Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red has confirmed that it does not have a special refund agreement with Microsoft or Sony, despite the fact that dissatisfied players must return their copies of the game in a statement. This means that players are covered by the standard refund policy of both platforms, which, in Sony’s case, explicitly prohibits refunds if you’ve already started a game “unless the content is defective”.
The confirmation came from the company’s senior vice president of business development, Michał Nowakowski, during a meeting with investors on Monday evening. “Microsoft and Sony have a refund policy for any product released digitally in their store,” said Nowakowski. “Despite several articles I’ve seen that things are being set up especially for us, it’s actually not true – this policy was put in place and has always been in place; they are not offered specifically for us. “
“Anyone who has purchased a title on the PlayStation network or the Microsoft store can request a refund, and if it was made within certain limits, usually related to time, usage, etc., that refund can be requested,” he continued . “Our procedure here with Microsoft and Sony is no different than with any other title released on any of these storefronts.”
The call from investors followed widespread reports that the game has serious performance issues on older consoles. Polygon reports that players have experienced “glitches, frame rate issues, major pop-in and more”.
Confusion about refunds arose after reports circulated that players were successfully claiming them for the game, despite having already downloaded and played it. A poster on Reddit reported that they received a refund from Sony despite playing “more than 10 hours” of the game, and other commenters said they had had similar success. The reports were notable because Sony’s official refund rules state, “If you have started downloading or streaming the purchased content, you will not be eligible for a refund unless the content is faulty.”
Microsoft’s rules, meanwhile, don’t specifically state that you can’t refund a game after you start it. Instead, they outline a period of 14 days after purchase when a customer might be eligible for a refund. We’ve contacted both Microsoft and Sony to clarify their refund policies. Refunds policies for boxed copies are determined by the individual store where a copy was purchased.
Then, on Monday morning, CD Projekt Red issued a statement suggesting that anyone who purchased the game for PS4 or Xbox One could return their copy if they were not satisfied with the game. “If you’re not happy with the game on your console and don’t want to wait for updates, you can choose to refund your copy,” read the statement. It provided an email address that players could contact if they had any problems. It sparked speculation that CD Projekt Red had entered into a special agreement allowing players to replay the game despite the usual rules.
We now know that this is not the case, and it seems that many players discovered that when trying to request a refund. Eurogamer reports that players have had mixed results when seeking refunds from Microsoft and Sony. a user on Twitter posted screenshots of a conversation with Sony customer support declining a refund.
During the same conversation with investors, Nowakowski gave some explanation of how the game managed to come out with just as many problems as it did on older consoles. The director suggested that the team had spent too much time optimizing the game for “PC and next-gen performance rather than the current generation,” adding, “We definitely didn’t spend enough time on that. . ” However, he denied there was any unnecessary pressure to release the game when they did.