CyberPunk 2077: Decoding the Reasons for What Went Wrong with the Game?
With the success of The Witcher games, Cyberpunk was announced in 2012. Over half a decade in making, the studio took time in creating a perfect look for Night City. With over 7 million copies ordered in pre sales, the game seems to have recovered its cost. The initial reviews were very positive, with critics praising the gameplay, open word architecture, and story. But in the end, the studio is ending up with a loss of almost $ 1 billion.
As soon as the game went live on the 10th of December, problems started to pour into the community forums of the games website. The main problems that started when old gen PS4 and Xbox owner stared to complain about bugs, glitches, absent NCP’s, and abrupt crashes. The resolution rendered in the old gen consoles were of very low quality, making Gotham City racer graphics look much richer and vibrant than Cyberpunk.
Too many glitches and bugs!
The glitches and bugs rendered the game unplayable. There were also some scenes that may induce epileptic seizures in players. The company rolled out a patch1.04 for all the platforms to fix the ongoing issues. It tried to sort out the missing animation and NCPs in some important quest. It aimed at improving stability and included crash fixes.
For consoles, the hotfix tried to improve the reflection quality on PS4 and Xbox. Also some updates about mission achievement. Though the Hotfix 1.04 was released within a day to answer the concerns of the players, it didn’t help much.
The second hotfix 1.05 was released for Consoles on the 19th and for PC on the 21st of December. It tried to fix all the issues on the quest modes. Some gameplay issues to improve the timing of NCPs taking cover during a fight and bullets needed to kill enemies. Visual and user interface bugs and glitches were also corrected. Improvement in-game stability and crash fixes were also added.
For consoles, visual issues improved the sharpness of the image with film grain and chromatic aberrations. Improvement in FPS was also included. The Hotfix 1.05 would be the last patch for this year. Another important issue that has come up in the game, is saved files exceeding a certain size limit is getting corrupted or not letting players load the game. Any other updates and fixes will be released next year.
So what went wrong?
Looking into the fiasco named cyberpunk 2077; it is a prime example of how not to launch an AAA-rated game? According to a statement made by the studio executive, not enough resources were allocated for old-gen consoles. The PC version has received a score of 87 from Metacritic. As the old gen consoles are there in large numbers than the most recently launched 5th gen consoles.
The problems in the games caused its criticism resulting in CD Projekt issuing a public apology and giving a refund to disgruntled buyers. Even Sony has removed the game from its PSN. While the game is still in the Microsoft store, it comes added with a warning stating “User may experience performance issues while playing this game on Xbox One Consoles”. Microsoft has also offered a full refund to its customers.
Ironically, a game developed on a theme of corporate exploitation is facing the same allegation.CD Project has been criticized for using Crunch(a term used in the Gaming Industry for overworking its employee by the studio) ahead of the launch as it was already delayed thrice since the initial release date in September 2020. This rush in shipping the game to not miss the release deadline lead a scenario where sellers ended-up receiving faulty games. This release of the unfinished game has led to a loss of billion dollars and reputation to the company. The company is also facing criticism for showing/releasing footage or gameplay of the PC version of the game. On top of that, a New York based law firm is planning to file a lawsuit against CD Projekt for misrepresentation to investors for securing funding.
Is the game really that bad?
So far only good news would be CD Projekt , keeping its promise of giving full bonuses to its employees. It is the right thing to do to start with. After such a hectic schedule to launch the game, the company should be given some time to analyze and rectify the codes for a glitch and crash-free game. Canny players should wait for another 3-4 weeks before investing in the game, as more insights and details will be available later giving a clearer picture. 2020 has been a very bad year for most people and even more so for CD Projekt.
Cyberpunk 2077 is not a failure per se. Given time and patience, It has the ability to bounce back like never before. Just as games like Battlefield 4 and Ark were written off and criticized at launch. But over the years has acquired a huge player count after rectifying its net code and glitches. We hope that Cyberpunk 2077 would reclaim the accolades and respect it lost in the last 15 days.
