GameStop is refunding copies of Cyberpunk 2077, even if they've been opened

[midian182]

A hot potato: The epic disaster that is Cyberpunk 2077's launch continues. GameStop has become the latest company to fully refund consumers who bought physical copies of the game, even if they've been opened. Adding insult to injury, staff have reportedly been instructed to label the games as "defective" before shipping them back to the company's warehouse.

Despite the bugs and some performance issues, Cyberpunk 2077 did manage to draw over one million concurrent Steam players at launch, beating Fallout 4's record for a single-player experience, but the problems on PS4 and Xbox One were apparent from the start.

The situation led to CD Projekt Red allowing refunds for digital and disc copies of the game, Microsoft loosening its refund policy, and Sony removing the title from its PlayStation Store.

According to an internal memo seen by Kotaku, GameStop employees have been instructed to accept returns of PS4 and Xbox One copies of Cyberpunk 2077. The retailer is usually very strict when it comes to allowing only unopened games to be returned, but it is making an exception to the policy in Cyberpunk's case.

Multiple GameStop employees have shown me a memo indicating the company is now accepting returns of Cyberpunk 2077, even if it’s been opened.

— Patrick Klepek (@patrickklepek) December 21, 2020

So, even if you've opened the box and packaging, it's still possible to get a refund. The only stipulation is that the game must be returned within 30 days of purchase, at which point they'll suffer the indignity of being labeled as defective and sent back to the warehouse.

Cyberpunk 2077 has been quite the disaster for CD Projekt; the company is even facing lawsuits over claims it misled investors over the game's quality.

On the PC, however, Cyberpunk 2077 is fairing quite well—though there is that bug corrupting save games. It boasts a Steam rating of Mostly Positive and a Metacritic score of 86 (7.1 from users). Compare that to the PS4 version (Metascore 55/User 3.3) and Xbox One (56/4.5), and the discrepancy is clear.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/88063-gamestop-refunding-copies-cyberpunk-2077-even-if-theyve.html

 

[Cal Jeffrey]

"Cyberpunk 2077 Defective Edition"

 

[QuantumPhysics]

PC Experience was great. Not the PC's fault the consoles are garbage.

 

[Mister_K]

PC Experience was great. Not the PC's fault the consoles are garbage.

They should have saved themselfs trouble and had it on "nextgen" only... To think that someone thought potatoes could run this game...

 

[VitalyT]

Despite the bugs and some performance issues, Cyberpunk 2077 did manage to draw over one million concurrent Steam players

There is just no shortage of sadomasochistic players out there.

 

[Hexic]

They should have saved themselfs trouble and had it on "nextgen" only... To think that someone thought potatoes could run this game...

^

They set themselves up for failure, I can’t really feel bad for CDPR. QA for all versions (all consoles and PC) clearly wasn’t prioritized, and is unfortunately led to gamers these days expecting games to be buggy at launch - instead of these AAA companies running a solid QA phase gate before releasing. It really is sad.

It sounds like CDPR management (based upon other articles) dug their own grave here, while the developers themselves just wanted to make a solid game.

 

[Uncle Al]

Yeah, from the way it appears this is one that won't make it to my system now or perhaps ever ......

 

[Adi6293]

So basically someone can guy the game, play the story ASAP and then return it? Can we agree that hysteria does not help anybody here?

 

[Axil00]

PC Experience was great. Not the PC's fault the consoles are garbage.

I don't think anyone thinks "PC's" are to blame. The problem is CDPR explicitly targeted hardware that isn't capable of running the game well enough to offer an enjoyable experience.

 

[Axil00]

So basically someone can guy the game, play the story ASAP and then return it? Can we agree that hysteria does not help anybody here?

Uh, no?

You don't consider the xbox one and ps4 versions of the game to be defective?

 

[Theinsanegamer]

They should have saved themselfs trouble and had it on "nextgen" only... To think that someone thought potatoes could run this game...

The PS4 has no issues rendering RDR2, which IMO looks way more detailed, and can play the witcher 3, byt the makers of CP2077, without a tenth the performance problems. The PS4 can run planetside 2, with hundreds of players on one map. The Xbox 360 using a CPU design that originated in the late 90s can run GTA V FFS. People need to stop this "oh muh weak conslows"

CP2077is blatantly unfinished and untested. The game in its current state should never have been greenlit. The optimization, if it exists at all, is laughably poor. The visuals do not line up at all with the hardware demands. The cities are empty and lifeless despite hammering modern CPUs.

This is a very simple case of "game optimized worse then stale moose turds". The game on PS5 still runs poorly and looks like a early PS4 game. It doesnt matter how powerful the bones are, if you dont optimize your code its gonna run like garbage.

 

[Axil00]

^

They set themselves up for failure, I can’t really feel bad for CDPR. QA for all versions (all consoles and PC) clearly wasn’t prioritized, and is unfortunately led to gamers these days expecting games to be buggy at launch - instead of these AAA companies running a solid QA phase gate before releasing. It really is sad.

It sounds like CDPR management (based upon other articles) dug their own grave here, while the developers themselves just wanted to make a solid game.

Or CDPR found themselves in a position where they felt had to cave to popular pressure regarding working conditions, and then found themselves having to choose between releasing a mess or canning the game.

I don't know enough about the company to have an opinion on whether that is true or not, but people seem to forget that I'd you take labor out of the system you are either lowering the quality of your work or raising your price.

 

[jonny888]

People really don't seem to get it. They HAD to release it like this. They knew it wasn't ready. The delays were explicitly stated as due to trying to make it work better for the last-gen consoles. You know why they released it? Because Christmas exists. No matter what, they would have been told by publishers and investors "release it by this date, or else". That's how it works. Didn't matter if they knew how bad it was. They won't have had a choice. It sucks, and they aren't completely blameless, but people blaming lack of QA, etc., clearly have no idea about which pressures get applied the most in determining a release timeframe of a game like this.
That said, play it on PC. Works just fine.

 

[Hexic]

People really don't seem to get it. They HAD to release it like this. They knew it wasn't ready. The delays were explicitly stated as due to trying to make it work better for the last-gen consoles. You know why they released it? Because Christmas exists. No matter what, they would have been told by publishers and investors "release it by this date, or else". That's how it works. Didn't matter if they knew how bad it was. They won't have had a choice. It sucks, and they aren't completely blameless, but people blaming lack of QA, etc., clearly have no idea about which pressures get applied the most in determining a release timeframe of a game like this.
That said, play it on PC. Works just fine.

So, CDPR management set themselves up for failure. They failed to maintain accurate timelines, encountered serious scope creep, made impossible promises to their investors based upon timelines, budget, and expectations - and it blew up in their faces.

This isn’t the “industry” - this is poor management. I do this every day, and this is cookie cutter Dilbert-level failure of management to effectively plan and implement a project.

You can add as much noise as you’d like with “industry expectations, Christmas season, etc.” but the core concept of management mishaps is, and will always be, the root cause.

If you’ve backed yourself up to the wall of “trash the game, or release a pile of crap” - then you’ve failed steps A-Y of ‘Managing a project 101’.

 

[BSim500]

So, CDPR management set themselves up for failure. They failed to maintain accurate timelines, encountered serious scope creep, made impossible promises to their investors based upon timelines, budget, and expectations - and it blew up in their faces.

Pretty much. Hyping too hard too early set unrealistic expectations and build up impatience like a pressure cooker. And when it was first announced I doubt they even had the developer toolkits for PS5, so "that's all they should have released on" is being seriously naive as to how long-cycle game development works. There's so much missing in the game that affects everyone (AI is sub-par) and yet they found time to focus on stuff like ray-tracing that only a minority use shows lack of prioritization.

"You can add as much noise as you’d like with “industry expectations, Christmas season, etc."

True, though given it took 16 months to finish off Witcher 3 post launch, the guy who said they wanted a Christmas release was correct. It was supposed to be 2021...

 

[duckofdeath]

The only reason they're all doing the public refund thing is most likely because of marketing. The old salesmanship term, bad news is also news, is definitely true here.
They can afford to "refund everything" because this game as made a lot of people quite rich.

 

[jonny888]

So, CDPR management set themselves up for failure. They failed to maintain accurate timelines, encountered serious scope creep, made impossible promises to their investors based upon timelines, budget, and expectations - and it blew up in their faces.

This isn’t the “industry” - this is poor management. I do this every day, and this is cookie cutter Dilbert-level failure of management to effectively plan and implement a project.

You can add as much noise as you’d like with “industry expectations, Christmas season, etc.” but the core concept of management mishaps is, and will always be, the root cause.

If you’ve backed yourself up to the wall of “trash the game, or release a pile of crap” - then you’ve failed steps A-Y of ‘Managing a project 101’.

Please re-read everything I said without cherry picking. I did say they weren't blameless. I'm merely pointing out that a lot of what's being said by people in these comments about the cause is nonsense. Everything I said was correct though. Christmas is a massive factor. It shouldn't be. But it is. Investors and shareholders are a massive factor. Maybe they shouldn't be. But they are.
I hope you get paid mega bucks, since it sounds like you should be running a AAA gaming company, since it's so easy (for you).

 

[Hexic]

Please re-read everything I said without cherry picking. I did say they weren't blameless. I'm merely pointing out that a lot of what's being said by people in these comments about the cause is nonsense. Everything I said was correct though. Christmas is a massive factor. It shouldn't be. But it is. Investors and shareholders are a massive factor. Maybe they shouldn't be. But they are.
I hope you get paid mega bucks, since it sounds like you should be running a AAA gaming company, since it's so easy (for you).

There wasn’t any cherry picking, I addressed your entire comment, with supplementary evidence that offered deeper insight at each point.

I didn’t state that you were incorrect in your assessment of blamelessness, nor the fact that investors are... investors, and they maintain certain expectations.

Where your point of contention resides is with the assumption of “it is what it is, and they had to release or can the game”. This is simply incorrect, and the point that I was focusing on. Who sets expectations for shareholders, aligns timelines with launch dates, secures funding, and ensures proper communication is being shared across the various business units? Management.

While COVID can (understandably) be attributed to certain delays, it is of senior leadership to align with operations (development) and shareholders of current timelines and updated expectations... or to change said expectations. Christmas season, while profitable, isn’t an excuse to launch a game half-cocked on older gen consoles, with existing bugs being what they were. That’s how it is, without excuses inserted within. There was a breakdown, and this lies on the lap of leadership.

I don’t publicize what I do for work on the Internet, but if I told you, you wouldn’t believe me anyways.

 

[loki1944]

Yeah, from the way it appears this is one that won't make it to my system now or perhaps ever ......

It will never touch my pc, yhat's for sure.

 

[Crinkles]

...with existing bugs being what they were. That’s how it is, without excuses inserted within. There was a breakdown, and this lies on the lap of leadership.

Couldn't it have released with a sticker/warning "not for PS4 / Xbox One"

I don’t publicize what I do for work on the Internet, but if I told you, you wouldn’t believe me anyways.

This is the internet you can be anything you want to be, Doc.

 

[jonny888]

There wasn’t any cherry picking, I addressed your entire comment, with supplementary evidence that offered deeper insight at each point.

I didn’t state that you were incorrect in your assessment of blamelessness, nor the fact that investors are... investors, and they maintain certain expectations.

Where your point of contention resides is with the assumption of “it is what it is, and they had to release or can the game”. This is simply incorrect, and the point that I was focusing on. Who sets expectations for shareholders, aligns timelines with launch dates, secures funding, and ensures proper communication is being shared across the various business units? Management.

While COVID can (understandably) be attributed to certain delays, it is of senior leadership to align with operations (development) and shareholders of current timelines and updated expectations... or to change said expectations. Christmas season, while profitable, isn’t an excuse to launch a game half-cocked on older gen consoles, with existing bugs being what they were. That’s how it is, without excuses inserted within. There was a breakdown, and this lies on the lap of leadership.

I don’t publicize what I do for work on the Internet, but if I told you, you wouldn’t believe me anyways.

I never said or implied they have to can the game. Ideally they would just delay longer. They already delayed multiple times anyway. Yes, clearly a planning problem occurred somewhere. But moving past the obvious, you end up with what choices they had after the fact. You can't go back in time and undo the planning mistakes. So what do you do? You're left with delay to fix things, or release buggy. My point is, they wouldn't have had the choice to delay more, because of the reasons I mentioned. Which means they could only do what they did. It's not an excuse for them. It's an explanation.

By all means retain your privacy into your work life. That's your right. But it's hard to find your statements about how easy it is credible without some context into who you are and why that opinion might be supported. It just ends up sounding like someone sat on the couch watching a sports game yelling "OMG how could he miss? That was an easy shot. Even I could have made that!". Apologies if that view is unfounded in this case, but without information to go off, that's how it is.

 

[Ozmiz]

I always wait before buying a game.

The positive is the game will have dropped in price, and usually be patched and bug free.

Also the reviews will have aged enough to give a true score, helping me to decide.

 

[Bamda]

As a PC gamer, I have always appreciated the benefits that come with playing on the best platform. Cyberpunk 2077 is one of my favorite new games. And since I was not able to finish building my new computer system due to the insane demand for new hardware. I was forced to play the game on my soon to be 10 yr old system powered by a Intel Core i7-2600K with a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti. I am playing at 1440p on Ultra with lowered shadows settings which allowed me to get very acceptable FPS for an older system.

 

[Gezzer]

The PS4 has no issues rendering RDR2, which IMO looks way more detailed, and can play the witcher 3, byt the makers of CP2077, without a tenth the performance problems. The PS4 can run planetside 2, with hundreds of players on one map. The Xbox 360 using a CPU design that originated in the late 90s can run GTA V FFS. People need to stop this "oh muh weak conslows"

CP2077is blatantly unfinished and untested. The game in its current state should never have been greenlit. The optimization, if it exists at all, is laughably poor. The visuals do not line up at all with the hardware demands. The cities are empty and lifeless despite hammering modern CPUs.

This is a very simple case of "game optimized worse then stale moose turds". The game on PS5 still runs poorly and looks like a early PS4 game. It doesnt matter how powerful the bones are, if you dont optimize your code its gonna run like garbage.

Dude, you have to realize that the games you used for examples weren't nearly as complicated as CP2077, and all but Witcher 3 were console developed and then ported to the PC. That makes all the difference in the world. CDPR's big mistake was taking a game developed for PC and attempting to port it to consoles. It's like trying to fit an elephant into a shoebox when you consider the capabilities of a base last gen console.