“Cyberpunk 2077”: Debacle reveals the dark side of the new dream factory

AThe view from the helicopter over the night skyline of “Night City” is breathtaking. The flashing neon signs shine through the misty night, the facades of the skyscrapers are approaching menacingly, after all, the player from the door of the plane has to fight the mercenaries of an enemy corporation to land on the roof of a skyscraper.

Explosions reflect off pools of water, rays of light force their way through the darkness – Cyberpunk 2077, the behind-the-scenes battle game, looks simply graphically stunning.

Furthermore, the story of the character “V” is told in an exciting way, Hollywood star Keanu Reeves plays the role of virtual counterpart “Johnny Silverhand” convincingly and the virtual city “Night City” is a masterpiece of design. of games. Even the punk-electro soundtrack, released as a separate album, sounds menacingly fresh and draws you into the action.

So far so good, Cyberpunk 2077 has the potential to become a truly blockbuster title with revenues in excess of a billion. The 8 million pre-orders worldwide alone should have generated around 480 million euros in sales for publication on December 10.

Sony launches the game from the virtual store

And yet, the game threatens to become a financial disaster for everyone involved in the Polish game studio “CD Projekt Red”. Because Sony Entertainment unceremoniously threw the title from its virtual Play Station Store around the world on Thursday, a process that has never been seen in the history of blockbuster computer games. The stock of the game studio fell in a week from 98 to 58 euros, only on Friday it was almost 20 percent in the red.

The problem is simple, and almost insoluble for the programmer: In order for Cyberpunk 2077 to run as graphically on screen as described, WELT had to use a state-of-the-art gaming PC for its own test. Hardware value: a good 2,500 euros.

And even this machine can’t display the game in the best possible graphics settings without the frame rate dropping to slideshow level.

Cyberpunk 2077 was announced not only for PC, but also for Playstation 4 and Xbox One, game consoles from 2013. And its outdated graphics processors make the title look like a poorly made 3D cartoon, with only 15 to 30 images. per second.

This means that the game is currently not playable for all older consoles. 95 percent of all console gamers who do not yet own a next-gen device, i.e. Play Station 5 or Xbox Series X, should demand their investment in pre-order.

Problems were systematically hidden

PC gamers have it better, but generally only have the choice between buying a new graphics card for at least $ 400 or downgrading the graphics to the level of much older titles.

The game of the future is made for hardware of the future, even the new Playstation 5 has to fight for the title and sometimes falls below the 60 frames per second required for smooth gameplay.

Polish studio “CD Projekt Red” systematically kept this problem a secret: The trailer for the pre-released game, which received 23 million clicks worldwide, comes from a high-performance PC.

Game testers around the world didn’t see the Playstation 4 version either, just the PC version. Even more: in strict statements of omission, the gaming press was forced not to release any video footage of the console in advance.

Consequently, the millions of precomputers reacted angrily when the game on their old consoles not only didn’t look as promised, it also came with dozens of bugs.

Both Adam Kiciński and Piotr Nielubowicz, members of the CD Projekt Red board of directors, publicly apologized. In a statement, the studio announced that it would reimburse disappointed precomputers for the purchase price.

One should have “paid more attention to the fact that the game could be played better on Playstation 4 and Xbox One.” After a few back-and-forth, Sony also participated in this change, offered a refund of the purchase price and initially threw out the title of its digital store. .

Now the developers have announced improvements and want to address the issues in various patches starting in January. But even that shouldn’t change the fact that the game on consoles, for which it was originally announced 7 years ago, is not pleasant to watch.

The Cyberpunk 2077 drama was predictable, it allows us to draw conclusions about general problems in the video game industry. As the industry has surpassed Hollywood in terms of sales, game studios have been popular investment objects, propelled by their investors into the battle for billions in sales.

In 2020, gamers around the world will likely spend about $ 80 billion on PC and console games. A blockbuster title like Cyberpunk 2077 can easily account for several percent of this.

Delay of several years

But the financial risks to the studios are huge, too: The development of the title has eaten up more than $ 120 million since it began in 2015, plus global marketing costs, which can easily be just as high.

Polish developers had postponed the game several times during the five years of development, most recently from November to December. But the marketing campaign in 55 countries had already started by this time: “CD Projekt Red” simply couldn’t afford any more delays.

So the game was released in its current state, with dozens of bugs, an almost unplayable console version, and no various features that the developers had previously announced.

“It’s as if this has not been predictable for months,” comments British gaming industry analyst Daniel Ahmad via Twitter. “From the many delays to the hiding of videos from next-gen consoles and warnings from the developers,” there would have been many red flags. CD Projekt Red apparently did not withstand the pressure of expectations.

Vacation and overtime bans

That is why the gaming industry as a whole has to learn lessons, writes Ahmad. “This will result in new guidelines for marketing, acceptance and purchase price reimbursement for game studios and platform operators.”

Last but not least, the industry must pay more attention to the health of game programmers. Because, traditionally, they have to deliver “the decisive time” shortly before the launch of the highest-grossing titles, they are prohibited from vacations and have to work dozens of overtime per week.

CD Projekt Red had initially announced that it would do so without this measure, and then had to force developers to enter the studio at night. “It is very clear that crunchtime not only has a negative effect on the health of developers, but also on the quality of the titles,” continues Ahmad.

For CD Projekt Red, the debacle over Cyberpunk 2077 not only means losses of millions in the current year, but also implies a loss of confidence for the next titles.

Perhaps the Poles should have waited another year with Cyberpunk 2077, then the generational change on consoles would have progressed further, the game would have been more mature, and gamers would have been happier.

For the title, the negative PR around the post is a shame, because it distracts from the real adventure in “Night City”, because it is still a masterpiece of video game art.