After seven years in development and several delays in its launch, Cyberpunk 2077 has serious problems in its version for console
I have played Cyberpunk 2077 for about 15 hours, the dystopian and futuristic video game developed by CD Projekt (those who made The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt) and I can say that it is a good game: charismatic, with spectacular graphics, good characters and good missions .
It is also an absolute disaster that I have unleashed a wave of criticism from the media and social networks in front of their development studio, the Poles of CD Projekt, who, according to many news reports, have been hammering their workers with mandatory overtime for months so that the game will be released in December.
And that was first going to have been launched in November, after having been delayed at first since September, which in turn was a date much later than they had originally thought: April. Given how bad it works on video consoles and the multitude of problems (bugs) it has in all versions, from comical explosions to constant graphic errors or in the behavior of the characters; it might as well have been released later.
The last setback has been given by Sony, the owners of PlayStation, who have withdrawn the video game from their digital store (it is no longer possible to buy it) and will issue refunds to whoever requests it.
Our experience with the game has not been as bad as users see it on social networks or as specialized media in video games point out. On PC, on computer, the game is very demanding on resources and often crashes, but it is playable.
But the disappointment of a broad mass of players is immense. Cyberpunk 2077 has been announced for almost 8 years, it has been highly anticipated by those in charge, many promises have been made that it would be a revolutionary game and, after its previous video game, the widely adored The Witcher 3, there were reasons to believe that this video game it was going to be the biggest of the end of the year.
AN ENDEMIC EVIL IN THE VIDEO GAME INDUSTRY
After reading all this, you may wonder: how is it possible that a video game full of problems is released? Believe it or not, it is a common practice in the video game industry: the game is produced and copied to discs without finishing completely and, when you put it in the console, it is updated and already works properly. The ‘release patches’ are very common and the reason why you cannot play the game right after putting it on the console.
Although the truth is that until several days after its launch, it is possible that many games continue to have errors. Watch Dogs: Legion, released in November, still has an issue not allowing game saves, for example.
Players are already accustomed, or unaccustomed, to these practices and there are titles that, due to their ambition or lack of time to finish, are launched with errors that the first consumers swallow better or worse and that, after a while, already are resolved.
This is especially common in games like Cyberpunk 2077, which take place in a live, open world where there are so many variables that the game’s programming ends up paying the price and errors occur. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, a reference of this type of game, was widely criticized by them in its day. Same with Grand Theft Auto V. Or with Assassin’s Creed. The problem in this case is that the problems are very severe and concentrated in the most popular version, the console version.
NO TIME FOR CONSOLES
In PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the prevailing consoles around the world until they are replaced over the next few years by PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series, Cyberpunk 2077 is poorly adapted: it looks bad, it is slowed down, it has stops in the image and its appearance Its graphics leave much to be desired when compared to the PC version.
These versions have not been as well cared for as they should be, and the game’s own creators admit this. In a round of questions with investors that was made public yesterday, they admitted not having dedicated enough time or resources to these versions.
The study’s laconic explanation has infuriated its followers. Accustomed to the proximity and fame of treating its consumers well from CD Projekt, many have come across a company that promises things that they then fail to deliver.
Beyond the bad state of Cyberpunk 2077 at its launch, which would be the first promise broken by the Poles; we must add a much more recent one. In a statement on social networks, they assured that they could return the game in stores or on the digital platforms where they bought it … without having ensured that Sony, Microsoft or the physical stores were going to accept said returns. Thus, many players have found that they cannot return a video game that does not work well on their console.