Cyberpunk Did Not Have to Be Cyberjunk

One week ago, CDProjekt Red launched their latest open world title Cyberpunk 2077. Today, that game has been delisted from the PlayStation Store, and Sony is offering refunds on the game.

The response to Cyberpunk 2077 has been extremely mixed, to say the least. When the game launched, players found a game that was both impressive in its scope, yet extremely restrained. Instead of being the next big thing in open-world games, the game feels like a good “more of the same” style experience. More to the point, the game is riddled with bugs unlike any other game I’ve seen in recent memory. One could even argue that “buggy” is too light of a descriptor for the game.

In retrospect, we should have seen the red flags. The lead-up to the game’s release was suspicious in comparison to other major game released. Reviewers were not given console codes to review on PS4 or Xbox One, but were limited to reviewing on PC. Furthermore reviewers were not allowed to use their own footage, with CDPR requiring b-roll footage to be used in its place. Though these are worrying trends, this could have simply been CDPR hedging their bets and preferring players see the game for itself.

That was not the case. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the game are, for all intents and purposes, unplayable. Unexplainable glitches, missing textures, and slow frame rates are rampant on these versions of the game. Even on the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, Cyberpunk has performance issues that render the game unenjoyable to play at best.

For my experience, I purchased the PS4 version to be played on PlayStation 5 via backwards compatibility. Since I’ve played the game since launch, I’ve lost count at the amount of times the game has crashed on my hardware. While the game ran in a stable manner (high frame rate with few dips), I found it crashing after an hour to hour and a half of gameplay like clockwork. Even worse, the bugs in this game are more of a feature than an annoying occurrence. T-posing, missing textures, broken A.I. and broken missions are just a few of the numerous bugs that I’ve came across. To say I’m frustrated would be an understatement.

Even on a PC, the experience has been a mixed bag. My girlfriend has been playing it, and though her experience has been crash free, there have been noticeable issues on the PC platform. Frame rate drops, bugs and impeded mission progress have been running rampant with no real sign of repair. Our PC is nothing in comparison to the ultra high setting rigs that others have used, but it still should be able to run the game in a stable and playable manner.

These issues pale in comparison to CDProjekt Red’s response to these issues. Let us remember that this game was supposed to be released on April 16th, 2020, but was pushed to September 17. Then, it was delayed twice, from September to November, then three weeks later to its final date of December 10th. As many have pointed out, the game is simply not complete in the state it has been released in. It did not have to be like this, yet CDPR pushed out the game in this condition.

As a result of all the above, CDPR put out a statement during the week, apologizing to the players and promising two big patches in January and February, respectively, that will aim to improve the game’s issues. In this same statement, CDPR acknowledges people’s dissatisfaction with the game, pointing those who want refunds in the direction of Sony and Microsoft, and offers help for those seeking to refund physical copies by attaching a contact email.

Now, we have come to this. Both Sony and Microsoft were reportedly caught off guard by the statement put out by CDPR, and have begun to react accordingly. Sony is now allowing refunds of the game, in a move that is shocking considering their rigid digital refund policy. Time will tell whether or not Microsoft will join the fray.

I once again have to echo: it did not have to be like this. The hype for this game was immeasurable, so of course it could not live up to the expectations of many fans. That was inevitable. Yet releasing a game in this poor of a condition with a number of P.R. missteps on top of that could have been avoided, too. Everyone could have been happy. Now all we have left are players who may never trust CDProjekt Red again, and a company that may have unnecessarily set itself down a difficult road of redemption.

It did not have to be like this.