CD Projekt Red’s management has taken responsibility for the rocky launch of Cyberpunk 2077 on latest generation consoles.
The highly anticipated title finally landed on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One last week after multiple delays and instances of mandatory crunch, and has already recouped development and marketing costs.
But despite that apparent commercial success, many players (especially those based on the latest generation of consoles) are plagued by a series of bugs and frequent crashes – prompting CD Projekt to offer refunds to those who feel the title falls short of expectations. satisfied.
During a conference call about that polarizing launch, CD Projekt co-CEO Adam Kicinski explained that management is to blame for the situation. He said they were too focused on getting the title to shelves after three delays, and also “underestimated the magnitude and complexity of the issues” affecting the Xbox One and PS4 versions of the game.
“We ignored the signs that extra time was needed to refine the game on the latest generation of consoles,” said Kicinski, opening the call with the candid admission. “It was the wrong approach and went against our corporate philosophy. Plus, during the campaign, we mainly showed the game on PCs.
“This caused the loss of gamers’ trust and the reputation we have built up over much of our lives. Therefore, our first steps are solely focused on reclaiming those two things. We focus on solving them. Cyberpunk on last generation consoles. “
During a question and answer portion of the call, Kicinski also indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic was affecting certain aspects of production, but that these factors – including a decrease in the number of third-party testers – were not ultimately issues.
Strangely enough, when asked if the board was launching too much Cyberpunk and then ignored obvious issues, Michal Nowakowski, the board member responsible for the publication, seemed to contradict Kicinski’s earlier statement by suggesting that the studio didn’t feel any additional pressure to launch by date.
That said, Nowakowski reiterated that the company “didn’t spend enough time” looking at the PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game – adding that those versions presumably passed certification because Sony and Microsoft “relied on them. that we would fix things after release. “
“It’s more about looking at the next generation PC and performance, as mentioned earlier, than the current one,” they explained. “We certainly didn’t spend enough time on that. I wouldn’t say we felt any external or internal pressure to launch on the date – other than the normal pressure, which is typical of any release. So that wasn’t the cause.
“In terms of the certification process and the third parties – this is definitely on our side. I can only assume they were confident that we would sort things out on release, and clearly that didn’t come together as we planned.”
Later in the Q&A, Marcin Iwinski, CD Projekt’s other joint CEO, also stepped in against the notion that the company was not running the title on basic consoles to mislead players – with some disgruntled consumers that the Polish studio deliberately has console codes and gameplay recordings withheld to keep them in the dark.
“As for not showing the console version, we actually showed console images, but never on the last generation consoles. The reason is that we were updating the game on the last generation consoles until the last minute. and we thought we would make it in time, ”noted Iwinski.
Unfortunately, this resulted in it being given to reviewers just a day before release, which was certainly too late and the media didn’t get a chance to judge it properly. That wasn’t the intention; we were just fixing the game moment. “
There are more interesting tidbits in the full transcript, so be sure to check that out here if you want to learn more about what turns out to be one of the most eventful launches of the year.