Tuesday, October 27th 2020
Wait for It: Cyberpunk 2077 Delayed to December 10th
Developer CD Projekt Red has announced that Cyberpunk 2077 is now facing another delay - this one of just 21 days. The game is now slated for release on December 10th, which gives the developer more time to work on the launch-day patch so that everything runs as smoothly as possible when the game is out in the wild and in the hands of millions of expectant gamers.
The developer clarified that the reason for the game's delay is the need to launch it concurrently on all platforms they've committed to - current-gen, next-gen, PC, and Stadia. In total, the developer is working on polishing and testing nine different versions of the game (PS4, PS4 Pro, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox One S, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, PC, and Stadia). This is just mind-bogglingly complex, as you might expect. We also have to take into account that CD Projekt Red has its own shoes to fill when it comes to final quality, and we must remember that first impressions make or break a videogame's reception in the current climate (remember Mass Effect: Andromeda or any other number of games). It seems that the cautious, methodical approach may be the best one for such a high-stakes release. I, for one, would much rather enjoy a game with less chances of game-breaking bugs than a rushed release - especially considering the amount of platforms the game is shipping for.
Source:
CD Projekt Red @ Twitter
The developer clarified that the reason for the game's delay is the need to launch it concurrently on all platforms they've committed to - current-gen, next-gen, PC, and Stadia. In total, the developer is working on polishing and testing nine different versions of the game (PS4, PS4 Pro, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox One S, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, PC, and Stadia). This is just mind-bogglingly complex, as you might expect. We also have to take into account that CD Projekt Red has its own shoes to fill when it comes to final quality, and we must remember that first impressions make or break a videogame's reception in the current climate (remember Mass Effect: Andromeda or any other number of games). It seems that the cautious, methodical approach may be the best one for such a high-stakes release. I, for one, would much rather enjoy a game with less chances of game-breaking bugs than a rushed release - especially considering the amount of platforms the game is shipping for.
124 Comments on Wait for It: Cyberpunk 2077 Delayed to December 10th
I heard there are only one surviver in the last BR-Australia, hopefully more TPU member can survive the next round.
Still got bunch of other games to play and I would prefer to play Cyberpunk with a new GPU anyway which I won't have till early next year. 'based on the ammount I can save up monthly'
I'm very reserved for this game since people are seriously overhyping it. Haven't pre-ordered, so I'll just sit and enjoy the outrage if it doesn't live up to the hype.
Also, expect that gigantic patch on release.
I preordered this game the moment it was announced and now I am hearing only Nvidia card will work with RT at the moment.. Very bad :(
I don't even know what to say about this. I've had so many games that I anticipated over the years end up being delayed by 3 months, 6 months, a year, it's mind-boggling. If you look at Squaresoft, it often takes them several years to get a game together. They promise a game and show a trailer at E3 or something and then you get the final game 3, 4, 5 years later, if then. As complex as the games are becoming and therefore, the coding that makes up the games, it's starting to seem miraculous that the games are able to be released at all, and not be completely broken, in some form or another. I think the publishers are downplaying the actual necessary amount of time it takes to produce and distribute a quality game title, because if they were honest at the announcement of a future game, they would have to say, "Release date to be announced, AT SOME POINT in the future, to be determined", and that doesn't generate excitement or pre-orders.
No one wants to invest in a game knowing that they might not have the final product in theirs hands for years, if then.
A 21 day delay is nothing, compared to the 1 year delays and several year delays that I have seen.
I wish that a computer could be designed or an AI or something that could pretty much automate the game coding process and take it mostly out of human hands, speeding up the process and POTENTIALLY greatly reducing or eliminating errors, but if that were to happen, God knows how many programmers and coders would end up out of work. I don't want that, I just want quality games. I also don't want the coders to be forced to work days and days and days of overtime, just so I can get my hands on the game, on the exact date that it was promised, months or years ago.
There has to be a solution, a compromise. Probably, like I suggested, being more flexible about announced final release dates for games.
Gold
When a game reaches Gold it’s considered a shippable experience. Games at this level will be ready to release and pass all of the following exit criteria.
- This release is feature complete with high polish
- All UIs are complete
- All voiceovers match the script
- All new players can play without external guidance
- No A, B, C and very few D and E defects
- All sound effects and voice overs are levelled
- There is a sufficient variety of sound effects and music to prevent noticeable/distracting repetition for the target playtime
- The game runs at the target framerate in all tested scenarios
Guessing they don't want to release it to PC first. Maybe sony and microsoft back handers are pretty big :pAnd AI is already being used to program. None of this changes the fact that you need programmers, at least to set up the AI to work properly. AI still heavily needs humans. There is no AGI yet. When we have AGI, everybody will lose their job, not just programmers. But everything will still get done by the AGI and nobody will 'have' to work. That's veeeery different from not 'having' work.
But ok, I will have something to do during Covid Christmas. As long as the game is good in the end just a single month does not matter. No, not even a month, just 3 more weeks.
What all of this really means is that they are scrambling to figure out which problems they can fix and which ones they are going to ship.