There’s no game that has been hyped for so long, at least not that I can recall, as Cyberpunk 2077. Revealed just before the release of The Witcher 3, the sci-fi title feels like it has been lingering in some form or fashion over the entire console generation that is at its end. After just a few days on the market, it’s been a massive success, but it’s also been plagued with technical issues. While the PC version and the next gen console versions are suffering some bugs, crashes, etc., they are perfectly playable, but those on older consoles are finding the game shockingly poor. It’s so bad that OpenCritic issued a PSA about playing the game on the base PS4 and Xbox One. The game’s developer acknowledges that, and says a lot of it comes down to underestimation.
In the latest conference call with investors, CD Projekt RED President Adam Kiciński acknowledged the poor state of previous generation versions. He said that the team was simply too focused on getting the game out the door and, surprisingly, even said that exclusively using the PC version in marketing could be seen as misleading. He does say that more fixes are coming and they hope to get the PS4/Xbox One versions of the game to a better state next year (thanks to Wccftech for transcribing the below).
“After three delays, we as the management board were too focused on releasing the game. We underestimated the scale and complexity of the issues. We ignored the signals about the need for additional time to refine the game on the base last gen consoles. It was the wrong approach and against our business philosophy. On top of that, during the campaign, we showed the game on PC, which caused loss of gamers trust and the reputation that we have been building to a big part of our lives. And that’s why our first steps are solely focused on regaining those two things.
We are concentrated on fixing Cyberpunk 2077 on last gen consoles. The first substantial set of fixes was released over the weekend. The next set of fixes will be released within the next seven days. Big updates are planned for January and February together with smaller fixes. Of course, PC gamers will also be getting regular updates and fixes to improve the game. We’ll do everything possible to prove that we stick to our values. We truly hope that our efforts will let us rebuild the trust we have lost.”
While CD Project RED has always been known for some buggy releases (anyone who played any of The Witcher titles at launch will know that), what we’re seeing with the base PS4/Xbox One version is far beyond those issues of the past, it seems. When you add in the relatively well running PC and PS5/Xbox Series X/S versions, it makes the issues even more pronounced. CDPR has been known for continuing to work and refine their games, so hopefully they can polish up those versions to something working halfway decently in the near future.