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Soaring expectations, a game full of mistakes, public apologies and money-back demands. There you have the story of Cyberpunk 2077 in a nutshell. We’ve taken a closer look at why this year’s most anticipated game was a flop.
Europe’s largest gaming company, Polish CD Project Red, announced eight years ago that they were working on a new game, Cyberpunk 2077.
The two-minute-plus trailer promised a futuristic gameplay, where a group of elite police officers chased people who had lost control of their bodies due to cybernetic implants and abuse.
The game will be released “When the game is ready,” announced the game studio. But now that the game has been released, it can hardly be considered clear.
One of the first Cyberpunk 2077 press photos.
Cyberpunk 2077 screenshot. A woman is kneeling on the track. Next to her is a man in combat gear. He points a gun at the woman’s head
Image: IGDB
Cyberpunk is the paradise of insects
In early December 2020, it was finally time for a virtual trip to the California of the future, which was populated by beautiful people with machine parts in a big city with neon lights.
The game was released for PC, Playstation, and Xbox. The release date had been postponed three times when it was released, and the first release date was already in April.
But Cyberpunk 2077 quickly turned out to be buggy.
CD Project Red, for example, has been criticized for putting all the gunpowder in the PC version of the game, which accounts for the fact that the problems are slightly less there than in the console versions.
As for the older consoles, Playstation 4 and Xbox One, the bugs are described as so severe that the game cannot be played.
Players share screenshots of situations where their character suddenly does a Kalle Anka and stands on the motorcycle he drives with his butt naked. Not to mention several genitalia suddenly protruding through a closed fly.
One of the slightly funnier mistakes in Cyberpunk 2077. Suddenly, the character can perform circus arts without pants!
But the fact is, Cyberpunk also crashes just when something big is about to happen, and most of all, console gamers have already grown tired of bad graphics that make the gaming experience choppy.
Cyberpunk’s most heartbreaking mistake right now is that the save file can suddenly become corrupted and unable to load.
This typically occurs when the file is over 8MB in size, and it means that the countless hours that gamers spend on Cyberpunk 2077 are suddenly shocked.
The game company CD Project Red’s proposal to “try to pick up a few things less” is like putting gasoline on a fire.
Illegally bad
In fact, the project was on slippery ice long before the game’s launch, as Cyberpunk developers were already trying to fool consumers in the review phase.
In November, the studio informed game journalists that if you review the game, the reviews can only be illustrated by the journalists’ own screenshots or video material offered by the game studio.
Those who planned to share their own videos of the game were threatened with a fine of $ 27,000 per clip.
Similar contracts are not uncommon in the gaming industry and they are not always there to hide mistakes.
For example, it could be the matter of trying to reduce the number of spoilers that often terrify today’s game consumers.
Journalists were only offered the PC version of the game, probably because CD Project Red knew that version was the best.
The gaming experience on Playstation is much more choppy than on PC. Driving a car in Cyberpunk on Playstation is, according to critics’ descriptions, like driving drunk.
Additionally, in-game journalists were given access to the game at the most advanced stage possible, giving them the opportunity to spend enough hours in the game once they started posting reviews.
According to the New York Times, lawyers and investors in Poland are considering a class action lawsuit by CD Project Red that misleads consumers into making money.
Landmark decision: digital copies are no longer sold for Playstation
Shortly after launch, CD Project Red issued a public apology for the condition of the game and promised players that they would help get their money back.
The promise ran into problems at first, as it turned out that the game studio didn’t even check with Sony and Microsoft if this was possible.
The gaming studio also took a long time to respond to emails sent by consumers to the email address created specifically for this case.
Actor Keanu Reeves, who plays a role in Cyberpunk 2077, initially almost became a leader of the game. Now Reeves is still a little shorter.
A man is standing with his hands outstretched in front of him on a stage. Behind him is smoke from a smoke machine.
Later, however, both companies agreed to give consumers their money back.
Just a week after launch, the Playstation store also decided to stop selling the game entirely. The decision is historic, a game of this caliber has never been removed from the game store before.
Overtime workers
The company CD Project Red already demanded in September that employees start driving for six days a week to have the game ready as soon as possible.
Overtime is not expected to end first, as the company has promised that the game will receive the appropriate updates in January.
At the same time, versions for the new generations will also be completed.
Blue haired woman playing video games at bar
Photo: CD Projekt Red
The game studio doesn’t seem to be short of money yet.
Just over a week ago, the studio announced that it had only managed to recoup everything it had spent on marketing and development costs with the help of pre-orders.
