CD Projekt releases Cyberpunk 2077 apology video, roadmap

[midian182]

A hot potato: It's no secret that while Cyberpunk 2077 received mostly positive reviews on PC, the Xbox One and PS4 versions were heavily criticized for the slew of problems specific to the platforms. Now, CD Projekt co-founder Marcin Iwiński has released a video apologizing for the state of the game on the last-gen machines while explaining what went wrong.

"Despite good reviews on PC, the console version of Cyberpunk 2077 did not meet the quality standard we wanted it to meet. I, and the entire leadership team, are deeply sorry for this and this video is me publicly owning up to this," said Iwiński.

As most people speculated, it appears that CD Projekt Red bit off more than it could chew when bringing a game as ambitious as Cyberpunk 2077 to old-gen consoles. Iwiński cites the "multitude of custom objects, interacting systems, and mechanics" all packed into a city with almost no loading times as a challenge for the the PS4/Xbox One X and their limited bandwidth.

"Every change and improvement needed to be tested, and as it turned out, our testing did not show a big part of the issues you are experiencing while playing the game [on last-gen hardware]. As we got closer to the final release, we saw significant improvements each and every day, and we really believed we would deliver in the final day zero update."

Developing Cyberpunk 2077, which was delayed three times, was made more problematic by Covid-19 and having to work from home. "A lot of the dynamics we normally take for granted got lost over video calls or email. And we took that hit too," explained Iwiński.

The video does raise some questions. Iwiński claims that CDPR's testing didn't show many of the problems experienced by players, which seems surprising given how many there are, as does the belief that it could fix all these issues via a day-one patch.

In addition to the apology, the video reveals Cyberpunk 2077's roadmap. The free DLC is coming, but the priority right now is to keep patching the game. The v1.1 patch lands in the next 10 days while the v1.2 patch arrives a few weeks later. The shifting focus means the PS5/XBSX versions have been pushed back to sometime during the second half of 2021.

According to Valve's stats, Cyberpunk 2077 has lost 79 percent of its Steam players since launch, three times faster than The Witcher 3. It'll be interesting to see if the patches and DLC draw back lapsed players.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/88288-cd-projekt-releases-cyberpunk-2077-apology-video-roadmap.html

 

[Dimitriid]

I do see a big issue here, and it's not exactly the patching. I mean, it is for PS4 and Xbone users don't get me wrong, and I am aware they outnumber all the other platforms usually and probably for this game too.

The issue is that now the company is hyper-focusing on Patching and as the secondary goal the promised DLC. You know what's missing?

It's missing like 80% of the features they either promised or heavily implied. A vague "DLC is coming" doesn't addresses the enormity of what's actually missing. This is a really solid game on Act I but falls apart by the beginning of Act II when you see all of the care and attention to detail they had on act I falls off a cliff: World events become nothing but loading screens, AI becomes just people walking or loitering, intrincate quest become mostly fetch/kill quest, complex character arch become just nameless people that just call you on the phone and sometimes just literally text you, and most of the planning and multiple outcome missions become just big levels where you can use ANY approach and all of them will eventually work without issues making the choice meaningless.

So how is "Patching" and "DLC" going to fix any of that? I very much doubt they can go back and give most of these quest way more options so as soon as you finish the main story (SPOILER: Which you DON'T want to because you literally need to die to do so, on all outcomes) and you unlock the SINGLE love scene after the romance subplot, you're done with this game.

There's nothing but trying to get the random number generator to give you a half way decent item by mere luck or to do more police kill/fetch quest of the most simplistic kind. It's a game as empty as most of your typical Ubisoft sandboxes: you will get bored to tears no matter how many patches.

 

[Mister_K]

"It's missing like 80% of the features"

Where do you even get these numbers lol?

 

[Uncle Al]

I'm beginning to see a direct connection between them and the current government ..... an apology that's a way too little and far too late ....

 

[Irata]

Maybe if CDPR had spent less effort on making their game a showcase for their sponsor‘s tech and instead focused on making it run well e en on lower end platforms things may have turned out differently.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

I just see this as a great reason to not buy Cyberpunk until I am able to buy a RTX 3080... sometime this summer I can have enjoy the finished game with the hardware to play on Ultra.

Till then I have other games to play on my 3070.

 

[fps4ever]

Their words do not remotely match what they actually released even for the pc version as far as content and interaction in the environments and NPC's.

 

[Dimitriid]

I just see this as a great reason to not buy Cyberpunk until I am able to buy a RTX 3080... sometime this summer I can have enjoy the finished game with the hardware to play on Ultra.

Till then I have other games to play on my 3070.

That's plausible but way too optimistic: I doubt that either this game will be much more improved this summer and I also doubt you'll be able to buy a 3080 this summer.

Late 2021 seems more realistic but even then the game might be so so and the card might still be 800 or 900 bucks.

 

[poohbear]

Perfect! As habit, I never buy a PC game the first 6 months its released, it's just the paradigm of PC games...it takes a few months to get stability. And by then its heavily discounted. Win win!

 

[Burty117]

When was the last time you saw a video from EA's higher up's apologise for Anthem? Or how about Ubisoft and Watch Dogs? Did Blizzard ever apologize for announcing the next Diablo game was exclusively on mobile?

It's a shame they got suckered into releasing the game way too early but respect for owning it. Pretty much all the big players just burry their heads in the sand, EA don't even bother fixing it these days.

 

[terzaerian]

When was the last time you saw a video from EA's higher up's apologise for Anthem? Or how about Ubisoft and Watch Dogs? Did Blizzard ever apologize for announcing the next Diablo game was exclusively on mobile?

It's a shame they got suckered into releasing the game way too early but respect for owning it. Pretty much all the big players just burry their heads in the sand, EA don't even bother fixing it these days.

Or No Man's Sky!

 

[DonquixoteIII]

I will resume playing the game when they return the dev console so we PC players can make our own mods. Like was promised. And I am also PATIENTLY waiting for CDPR's dev kit to be released

 

[texasrattler]

When was the last time you saw a video from EA's higher up's apologise for Anthem? Or how about Ubisoft and Watch Dogs? Did Blizzard ever apologize for announcing the next Diablo game was exclusively on mobile?

It's a shame they got suckered into releasing the game way too early but respect for owning it. Pretty much all the big players just burry their heads in the sand, EA don't even bother fixing it these days.

Never as EA didnt make Anthem, Bioware did. EA publisher, Bioware developer aka maker of the game. EA also gave Bioware a extension of a year on the game and still couldnt get it done. Thats a fail on Bioware. Sure it looks bad on EA but they, like most pubs let the dev do what they do best, make they game. Bioware is on thin ice over that too. So, future games cant be like that or EA has said there will be no Bioware.
Too many love to blame a pub for things a dev does and in some cases get chance after chance to do. While Bioware has been a good company, they have failed on 2 of their big games. Thats on them not EA.

 

[Gezzer]

Having just finished the main quest line and having over 100 hrs in on my PC (i7 4790K@4.6, 2080S) I have to admit I enjoyed the game... for what it is, not what it could be. Then again I stopped myself from following all the hype too closely, I've learned that lesson a long time ago, so I didn't have lofty expectations for the game going in.
I did experience bugs, a lot of them. But only one game breaker, and 2-3 that dampened gameplay. For example I couldn't use any tech guns, they'd only fire 50% of the time. But the rest I just ignored or laughed at. So I feel I got my money's worth in the end.

Do I feel that this let's CDPR off the hook? Nope, they screwed up big time. While it appears the apology is heartfelt, I question if it really tells the whole story. For example the internal testing line... maybe. But Sony's testing for certification?? There's simply no way that the game would of passed in that condition. So I feel confidant that CDPR was feeling pressure to release and gave Sony a snow job promise of a day one patch that simply couldn't do what was promised.
So it follows that most likely they also cut a lot content to make the self imposed deadline. Like underwater content for one. There are so many references, such as useless perks related to underwater that it's hard to believe there wasn't more related content in the game originally. I get the feeling that CDPR compromised a lot on the original vision to support last gen consoles. Which was just plain stupid.

They could of dropped last gen consoles in favour of current gen a year ago. Released a fairly feature complete and bug free PC version in April/May of this year and then spend between then and the 2021 Christmas shopping season spending the time fixing PC issues and tweaking the next gen versions accordingly. Was it greed or just plain stubbornness that lead CDPR down the path they choose? Who knows, maybe a bit of both. But in my eyes and a lot of other gamers I would think, they've tarnished the image of the last "good" developer. Maybe they'll redeem themselves, or not. At this point IMHO there are none of the "good" guys left... and I'll just have to learn to live with it.

 

[jpuroila]

Never as EA didnt make Anthem, Bioware did. EA publisher, Bioware developer aka maker of the game. EA also gave Bioware a extension of a year on the game and still couldnt get it done. Thats a fail on Bioware. Sure it looks bad on EA but they, like most pubs let the dev do what they do best, make they game. Bioware is on thin ice over that too. So, future games cant be like that or EA has said there will be no Bioware.
Too many love to blame a pub for things a dev does and in some cases get chance after chance to do. While Bioware has been a good company, they have failed on 2 of their big games. Thats on them not EA.

When it comes to EA, you only have to look at the history of their acquisitions and it becomes very apparent that a significant portion if not the lion's share of the fault lies with them. In general, as the parent company they both influence the developer(directly and indirectly) and are responsible for making sure the company is run responsibly.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

That's plausible but way too optimistic: I doubt that either this game will be much more improved this summer and I also doubt you'll be able to buy a 3080 this summer.

Late 2021 seems more realistic but even then the game might be so so and the card might still be 800 or 900 bucks.

-shrug- I'm not expecting a perfect game just not a hot mess and I have money - I just refuse to fund scalpers as that only encourages it to get worse in the future.

 

[Nobina]

The Witcher 3 continues to be the best game CDPR made.