A new report gave us a deeper insight into the development and launch of Cyberpunk 2077, with studio comments challenging the controversial wording after its publication.
According to Bloomberg, the development of Cyberpunk 2077 was even more problematic than the studio revealed – even despite the months of delays the game ended up suffering.
A massive new report on the site (protected by paid access) delves into the heart of the problematic development of the game, revealing tensions between the development team and the management of CD Projekt. One developer told Bloomberg that working on the game was like “trying to drive a train while the tracks are being placed in front of you at the same time” and that “[staff] I expected the game to be ready in 2022. ”
The Bloomberg report also infers that the Cyberpunk 2077 demo that was shown in 2018 was “almost completely fake”.
“CD Projekt had not yet finalized and coded the underlying game systems, which is why so many features, such as car ambushes, were missing from the final product,” noted Bloomberg of the demo. “The developers said they felt that the demo was a waste of months that should have been used to make the game.”
Adam Badowski, head of CD Projekt studio replied to Bloomberg and challenged that view of events in a follow-up statement, written last night (Saturday, January 16). Badowski says that the demo has always been labeled ‘work in progress’ and that features that appear in the demo, but not in the final game, are missing thanks to the “creation process”.
“Our final game looks and plays much better than that demo has ever been,” he says in the statement.
I read your article and tweets, thanks for reading. I have some ideas. https://t.co/T3qACdrnwM pic.twitter.com/wuzy5lXoqQ
– Adam Badowski⚡️ (@AdamBadowski) January 16, 2021
Elsewhere, another blatant revelation from the report suggests that the game really started to be developed in 2016, despite the title announcement in 2012. This is mainly due to a massive revision of the project when studio head Adam Badowski took over as director of the title and changed the whole game from third person to first person.
This may give some hints as to why the team didn’t really believe the game would ever be ready for its 2020 launch window – and this is something that Badowski did not address in his tweet quote statement in response to Jason Schrier and the Bloomberg report (along with allegations of intense crisis in the final months leading up to the launch).
The report follows a video message published by CD Projekt co-founder Marcin Iwiński, who offered a narrative explaining the events that led to the disastrous release of Cyberpunk 2077 and its careless version for PS4 and Xbox One. Iwiński blamed the enormous scope of the game, noting that the “multitude of personalized objects, interaction systems and mechanics” contributed to making the game look discouraging and broken on certain platforms.
According to the Bloomberg report, however, this is not entirely true – the developers at the studio were acutely aware of the problems prior to release, and CD Projekt management simply dismissed concerns about the title’s performance on next-generation machines that were raised by the team.
The response to the game so far has prompted Microsoft and Sony to withdraw the game from sale in digital stores until the problems are resolved. CD Projekt Red posted a FAQ on the game’s official website, providing an update on the free DLC and promised patches for PS5 and Xbox Series X / S.
The studio assured the public that developers will not have to get involved with the mandatory crunch again to provide these updates.
“The team is working to bring relevant fixes to the game without any mandatory extensions. Avoiding the crisis in all of our future projects is one of our top priorities, ”said the studio (although it is important to note that the crisis in the games industry is rarely ‘necessary’, it is more often ‘expected’).
CD Projekt may face a fine after the Polish consumer protection investigation into Cyberpunk 2077. Whether the studio will be able to repair the damage that was done to its reputation during the launch of its most recent RPG, remains to be seen.
