Lesson’s from the Cyberpunk 2077 Launch
Cyberpunk 2077 has had one of the most disastrous video game launches of all time.
It wasn’t that long ago that Cyberpunk 2077 was possibly the most hyped video game of all time. It wasn’t entirely undeserved either, as over the last 5 years, Bethesda, the previous darling publisher of the gaming world, had a series of lackluster launches and anti-consumer practices via microtransactions & incomplete games. At the same time, CD Project Red delivered one of the best games of “last gen” in The Witcher 3. Not only that, but they seemed to be practicing what they preached as far as doing right by gamers, providing free DLC, updates, and robust in-game content. Pair that with next gen console launches in 2020 of all years (do I really need to explain?), Cyberpunk 2077 had impossibly lofty expectations. Yet, they weren’t entirely unfounded expectations, CDPR tooted this game as the next revolutionary step in open world games. While that might’ve been a bit of a stretch, there appears to be a good progression of the genre under the mess.
And a mess it certainly is, as gamers are experiencing crashes, a myriad of visual glitches, broken dialogue, and more. Let’s get a couple of things straight, though. There is no reward for being loyal to a large brand or company, regardless of how much you actually enjoy their products. You are a consumer, and the business has something to sell. That’s it, that’s the root of the transaction. Sure, some places do better than others to implement and listen to feedback, but obviously, as we’ve seen, it’s not necessarily the most important factor. Second, the criticisms are in no way directed at the actual developers, designers, artists, and so on that do the dirty work at CDPR. By all means, it seems like they did their part in the attempt to prevent this mess. So, to send ANY form of attacking/blaming messages to any of them, would be ass backwards and not something that should even cross your mind.
Still, the business entity that is CDPR (meaning, the senior leadership, investors, board, etc) absolutely deserve all the criticism in the world right now. Look, if you’re enjoying your game on the PS5, Xbox Series X, or higher end gaming PC (let’s call that a gaming rig built for anything over $700), we have no beef with you, enjoy your game, but this isn’t about you. The game is MARKETED AND SOLD as PS4 & Xbox One versions. The argument here is not whether or not this game should have been restricted to next gen. Cop out argument, go look at how God of War, Spider-Man, The Last of Us Part 2, Forza, Control, Red Dead Redemption 2, all look on base last gen consoles. Maybe it’s not groundbreaking, but they function, and they still look good for running on 7 year old hardware. Either way, keep in mind Cyberpunk 2077 went into development earlier in last gen’s lifecycle. So either scope kept getting too big for this game, or the engineering teams weren’t given ample time to properly optimize.
Not to mention that the vast majority of gamers are still on last gen, so to trot out your new hardware (again, running the last gen copies of this game), treads mighty closely to classism, or at the very least, elitism. Not good words to associate with. We’re not talking about the “yea this game is fun but it sucks that it’s not optimized for some people”, y’all are ok. It’s the blanket “works for me” or “should’ve never come out on last gen” folks that I have an issue with, because it places the blame on the gamer, not the company for falsely advertising and selling a full price game. Regardless, it’s not just a vocal minority complaining, Microsoft clearly feels the pressure from their gamers as they extend their refund policy for this game specifically, and Sony went as far as removing the game from the Playstation store entirely. Those aren’t actions taken by another couple of large companies on a whim, there are real problems with this launch. Hell, even CDPR’s stock fell by $1 BILLION. Those are dollars and cents a company cannot ignore, and the only way things may change in the future.
As CDPR’s reputation plummets seemingly overnight, we can only hope that it serves as a message to other video game publishers that you can only push consumers so far before they finally say enough and demand their money back. As for gamers, there’s a couple of things here as well. 1. We have to stop accepting bug riddled launches as an acceptable part of a $60 purchase experience for a marketed “complete” game. Obviously game companies have noticed that people will buy them anyways and leads to pushing this “acceptable” boundary further and further until we arrive here. 2. You gotta stop throwing a temper tantrum online whenever a delay is announced. I guarantee Microsoft and 343 Industries are very glad they ended up delaying Halo Infinite. A game should launch when it’s done, and if a company can’t afford to go that long without launching something, you either ship and sell a heavily discounted beta, or stop announcing games 5 years before they launch.
Will any of these lessons be taken to heart by company or consumer? History tells me no, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep trying. Something felt off well before the launch (not allowing gameplay footage until launch day NOR sending out PS4/Xbox One review copies either? It was in our faces), which is ultimately why I didn’t pre-order or buy it yet. Another 6 months of fixing and I’m sure it’ll be a very enjoyable experience, but at that point, the price drops and the damage has been done. Only time will tell if this situation serves as a real turning point for game launches.
