Welcome to Night City!
In October 2023, almost 260 thousand players were traversing the breathtaking open world of Cyberpunk 2077, making the action game with RPG elements the third most-played game on Steam. Thanks to Update 2.0 and the newly released Phantom Liberty content expansion, more and more players were plunging into Night City. In order to understand the game’s resurrection, you first have to understand the initial shitstorm at Cyberpunk’s release.
The hype was unstoppable
The very first teaser trailer in 2013 left gamers with their jaws wide open. A triple A role-playing game in a cyberpunk setting seemed like a dream come true for many. Over the years, Polish developer studio CD Projekt Red raised expectations with breathtaking trailers and promised features. By the time Keanu Reeves, John Wick himself, announced the game’s release date at E3 2019, the hype train was unstoppable.
After three delays in quick succession, the release of Cyberpunk 2077 was set for December 10, 2020. News like this should make gamers become alert. But not for CD Projekt Red. CDPR earned the trust of the gaming world with its first two games in the Witcher series and the role-playing masterpiece The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. What could possibly go wrong?
The first reviews of Cyberpunk 2077 were published shortly before release. And who would have thought, the game received excellent reviews across the board. CD Projekt Red fulfilled expectations.
But that was only half the truth. Because the critics were only allowed to play the PC version of Cyberpunk 2077 for their tests and could only use the game material provided by CDPR.
The launch catastrophe
On December 10, 2020, players opened Cyberpunk 2077 for the first time full of anticipation and what awaited them? A disastrous technical performance. Washed-out textures, other audio and visual bugs throughout the game world and frequent game crashes that ruined the fun. On last-gen consoles – Playstation 4 & Xbox One – the game was almost unplayable and even owners of the latest hardware were not spared.
Realistic NPC behavior? A multiplayer mode? A good police system? Many of the promised features were missing in the finished game.
To say that players felt cheated was an understatement. However, the behavior of many “fans” who bombarded developers with hate messages and death threats was completely inappropriate.
As we know today, the development phase of Cyberpunk was full of problems.
Not only increased the Covid-Pandemic development difficulties, but also the game’s release on nine different platforms. Three, if not four, platforms are the norm. But nine is a Herculean task.
In addition, the developers were under enormous time pressure due to constant concept changes and had to crunch. Crunching means that game developers have to work overtime, sometimes unpaid, for an extended period of time to ensure that a game is released on time.
As if the shitstorm wasn’t enough, Playstation took Cyberpunk 2077 off its online store for six months due to its catastrophic technical performance and offered full refunds. This had never happened before.
Not only Playstation and the fans felt cheated, but also various investors. CDPR received a class action lawsuit for misrepresentation and had to pay 1.85 million US dollars in an out-of-court settlement. CDPR’s once good reputation was in ruins.
There is no doubt that CD Projekt Red’s misleading approach was extremely unprofessional and the development studio paid dearly for it.
Today, however, Cyberpunk 2077 is more popular than ever, both with gamers and critics. How was CDPR able to turn things around?
Pixel Herald 