From delay to disaster: A timeline of ‘Cyberpunk 2077”s fall from grace

2020 has without a doubt caused many disappointments. Canceled holidays, unfortunately, weren’t the only disappointments to happen this year. Cyberpunk 2077. After a long delay, fans were eager to lay their hands upon the most sought after game of the year. However, things didn’t go according to plan. 

Cyberpunk 2077 became a huge flop after months of anticipation. Let’s dive into the game’s fall from grace.

Cyber-flunk

Cyberpunk 2077 is a 2020 action role-playing video game developed and published by CD Projekt. 

The story takes place in Night City, an open world set in the Cyberpunk universe. You play as V, a protagonist whose journey begins in one of three ways – as a street kid, fighting through the bars and back alleys of Night City; as a nomad, scratching a living as a mechanic on the city’s fringes; or as a corp, a martini-sipping person working at the Arasaka Corporation, a dystopian megacorp vying for control of the world. 

The storylines converge in a heist against Arasaka, and actor Keanu Reeves pops up to accompany the player. You can choose to follow this storyline or ignore it entirely in favor of fighting gangs, fraternizing with politicians, and causing general mayhem in an open-world metropolis.

Game publishers CD Projekt Red took years and delay after delay before officially providing a release date earlier this year. Cyberpunk 2077 promised to be a game for the ages, even adding Keanu Reeves into the game. Some lucky people who first played the game were thrilled by it. However, there were fans left utterly disappointed about the game overall.

After reports of bugs, Sony & Microsoft removed the game from online stores and are giving refunds to anyone who bought it. CD Projekt Red had already offered refunds to players on either PS4 or Xbox who weren’t happy and has said it will work to bring the game back to the Playstation store. It’s no surprise many wanted refunds after seeing their experiences on social media.

According to a report, the only positive reviews were from gamers who were able to grab the game before its release on high-end computers making the gameplay obviously better.

Gameplay disaster

When fans downloaded the game, Cyberpunk 2077 delays weren’t worth the wait. As reported by the New York Times, lawyer and CDPR investor Mikołaj Orzechowski has indicated that they are exploring the possibility of suing, alleging that the studio may have misrepresented itself to investors in order to secure funding.

CD Projekt Red has also come under fire for its use of crunch during the development of Cyberpunk 2077. In September 2020, CD Projekt told employees it would require them to work six-day weeks until the game’s November launch (it was subsequently delayed to December), breaking a previous promise not to force compulsory overtime to finish the project.

Many have stated Cyberpunk 2077 is “rife with errors, populated by characters running on barely functional artificial intelligence, and largely incompatible with the older gaming consoles meant to support it. Eight years of hype for this game has gone down the drain thanks to bugs and awful graphics”.

If you were hoping to purchase this long-awaited game for Christmas then consider waiting for bug fixes to rollout for older consoles. What we didn’t expect from the much-anticipated game of the decade was Sony & Microsoft’s decision to remove the game from its stores.

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Did you play Cyberpunk 2077 after its initial release? What do you think of the downfall of CD Projekt’s game? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.