It's fair to say that CD Projekt Red's hugely anticipated Cyberpunk 2077 had something of a disastrous launch when it finally released to the public back in September of 2020.
What was supposed to be a thrilling sci-fi jaunt through an amazing future dystopia ended up a pretty janky, bug-ridden mess, at least on consoles, and a game that upon further examination had many deeper flaws than just its most obvious surface level issues. It is, as we said in our review, "a hard game to recommend getting involved with."
With the game eventually being withdrawn from sale on PSN, and its highly anticipated next-gen upgrade now delayed into 2022, investors in the project are, to say the least, quite unhappy with how things have gone down.
As we reported back in January, a class action lawsuit, well actually four lawsuits rolled into one, were filed against the developer by investors claiming that the true nature and state of the busted console version of the game had been hidden from them pre-launch, a claim CD Projekt Red said it would vigorously defend itself against.
Now, and as first reported by our friends over at VGC, it seems that an out of court settlement has been sought by CD Projekt Red in order to lay the matter to rest. Court papers detail how a potential settlement between the parties involved has seen current court proceedings in California suspended for now. The court filing continues:
“Should a consensus be reached with regard to the conditions of the potential settlement, the parties will file for its approval by the Court."
“The decision on whether to approve the settlement and permit its implementation shall be issued by the Court once certain additional formal conditions are satisfied."
“It should also be noted that entering into negotiations concerning a potential settlement should in no way be construed as acceptance by the Company or members of its Management Board of any allegations expressed in the plaintiffs’ court filings.”
CD Projekt Red has been quoted as saying it believes that Cyberpunk 2077 is now in pretty good shape, a comment many players on last-gen consoles in particular may struggle to agree with. Now that the game's most major updates and patches are also postponed into next year, alongside that next-gen upgrade, it seems we've still got a ways to go in this particular saga.
Have you been playing Cyberpunk 2077 recently and seen much improvement in the state of the game? Let us know in the comments.
[source videogameschronicle.com]
Comments 12
Really liked Cyberpunk despite its flaws most notably empty city, broken police system and pacing in the story, did not encounter anymore bugs then any other game on launch. I played it on series X and will replay it once next gen version is out
Well deserved. May it serve as a warning to other developers. Sad thing for CD Projekt Red is that they seriously damaged their brand. Not Blizzard bad but close.
I'm around 70 hours in on Series S, all played on patch 1.31 and I've enjoyed every minute so far, great game. Apart from the occasional lighting glitch and one crash when I first booted it up after moving it to an external SSD its been fine for me.
@Shigurui I bought on a whim during sale using rewards points. Only played Act 1 so far and it is far better than I expected. The world and story have hooked me so can overlook any bugs that come my way so long as they don't break the game.
Hope this entire fiasco serves as cautionary tale for ALL developers going forward.
STOP releasing broken jank games to only hope fix later.
Whilst I get that the Investors are guided to a large extent by what they are told by the Developers, it is also the case that pressure to release games is also applied to Developers by Investors. I'd be interested in seeing exactly what the conversations were, because if the Investors were told that the game needed more gestation time, but effectively pulled the purse strings and forced the premature release of the game, then they got exactly what they deserved by doing so. On the other hand, if the CDPR gave untrue assurances to the Investors, then they too deserve the ramifications. Regardless, it's difficult to believe that CPDR were unaware of how the game ran on older consoles, in particular. We, as gamers, just have to hope that the Industry, and those that invest into it, have learned a valuable lesson as a result of this debacle...
99p each and a 12 pack of Skips.
"These are lies and we will vigorously defend ourselves!"
ONE YEAR LATER
"Actually.......so...how much do you want exactly?"
Reminds me of the Youtube/Roku debacle where Google handlers kept insisting to media that the claims by Roku that Google was demanding special search placement and extra user data were baseless and false lies. And then an email from a Google exec from 2019 turned up in the media where they were expressly demanding exactly that..... Never trust a corporation that ferociously says the accusations are lies. They're probably not.
As for me I bought the game on the half price sales, played the beginning area. It's a lot darker, gritter, and grimmer than I thought at least for street kid, Opening with bodies in bath tubs and hooks isn't my most gripping start, the shooting is RDR2-level bad, and it's oddly linear so far, but it's actually well conceived and interesting. Really just bought it cheap to wait for the next gen patch. It's not special but it's not such a bad game at all. Just technically disastrous and misrepresented.
@Fiendish-Beaver Normally I blame investors, but this game had a ridiculous length development cycle since it was announced, rumor from devs suggests they never even started development until years after reveal, and most of that was all on PC with consoles being a last minute port. Usually, investors suck, but in this case, what could the investors have really known other than that they've been funding money into this game for an unusually long time and still had nothing to show for it? That took some Pitchford level swagger to pull off.
You may well be right, @NEStalgia, which is why I am unusually intrigued in this case. Doubtless, any compensation to the Investors will be hidden behind numerous gagging orders, but it will be interesting to see the outcome regardless...
@J0nny5 Yeah, I bought it with points also. I totally understand why the game garners a lot of flack, especially from early adopters on last gen but I've had little to no issues with it. It's a solid enough game in it's current state on Series consoles.
I really enjoyed the game, so much so that I want to play it again. The thing I don't understand about the investors is didn't they make a ton of money even with refunds?
You throw your bucks away like total chumps and your dissatisfied LOL
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