CD Projekt RED said “We underestimated the scale and complexity of Cyberpunk 2077 for the old generation of consoles”.
If Cyberpunk 2077 is still making headlines, if not for the pitiful performance on consoles or the negative response on the game’s refund, it’s for some record-breaking popularity.
Now, CD Projekt RED, the studio behind the most anticipated title of the year, acknowledged that they should have delayed the game for the fourth time (at least on consoles); because Cyberpunk 2077 still needs a lot of optimization and bug fixing. That’s why the company said it underestimated the scale and complexity of the problems the game presents.
The company’s CEO said in a conference call:
“After three delays, we, as the board of directors, were too focused on launching the game. We underestimated the scale and complexity of the problems. We ignored the signals about the need to ask for additional time to refine the game on the previous generation of base consoles. It was a wrong approach and against our business philosophy. In addition, during the campaign, we showed the game on PC, which caused the loss of player confidence and the reputation that we have been building for much of our lives. And that’s why our first steps are focused only on recovering those two things. We are focused on fixing Cyberpunk 2077 on previous generation consoles.”
“The first substantial set of fixes was released over the weekend. The next set of fixes will be released in the next seven days. Major updates are planned for January and February along with smaller fixes. Of course, PC players will also receive regular updates and bug fixes to improve the game. We will do our best to show that we stay true to our values. We really hope that our efforts will allow us to rebuild the confidence we have lost,” said Adam Kicinski, President and CEO of CD Projekt RED during a call to investors regarding the game for their PlayStation 4 and Xbox One version.
The pandemic further complicated things
“Maybe one thing that didn’t help us was the COVID, since the internal testers are able to test Cyberpunk 2077 working at home because we provide them with all the machines and connections and so on. But the external testers, who work for external companies, could not test the game from their homes because they have test centers and are not there, they cannot work. So we had some decline in the number of testers, but I wouldn’t point to that as a major source of problems.”
