CD Projekt Red knows ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ sucks: Why’d they rush it?

Cyberpunk 2077 has been in the news on & off again ever since Keanu Reeves helped to introduce the game at E3 in 2019. It was highly anticipated, not just because Reeves was involved in the project, but because it was touted as being a groundbreaking game with stunning visuals and an exciting open world.

The release date of Cyberpunk 2077 would later be pushed back multiple times due to the game not being finished yet. Eventually however, CD Projekt Red, the company behind the game, couldn’t keep pushing the release date back – fans were getting antsy.

On December 10th Cyberpunk was released to the world and everyone was so excited that the digital store for PC gamers, Steam, ended up crashing. However, people quickly found themselves feeling betrayed by CD Projekt Red – the game wasn’t what they were promised. Now, CD Projekt Red has acknowledged the mess and it really doesn’t help their case.

How it happened

Most of the anger is coming from people trying to play Cyberpunk 2077 on PS4s & XBox Ones – the game was created for the next-gen consoles that came out this year, as well as newer PCs. As such, almost all of CD Projekt Red’s preview footage of the game was PC footage. However, they were also promising gamers the video game would be available & playable on PS4 and Xbox One.

While the game does run on the older consoles, some could argue that “playable” is verging on an outright lie. One person reported that the graphics stuttered so badly and were so blurry they genuinely felt sick to their stomach after trying to play Cyberpunk on an older console. Not to mention partaking in action scenes was nearly impossible.

While the game is certainly better on PCs, one of the writers at FilmDaily loaded up Cyberpunk 2077 on a fairly new & powerful desktop gaming PC and frankly . . . we’ve seen better graphics. In fact, we’ve even seen better graphics in the other anger-inducing game release No Man’s Sky. 😬

CD Projekt Red’s apology

With so much bad press and a lot of angry customers CD Projekt Red sent a message to fans online saying they could get a refund for the game if they were upset with how the game was in its current state. (The current state is unfinished – even if the graphics look perfect on your screen there are glitches throughout Cyberpunk.)

A hot fix was issued shortly after the game’s release and Projekt Red has also said that bigger patches are coming in January & February. Those who don’t want to wait can get those refunds. (Seriously, nobody should have to wait for a game to be playable after purchasing it.)

What gamers need to know

If you’re wondering if you should get the refund or if you can wait a few months before purchasing Cyberpunk 2077 for an older console you should first take into consideration the fact that CD Projekt Red has said, “If your expectation is that the game is going to be equal to, say, next-gens or PC in terms of performance, that definitely isn’t going to happen”. Yikes.

Michał Nowakowski, a member of the board for CD Projekt Red has also said in an interview that, “It will be a good, playable, stable game, without glitches and crashes, though. That’s the intention”. Which sounds like a good promise . . . if the game hadn’t already been released & purchased by thousands of people.

Steam ratings

Despite frustrated gamers, the rating for the game on steam is currently a 7/10 – not half bad all things considered. The game has plenty of pros, even in the reviews firmly set as “not recommended”. The real issue is that the game just isn’t what was promised, and is littered with bugs.

However, Steam users are all on PCs, so none of these reviews will include the frustrations of PS4 & Xbox One users.

Rushing to get it done

We can disparage CD Projekt Red and Cyberpunk 2077 all day, but the fact of the matter is that this is just how video games work these days. Production companies send out mostly finished games and then begin sending updates to “fix” it, when what they really mean is “finish” it. Heck, sometimes they’ll even make you pay for DLC to “enhance” the game, when again, they mean play the finished game.

Again, to bring up No Man’s Sky, a game had similar issues with their release – they over-hyped it and fans were mad when they were given an unfinished product. It took just over a year post-release to become the game that was promised, but those who went back to the game out of curiosity were pleasantly surprised.

Do people still have a right to be mad at CD Projekt Red? Most definitely. They promised gamers the moon and some people didn’t even land on a star – instead falling back to Earth without a parachute.