Playing Cyberpunk 2077 on first-gen PS4 and Xbox One units is proving troublesome

[Cal Jeffrey]

Facepalm: The highly anticipated Cyberpunk 2077 officially launched at midnight last night, but some players found themselves quite disappointed. Users report that the game struggles in many areas when running on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Some say the performance issues make the game "unplayable."

Update (12/11/20): We tested Cyberpunk 2077 on a PlayStation 4 Pro and can confirm that it runs without any of the issues players have been describing. The day-one patch downloaded and installed automatically. So it does appear that the problems being encountered are only occurring on the older hardware.

There are some bugs we ran into, but textures loaded fine. Frame rates dropped slightly at times, but not drastically. Optimization should fix most of the minor issues we encountered so far.

The original story follows below:

We have been waiting eight long years for the arrival of CD Projekt Red's dystopian RPG Cyberpunk 2077. Initially slated to launch on April 16, 2020, the game suffered three delays—the first to September 17, the second to November 19, and finally to December 10. Some fans were so disappointed in the last delay CDPR reported getting death threats.

But all that is behind us now. The game has shipped, and all is good. Well, except for some of those playing on older hardware. Players report a wide range of problems when trying to run Cyberpunk 2077 on first-generation PS4s and Xbox Ones.

This is Cyberpunk 2077 - PS4 version 1.00. Resolution is literally below 720p and the game takes 20 seconds to load in textures. Inexcusable. Unfathomable. Unplayable. pic.twitter.com/AZ2OPTnkdL

— Michael Does Life (@MichaelDoesLife) December 9, 2020

Users have flooded Twitter complaining about slow loading textures, resolutions lower than 720p, "unplayable" frame rate drops, and crashing. One Twitter user claimed that textures were taking as long as 20 seconds to load and posted a video (above) where he pulled his car over to demonstrate the almost unbelievable texture pop-in.

It is unclear how many of those having issues installed the day-one patch. It's possible that they couldn't, as Kotaku reports that it could not update the game, even after a reinstall.

"My game’s version is 1.0.0.6, which appears to be the pre-patch version, but it won’t let me install any further updates, even after re-downloading the entire game from scratch," said Kotaku's Ethan Each. "I’ve had framerate drops, UI and texture pop-in, and an overall layer of fuzzy lighting and jagged reflections that made it hard not to feel like I was playing a PS3 or 360 game, or at least a modern one on ultra low graphics settings."

That said, IGN could download the patch for Xbox One and notes that it still had problems with textures not loading and low frame rates.

We are truly humbled that so many of you trusted us and decided to support #Cyberpunk2077 before the release! Even 8 million thank yous isn't enough! The journey has just begun and we are hard at work on the upcoming fixes and updates to the game. See you in Night City! pic.twitter.com/ycIe2kN0Zq

— Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) December 10, 2020

So far, the issues seem to be isolated to older consoles. PlayStation 4 Pro, PS4 Slim, Xbox Ones X, and Xbox One S users seem unaffected, but it is still too early to be sure. We have been running into optimization problems with the PC version as well, which we will go into depth on in an upcoming review.

CD Projekt Red has not commented on the problems specifically but did issue a tweet to the over 8 million people that pre-ordered the game, thanking them and saying that developers were working on many fixes and updates.

Having launch-day issues for CDPR games is nothing out of the ordinary. The Witcher 3 was a bit of a mess on release, but it ended up walking away with the Best Game of the Year Award in 2015. Given CDPR's track record, patience should pay off in this case as well.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/87921-playing-cyberpunk-2077-first-gen-ps4-xbox-one.html

 

[nnguy2]

That's the equivalent of playing CP2077 on i5 2600k with a GTX 660. of course it's going to look like horse poop.

 

[m4a4]

I understand trying to launch on all platforms at the same time, but here is an example of trying to rush it (because of covid or whatever).

Not completely unplayable, just unfortunate...

 

[Shadowboxer]

So this brand new ultra demanding ray tracing showcase title doesn’t run too well on 7 year old last gen consoles?

I mean you have to keep your expectations low if you’re a user of this sort of hardware. I guess the developers thought these people would rather play a low res experience than not at all.

 

[nnguy2]

I understand trying to launch on all platforms at the same time, but here is an example of trying to rush it (because of covid or whatever).

Not completely unplayable, just unfortunate...

It plays great on PC and XBSX/S and PS5.

I remember a time when you HAD to get a newer gen console to play the latest AAA game instead of the developer bending over backwards to water down their game so it can be played on gimped consoles that are 7 years old. but whatev$$$

 

[Prosercunus]

The game probably should have been a PC (release) exclusive with polishing done for next gen consoles (which I hear already run the game pretty well, so maybe disregard if that's the case).

The decision to make it multi-multi platform was likely financial and not a technical decision.

 

[yRaz]

People are tired of delays and getting mad at the devs for "crunching" and then this happens. They said they were having trouble optimizing the game for all platforms weeks before release and it was actually the cause for the last delay.

Gamers are never happy. Yell at the devs to release the game when it's not ready and then get mad when it doesn't run right.

Know what, they deserve what they get this time. It's one thing when EA or some other greedy dev releases a buggy game as a cash cow, but CDPR told us about this. The hypocrisy of the gamers complaining is simply astounding.

 

[m4a4]

It plays great on PC and XBSX/S and PS5.

I remember a time when you HAD to get a newer gen console to play the latest AAA game instead of the developer bending over backwards to water down their game so it can be played on gimped consoles that are 7 years old. but whatevs

Yup. But it was still rushed to launch on the older consoles.
I would've personally been fine with segmenting the launch (bias being that I'll play on PC), but who knows how other people would've then taken that...

 

[nnguy2]

Yup. But it was still rushed to launch on the older consoles. I would've personally been fine with segmenting the launch, but who knows how other people would've then taken that...

Totally agreed. They be upset at them for delaying and then be upset again that there's a crunch.

IMHO Games like this should not even be avail for older consoles. But the $$$$ incentive is too great.

 

[Namtrooper]

8 million beta testers. Glad I didn't pre-order.
Over exaggerating here. But I suspected bugs and I can wait 3 more months.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

If you are playing on anything LESS than a 2080 equipped PC with 32GB DDR4 and an SSD, you’re doing it wrong.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

8 million beta testers. Glad I didn't pre-order.
Over exaggerating here. But I suspected bugs and I can wait 3 more months.

My PC experience has been nearly flawless.

I knew the Consoles were gonna be a problem.

 

[m4a4]

IMHO Games like this should not even be avail for older consoles. But the $$$$ incentive is too great.

I partially agree.
If the game pushes too many technical boundaries, you shouldn't spend time pushing and optimizing for old hardware.
But also, the next-gen consoles are new. Don't need to force people to upgrade, especially when money is tight for a lot more people this year.

 

[wolfram]

It's to be expected. A next gen game on an older console. Still it shouldn't be that bad, even GTA V does it better.

 

[Calle2003]

That's the equivalent of playing CP2077 on i5 2600k with a GTX 660. of course it's going to look like horse poop.

There is no such thing as ”i5 2600k”.

 

[nnguy2]

There is no such thing as ”i5 2600k”.

fat finger typo, *i5 2500k*. but I'm glad that was your main takeaway.

 

[Porkous]

I would not be bothered by low frame rates, since movies have low frame rates, too, and are pretty immersive and sometimes a too crispy kind of graphics can make a game look a bit like plastic, uncanny.

In the case of consoles, well...
This game has many elements, I mean, go sit somewhere and start counting how many things you see, from street lamps, to different shades of paint, to debris, cloth, metals, cars, pedestrians each unique etc. These take processing power, draw calls, ram, bandwidth, etc.

The small xbox s has barely 1.4 TF and its tablet like CPU is not perfect.

 

[Calle2003]

fat finger typo, *i5 2500k*. but I'm glad that was your main takeaway.

Well, actually PS4 has a 8 core CPU so the 8 threaded i7 2600k would be more correct even though the Jaguar has ”weaker” CPU cores.

 

[terzaerian]

My PC experience has been nearly flawless.

I knew the Consoles were gonna be a problem.

Well you've bought like a half-dozen video cards in the past month I'd hope you wouldn't have a problem running it

 

[Vulcanproject]

I mean I saw this scenario coming a long way back. I said they would be pretty poor on the base consoles and particularly Xbox One. Which is why CDPR never showed them off, the signs were bad. The game is mostly beyond those old machines, and even PS4 Pro isn't exactly great either.

It hardly bodes well for the eventual PS5 or Series X when a 3090 with probably double the raster performance and definitely more than that in ray tracing performance has a fight with this game. That also includes the wondrous black magic that is DLSS. The consoles do not have any equivalent anytime soon it seems, further hampering their chances of putting on a good show against PC.

It could be a bloodbath for them despite the fact they are only a few weeks old.

 

[DZillaXx]

Well, actually PS4 has a 8 core CPU so the 8 threaded i7 2600k would be more correct even though the Jaguar has ”weaker” CPU cores.

The Jaguar CPU in these consoles are actually two quadcore units. And because of this latency between the two modules is pretty high, so the second module is rarely used for anything more than OS and some side tasks. The Main game thread and all extra main game threads tend to only run on those 4 cores. It was a really poor choice for a Console CPU, I fully blame AMD for pushing that design choice. The PS4 would have held up so much better if it only had a better CPU. Really should have used a 3-4 module Bulldozer setup. Jaguar has such high latency between the two quad core modules it makes scaling a game engine on these devices past 4 core impractical. Bulldozer wouldn't have had this issue. Plus the mid cycle console refresh would have a good deal more powerful. So much so that we probably wouldn't have gotten the PS5/XSX this year, which would have been a great thing. As IMO this generation of consoles should have had a DLSS type of hardware solution.

 

[Lounds]

The Jaguar CPU in these consoles are actually two quadcore units. And because of this latency between the two modules is pretty high, so the second module is rarely used for anything more than OS and some side tasks. The Main game thread and all extra main game threads tend to only run on those 4 cores. It was a really poor choice for a Console CPU, I fully blame AMD for pushing that design choice. The PS4 would have held up so much better if it only had a better CPU. Really should have used a 3-4 module Bulldozer setup. Jaguar has such high latency between the two quad core modules it makes scaling a game engine on these devices past 4 core impractical. Bulldozer wouldn't have had this issue. Plus the mid cycle console refresh would have a good deal more powerful. So much so that we probably wouldn't have gotten the PS5/XSX this year, which would have been a great thing. As IMO this generation of consoles should have had a DLSS type of hardware solution.

I'm pretty sure I remember gorilla games posting a video about Killzone shadow fall and showing their task scheduler and it was using 6/7 cores back in 2013, what was surprising was they said they were pretty much maxing the PS4 out and that was 2013! I mean better rendering techniques for the PS4 have come out since then and when you look at games such as God of War and Uncharted 4 it's super impressive for a home console.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

Well you've bought like a half-dozen video cards in the past month I'd hope you wouldn't have a problem running it

And boy does it look GOOD.

all settings wayyyy up and the 3090 not even breaking a sweat.

 

[Xallisto]

The penchant for hyperbole on the internet never ceases to amaze me, 720p resolutions and 20 seconds for textures to load in, whilst **** most certainly, does not make a game unplayable.

 

[Plutoisaplanet]

The penchant for hyperbole on the internet never ceases to amaze me, 720p resolutions and 20 seconds for textures to load in, whilst **** most certainly, does not make a game unplayable.

It does if you want to obey traffic laws. /s