Once again, CD Projekt Red is issuing an apology over the truly disastrous — though hilarious — Cyberpunk 2077 launch. Today, the developer shared a video statement via its socials, as well as posted an FAQ Q&A on the company's website alongside an updates road map in efforts to calm everyone down.
But while the Polish company is still promising to deliver fixes "without any obligatory overtime," the reaction to this latest bit of damage control so far isn't great, especially considering the next-gen versions for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X just got postponed.
In the video, CD Projekt Red co-founder Marcin Iwińsk makes attempts at addressing a few of the major Cyberpunk criticisms, including the game's extremely poor performance on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, as well as the fact the company seemingly tried to hide this fact by not letting reviewers test the console version before the title's December 10 release.
"Every extra day that we worked on the day zero update brought visible improvement [to the console version] — that's why we started sending console review keys on the 8th December, which was later than we had originally planned," Iwiński said. "We made it even more difficult for ourselves by first wanting to make the game look epic on PCs and then adjusting it to consoles — especially old-gens. That was our core assumption. And things did not look super difficult at first, while we knew the hardware gap, ultimately, time has proven that we've underestimated the task."
The FAQ added this reasoning for Cyberpunk's lack of initial console quality, stating "everything is not stretched out over flat terrain where we can make things less taxing hardware-wise, but condensed in one big city and in a relatively loading-free environment. We made it even more difficult for ourselves by first wanting to make the game look epic on PCs and then adjusting it to consoles — especially old-gens. That was our core assumption. And things did not look super difficult at first, while we knew the hardware gap, ultimately, time has proven that we've underestimated the task."
Beyond this, Iwiński outlined the future of the game and its promised updates. The next major patch is set to drop sometime in the next 10 days, while another larger patch will come in "the weeks after."
But here's where things start to get really disappointing — these fixes will delay the game's first DLC, which now will not arrive until much later this year. Also, the game's next-gen upgrade for PS5 and Xbox Series X has been pushed back from the first half of 2021 until the second half of the year and closer to 2022. Yes, 2022.
You can see the Cyberpunk 2077 updates roadmap for yourself below.
As for when — and if — the game will be available again on the PlayStation Store after Sony pulled it last year, CD Projekt Red wrote: "We are working on fixes and updates, and are working with Sony to bring Cyberpunk 2077 back to PlayStation Store as soon as possible."
The company stated it's also still trying to issue refunds to unhappy gamers.
As for the company again forcing its staff to crunch to make all this happen, it writes: "The team is working to bring relevant fixes to the game without any obligatory overtime. Avoiding crunch on all of our future projects is one of our top priorities."
So does this second apology really add all that much to the first one? Well, that's up to you to decide. You can watch Iwiński's video message below.
But while the Polish company is still promising to deliver fixes "without any obligatory overtime," the reaction to this latest bit of damage control so far isn't great, especially considering the next-gen versions for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X just got postponed.
In the video, CD Projekt Red co-founder Marcin Iwińsk makes attempts at addressing a few of the major Cyberpunk criticisms, including the game's extremely poor performance on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, as well as the fact the company seemingly tried to hide this fact by not letting reviewers test the console version before the title's December 10 release.
"Every extra day that we worked on the day zero update brought visible improvement [to the console version] — that's why we started sending console review keys on the 8th December, which was later than we had originally planned," Iwiński said. "We made it even more difficult for ourselves by first wanting to make the game look epic on PCs and then adjusting it to consoles — especially old-gens. That was our core assumption. And things did not look super difficult at first, while we knew the hardware gap, ultimately, time has proven that we've underestimated the task."
The FAQ added this reasoning for Cyberpunk's lack of initial console quality, stating "everything is not stretched out over flat terrain where we can make things less taxing hardware-wise, but condensed in one big city and in a relatively loading-free environment. We made it even more difficult for ourselves by first wanting to make the game look epic on PCs and then adjusting it to consoles — especially old-gens. That was our core assumption. And things did not look super difficult at first, while we knew the hardware gap, ultimately, time has proven that we've underestimated the task."
Beyond this, Iwiński outlined the future of the game and its promised updates. The next major patch is set to drop sometime in the next 10 days, while another larger patch will come in "the weeks after."
But here's where things start to get really disappointing — these fixes will delay the game's first DLC, which now will not arrive until much later this year. Also, the game's next-gen upgrade for PS5 and Xbox Series X has been pushed back from the first half of 2021 until the second half of the year and closer to 2022. Yes, 2022.
You can see the Cyberpunk 2077 updates roadmap for yourself below.
As for when — and if — the game will be available again on the PlayStation Store after Sony pulled it last year, CD Projekt Red wrote: "We are working on fixes and updates, and are working with Sony to bring Cyberpunk 2077 back to PlayStation Store as soon as possible."
The company stated it's also still trying to issue refunds to unhappy gamers.
As for the company again forcing its staff to crunch to make all this happen, it writes: "The team is working to bring relevant fixes to the game without any obligatory overtime. Avoiding crunch on all of our future projects is one of our top priorities."
So does this second apology really add all that much to the first one? Well, that's up to you to decide. You can watch Iwiński's video message below.
