Thursday, January 14th 2021
CD Projekt Red Co-Founder Publicly Apologizes for Console Launch, Announces Support Roadmap
As it stands, Cyberpunk 2077 is the game many either love or love to hate. The game launched last December 10th after three delays to a great reception of the PC platform - and a good one on current-gen PS5 and Xbox Series X|S - but was a fiasco on last-gen consoles and their mid-life refreshes to such an extent that Sony removed the game from their digital store. A great deal of digital ink has already been written on CD Projekt Red's handling of the situation, and it could - really could - have been handled better.
Now, CD Projekt Red co-founder Marcin Iwiński has released a 5-minute video where he approaches Cyberpunk 2077's release state; assumes, alongside the direction, full responsibility for the state of the game; and doubles-down on CD Projekt Red's commitment to improve the Cyberpunk 2077 experience. he doesn't go into too much detail as to how and why things went awry, but says that a smattering of management decisions led to today's situation. And considering the current situation, plans for post-launch DLC (akin to those that happened with The Witcher 3, which featured new armor, weapons, haircuts, missions, and a New Game + mode) will be arriving slightly later than predicted, so as to allow the team to fully focus on straightening out the games' rough patches.
The new roadmap details a big new update for the game coming in the next 9 days (the video was released yesterday), which means that it will be available before January 23rd. This update, which will focus mostly on bugs and performance issues, will be followed up by a second big update coming in February, which will be even bigger and more comprehensive than the one coming in January. It seems CD Projekt Red expects these two updates to bring the game close enough to its desired state in that we can look for the aforementioned free DLC releases sometime after this second February update, alongside smaller patches to keep on improving the experience.
As for gamers currently playing the game on current-gen consoles via backwards compatibility, Marcin Iwiński says that the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions of the game will be released to the public sometime in the second half of 2021.
I for one have been enjoying the game immensely, even though yes, there are many, many bugs, and I've seen the game crash on me some ten times altogether. This is with some 70 hours put into it, and four endings already unlocked. I am now waiting for these patches - likely just for the first big January patch, depending on the release notes) to jump right back in. I still think that the game is a technical achievement, bugs and all, and is close to my ideal cyberpunk environment. here's hoping CD Projekt Red delivers, and that they can rebuild the hard-earned trust with gamers, the industry, and their investors. It can be argued that the studio had nowhere else to go in public opinion other than down, so in a way, they have become victims of their own success - and most of it at the expense of the studios' own decisions.
Now, CD Projekt Red co-founder Marcin Iwiński has released a 5-minute video where he approaches Cyberpunk 2077's release state; assumes, alongside the direction, full responsibility for the state of the game; and doubles-down on CD Projekt Red's commitment to improve the Cyberpunk 2077 experience. he doesn't go into too much detail as to how and why things went awry, but says that a smattering of management decisions led to today's situation. And considering the current situation, plans for post-launch DLC (akin to those that happened with The Witcher 3, which featured new armor, weapons, haircuts, missions, and a New Game + mode) will be arriving slightly later than predicted, so as to allow the team to fully focus on straightening out the games' rough patches.
The new roadmap details a big new update for the game coming in the next 9 days (the video was released yesterday), which means that it will be available before January 23rd. This update, which will focus mostly on bugs and performance issues, will be followed up by a second big update coming in February, which will be even bigger and more comprehensive than the one coming in January. It seems CD Projekt Red expects these two updates to bring the game close enough to its desired state in that we can look for the aforementioned free DLC releases sometime after this second February update, alongside smaller patches to keep on improving the experience.
As for gamers currently playing the game on current-gen consoles via backwards compatibility, Marcin Iwiński says that the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions of the game will be released to the public sometime in the second half of 2021.
I for one have been enjoying the game immensely, even though yes, there are many, many bugs, and I've seen the game crash on me some ten times altogether. This is with some 70 hours put into it, and four endings already unlocked. I am now waiting for these patches - likely just for the first big January patch, depending on the release notes) to jump right back in. I still think that the game is a technical achievement, bugs and all, and is close to my ideal cyberpunk environment. here's hoping CD Projekt Red delivers, and that they can rebuild the hard-earned trust with gamers, the industry, and their investors. It can be argued that the studio had nowhere else to go in public opinion other than down, so in a way, they have become victims of their own success - and most of it at the expense of the studios' own decisions.
37 Comments on CD Projekt Red Co-Founder Publicly Apologizes for Console Launch, Announces Support Roadmap
I still feel CP2077 on PC is well worth the money, but it could have been much more, especially when there are so much content being cut.
The best fix for that is delivering the game that offers more than people expected now. Flesh out that city with events, free LC and fix the bugs... usually when a product comes together and is supported by some new PR that tends to fix things quite well in public perception too.
I disagree though. This game's narrative is miles ahead of many others, and at its core the gameplay and immersion is there. You can only have missed that if you skipped past all the dialogue. That stuff is easily on the level of a decent movie.
Now to get a GPU that can do it justice on my ultrawide... so looking at playing it in late 2021 (hopefully)
This is so much different compared to the first DeusEx, for example, where story was everything. Gameplay also.
I have already gotten 100h+ outta the game and that is way above the norm for a single player game, extra content is nice but it would be too greedy for us gamers to demand CDPR for more.
With that type of content and all of the bugs fixed I'd probably forgive CDPR for the state in which they released cyberpunk 2077, and to think that if they only delayed the game for 3 more months they could have had a much smoother and better received launch!
do you in general really feel movies have better stories then games?
and also was it not known that like 95% of the "Choices" in game literally do not do anything? that you can even level to get more dialogue options that have zero impact at all?
Games are an odd story telling medium, since the medium itself can work without a story at all, and just get by with pure gameplay. But because they are interactive you can't just write a story for them in the same way that you would write a movie. You need to find that delicate balance between building a world, the characters, the themes while giving the player stuff to do because it's a video game, not a movie :D
As whole the collective experience on game writing seems lower. indies games are often the closest thing that we got to "auteur movies" while AAA got a few gems, we often get the "blockbuster scenario that works, can be entertaining, but won't blow your socks off". If you want to become a film writer there's tons and tons of academic ressource about it, lots of references movies to learn from, by comparison video game writing is still in it's infancy.
As far as I see it this is a promise to fix the bugs yet we are still left with a game that is missing many promised features. I've walked into what appears to be cut gang wars content, where the two rival gangs will literally stare at each other. I've see this twice now.
This game with bug fixes still makes for an empty open world game with absolutely atrocious AI and grindy linear side-quests.
I just dont understand how anyone can enjoy this game, after all teh games we have had in the past and the standards they have set which this game does not met, even games from 2001 (gta3) beat in in certain regards...