CD PROJEKT RED has had arguably one of the worst launch weeks in video game history since Cyberpunk 2077 launched on December 10, 2020. Despite a promising sales start, many were quick to point out the numerous bugs in the game that made it unplayable for most. This led CD PROJEKT RED to apologize and offer refunds for the game. Since then, more articles have come out condemning CD PROJEKT RED as well as speculation that investors may sue the company. This article delves into two of the latest updates about Cyberpunk 2077’s dilemmas. Namely, Sony pulling the game from PlayStation stores and the reported amounts lost by the founder.
Cyberpunk 2077 Pulled from PlayStation Store
Virtually unheard of, Sony decided to pull Cyberpunk 2077 from the Playstation Store, meaning PlayStation 4 gamers who purchased the game digitally should get a full refund. Direct from Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), it was announced: “SIE strives to ensure a high level of customer satisfaction, therefore we will begin to offer a full refund for all gamers who have purchased Cyberpunk 2077 via PlayStation Store. SIE will also be removing Cyberpunk 2077 from PlayStation Store until further notice.” It’s not a surprising move though. After all, if players are able to get full refunds for their purchase of a digital release of Cyberpunk 2077 anyway, what’s to stop someone from buying the game on the PlayStation store, experiencing it for 20+ hours, then returning it for a full refund?
Major Financial Losses
Cyberpunk 2077 initially received almost $500 million in pre-order sales, and between those pre-orders and estimated licensing royalties, the game seemed set to make-up its development and marketing costs. However, due to the influx of refunds for Cyberpunk 2077, the cost for CD PROJEKT RED and their founders seems to be greater than ever. Konrad Krasuski of Bloomberg reports that the technical glitches “cut more than $1 billion off the wealth of the company’s [CD PROJEKT’s] founders.” The article, written on December 15th, shared that “CD Projekt shares plunged by a third over the past six days.” Derek Strickland’s article on TweakTown about the company mentions a loss of $641 million in shares.
Numerous news sites have been focusing on the hottest release of the year being one of the biggest video game blunders of all-time. The New Yorker’s Mike Isaac and had plenty of choice words about the situation: “Cyberpunk’s rollout is one of the most visible disasters in the history of video games — a high-profile flameout in the midst of the holiday shopping season by a studio widely considered an industry darling. It shows the pitfalls gaming studios can face when building so-called Triple-A games, titles backed by years of development and hundreds of millions of dollars.”
When I initially reported on the game on December 14th, Cyberpunk 2077 had a Metacritic score of 90 based on 53 critic reviews (PC version) and a user score of 6.5 based on 8136 ratings. Checking back in on December 22nd, the game has a Metacritic score of 86 based on 76 critic reviews and a user score of 7.1 based on 23632 user scores. As the critics seem to be getting more critical and fans seem to be waging war to getting the game to a higher score, what has your experience been with Cyberpunk 2077? What do you think about the situation as a whole? Let us know in the comments below.
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