Cyberflop 2077: The Failure of the Year's Main Game

Cyberpunk 2077, one of the most anticipated video games of the year, was released last week. The dystopian game, set in the futuristic city of Night City inspired by Blade Runner, created a whirlwind of hype: it took nearly a decade to develop and cost around $80 million; its creator, Warsaw-based CD Projekt Red, is behind the highly successful game The Witcher 3; and one of the characters was played by Keanu Reeves himself! Eight million people pre-ordered and paid for the game long before its release. But since the game's launch, everything has gone wrong.Initially, critics praised the realism of the fictional Night City, its stunning architecture; they liked the fast-paced shootouts, bold characters, and neon. Some expressed doubts about the game's teenage tone and its tendency to objectify female bodies—neither of these was a surprise to those who followed the game's marketing.However, context is important: until the release, journalists did not have access to the console versions of the game. The gaming press was only given PC copies of the game for reviews, and they were prohibited from publishing any video materials recorded before the sales start date. This suggests that the developers were aware of the numerous issues with the console version and deliberately kept quiet about them to avoid affecting pre-orders.As it turned out, the Cyberpunk 2077 versions for Xbox One and PS4 were of incredibly low quality. The graphics are sometimes terrible, looking like a game for PS3 and Xbox 360 or even worse, as textures often fail to load, frame rates drop to 10-15 fps, and bugs and crashes are abundant. A hashtag #Cyberpunk2077Bug even emerged, through which one can find both funny bugs (a person standing on a street corner casually smoking a pistol instead of a cigar, a pedestrian falling to the ground and turning into a table) and annoying bugs (random glitches that interrupt the game or delete progress, freezes, and players being kicked out of the game).We concluded that, feeling pressure from shareholders, CD Projekt released an unfinished product, betting that players would tolerate it and that everything could be quickly fixed. Another delay, the fourth in the entire development process, would likely have cost even more, as millions had already been spent on TV advertising and internet marketing. The result of this decision was a resonant scandal, the exhaustion of player trust, a drop in the company's stock by 22%, a loss of $1.8 billion, and possibly a shareholder lawsuit in which the developer is accused of "misrepresenting facts for financial gain." On December 18, Sony even removed the game from the PlayStation digital store and offered refunds—a rare event that happened only once, with Ashes Cricket 2013 a few years ago. CD Projekt RED was surprised by this, indicating a serious breakdown in communication between the companies. The current situation is costly for both Sony and CD Projekt Red, both of which are losing sales during the pre-Christmas period.The question is who pressured to release the game before Christmas when it was even less ready for release than Skyrim or Fallout 76? The answer is clear, considering that Sony took almost unprecedented steps—smelling of guilt and an attempt to mitigate damage. Sony recently released the PS5, and wants to expand its currently sparse game lineup on this platform as soon as possible.Developers confirmed that major updates for the console versions of Cyberpunk 2077 will only be released in January-February next year, and for now, CD Project RED is refunding money to those who want it. In three or six months, the game will likely be fixed, and it might even turn out to be a success. But this kind of fiasco leaves a mark on the developer's reputation, even if it ultimately proves beneficial.Cyberpunk 2077 did not live up to expectations, as it is not a next-gen game. This title can be claimed by the future AAA game from the creators of the graphical masterpiece Crysis, which became almost a household name. Then Crytek challenged all users, pushing them to upgrade their hardware just to run the game at a stable frame rate and resolution.Engineers at CD Projekt RED managed to pile on the game a bunch of modern and trendy technologies, besides ray tracing, DLSS, and other features, and make a beautiful picture; however, the game itself did not turn out to be a breakthrough in the gaming industry. The consequences of releasing the game seem to have a greater impact on the industry than the game itself. This year, people were more eager to escape reality, and paying 28,000 tenge for a game that barely works seems like an unnecessary blow to the gut.Looking back, the studio had better options. CD Projekt RED could have long ago abandoned the PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game and cut its marketing to focus on developing the game for the next-generation console. The Poles could have released Cyberpunk 2077 in early access and requested feedback from fans in a friendly and transparent manner. They could have made it an exclusive for PS5, rather than trying to sit on nine chairs, releasing the game on different platforms with a development gap of almost 10 years (PS4, PS4 Pro, PS5, Xbox One S, Xbox One X, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, Stadia, PC). Instead, the management decided to publish a game that simply did not work on certain devices and lied to players and investors about its performance.Cyberpunk 2077 was supposed to be the beginning of a new series from the studio with years of experience creating beautiful imaginary worlds, but instead, it became a meme. At least one of CD Projekt RED's promises came true.