2020 was supposed to be an eventful year for CD Projekt; the Creator, developer, and publisher of CyberPunk 2077. After years of development, one of the most keenly awaited games for players and investors alike, it was released amidst much fanfare. However, the next thing on the cards was something totally unexpected.
To start with, the hype surrounding the game didn’t fizzle out even after the launch was delayed thrice, since the initial launch date of 16th April 2020, which then changed to 17th September, and 19th November, finally seeing the light of the day on 20th of December. Phew, quite a waiting period!
With 8 million copies in pre-order, It was the front runner for the “Game of the Year” award.
But what happened after the launch of the game is a different story altogether. Things took a turn for the game developer, once the reports started to trickle in from the community and other forums about the game. With numerous Bugs, Glitches, freezes, and unexpected crashes, Players were left aghast with the game. From missing NPCs to expected corruption in the saved games data, the game was totally criticized, especially by players with old generation consoles (PS4 and Xbox One systems). They soon found out that the game was not optimized for their consoles. Leaving aside the PC version, even the newer generation of Playstation and Xbox systems had issues!
To counter the controversy CD Projekt rolled out Hotfix 1.04, 1.05, and 1.06 within few days apart to respectively to sort out the issues coming out of the game. The Studio apologized and offered to refund for to its players. In an unprecedented move, Sony removed the game from its online store and even Microsoft cautioned players about performance issues of the game before buying. This led to the plummeting of the value of the company and caused a loss of almost $ 1 billion. People were so disappointed with the game that reports came in that investors along with law firms were considering a class action lawsuit against CD Projekt.
The Law Suit
In what can be termed as a nightmare scenario, a class action lawsuit has been filed by Rose Law firm, a global investor rights firm on behalf of the share purchased by investors from CD Projekt S.A on 24th of December, 2020.
The firm in its lawsuit states the following:
1) The studio made false or misleading statements to get better/positive reviews for the game before launch and during its development phase.
2) The game is almost impossible to play in the old gen PS4 and Xbox due to numerous Bugs, Glitches, and Code errors.
3) Sony removing the game from its store. Sony and Microsoft offering a full refund and the studio would be forced to make the payments.
4) The above 3 causes leading to damages of reputation and losses in Money.
No reports have emerged about the studios response to the lawsuit and What really went wrong with the game? This latest calamity that has stuck the company and the bad PR that this beloved studio is getting is a thing to watch out for.
As an avid gamer, we hope the issue surrounding the controversy is resolved quickly. And the developers can focus on weeding out the pressing issues that have mired this game since its launch.
