to world-building, as they allow players to immerse themselves in the more trivial, everyday matters of citizens. With the dense nature of Cyberpunk 2077's Night City, there's ample opportunity to include such quests.

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The Witcher 3's Blood and Wine features 16 primary quests and around 40 secondary quests, and this is the number that Phantom Liberty will need to beat in order to truly quantify as the biggest CDPR expansion. Luckily, with the amount of interesting Cyberpunk 2077 characters that Phantom Liberty could expand upon, new content likely won't be limited to a single area. Instead, it will probably backtrack to existing regions, filling in the gaps with new characters (and new stories) in order to provide players with even more content than Blood and Wine did.

Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty Should Take At Least 16 Hours To Beat

Regardless of how many new quests end up making their way into Cyberpunk 2077, the most significant element of the DLC's success will be its total playtime. It will need to provide players with a substantial amount of longevity in order to be worth the price. This is especially true, considering it intends to compete with Blood and Wine: as the main story therein requires about 15.5 hours to beat, and a completionist run takes a whopping 40.5 hours (according to How Long To Beat). At a minimum, Phantom Liberty's completion time should be over 16 hours - but CDPR is likely to overachieve in this regard.

How much Phantom Liberty will cost and other details have yet to be confirmed, but based on Marek Bugdoł's statement, it will be the Polish developer's largest expansion so far. Whether it will actually outshine The Witcher 3's Blood and Wine in terms of content can't be said for certain until its release in 2023 - but since it will be Cyberpunk 2077's first and last DLC, it's imaginable that it will grant players with an experience for the books.

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Sources: Parkiet, TheGamer, Cyberpunk 2077/YouTube, Idris Elba/Twitter, How Long To Beat