CD Projekt Red, the studio that made Cyberpunk 2077, has confessed that it cut corners when it came to the certification process on consoles, which in turn led to the lacklustre launch.
Melting skin, tiny trees all over the map, windows that catapult you into the badlands, NPCs walking into walls, flying cars (and not the cool Back to the Future ones), the bugs and glitches in one of the biggest games of the year are running rampant. A silver lining of all of this is that Bethesda fans have been extending an olive branch of friendship to Cyberpunk 2077 fans (well, the ones who aren't mining their shared pain for memes) . We've even asked a handful of experts to analyse the bugs and glitches that players are encountering, but the answers often boil down to one simple reason. It needed more time to iron out the wrinkles before it hit the shelves.
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Fortunately, CD Projekt Red admitted as much, and assured that refunds will be possible. "We would like to start by apologising for not showing you the game on base last-gen consoles before it premiered and, in consequence, not allowing you to make a more informed decision about your purchase," it said in an official apology to console players. Then, in an investor call, it explained what had happened to let the game launch in this state, in spite of the three delays and intense working schedules that the project was subjected to.
"[The] initial feedback from those playing it on the oldest last-gen consoles is way below our expectations," said co-CEO Adam Kiciński. "After three delays, we as the Management Board were too focused on releasing the game. We underestimated the scale and complexity of the issues; we ignored the signals about the need for additional time to refine the game on the base last-gen consoles. It was the wrong approach and against our business philosophy."
It was known that last-gen consoles (the PS4 and Xbox One) were stalling the development of Cyberpunk 2077, as the teams balanced their work around the nine versions of the game. It's not the first time that this has happened, either, as lots of other games see their PC versions run smoothly yet encounter crashes and issues on their console versions. However, it's what the studio followed up with that has raised eyebrows.
"In terms of the certification process and the third parties - this is definitely on our side," continued vice-president of business development, Michal Nowakowski. "I can only assume that they trusted that we're going to fix things upon release, and that obviously did not come together exactly as we had planned." This isn't a good look for CD Projekt Red, but it isn't a good look for Sony and Microsoft, too. The two companies trusted CD Projekt Red in spite of what they had seen of Cyberpunk 2077, and they might not have been so lenient with a smaller studio in an equivalent situation.
Furthermore, the cutscene with an unavoidable trigger for seizures also slipped through certification, which undermines the process if it isn't able to ensure players' safety. At least things are progressing towards some sort of a solution, and we'll keep you in the loop once we have another update.Featured Image Credit: CD Projekt RedTopics: News, Cyberpunk 2077