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A Bloomberg investigative piece shed more light on Cyberpunk 2077's disastrous release. The report included examples of just how much CD Projekt Red (CDPR) may have lied to fans. Among these offenses include what was described as a “fake” demo of Cyberpunk 2077, showcased during E3 2018.
A closer look at the crash site
Bloomberg's Jason Schreier took a closer look at the failed launch of Cyberpunk 2077, released back in December 2020. A month after the game's release, CDPR executives have made enemies not only of its fans but also with its investors and staff. From Shreier's interview of 20 current and former CDPR employees, we now have a better picture of just how bad their development has been.
First off, the company broke its promise not to subject its employees to crunch time. The piece gives us more insight into this situation. “There were times when I would crunch up to 13 hours a day… and I would do five days a week working like that,” says Adrian Jakubiak, formerly one of CDPR's audio programmers. Jakubiak further said that upper management wanted them to make a game bigger than The Witcher 3 within the same timeframe. Upper management, alleges Jakubiak, didn't have a plan for that. “We'll figure it out along the way,” they said.
What went wrong with Cyberpunk 2077? Interviews with more than 20 current and former CD Projekt staff paint a complex picture. Unchecked ambition, technical woes, unrealistic deadlines, and above all, one belief: "We made The Witcher 3 — it'll work out." https://t.co/T56huHkQW8
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) January 16, 2021
Apparently, the game was also made alongside the engine that was supposed to run it. This explains a lot of the bugs in the game. The development of a game engine alongside a big project such as Cyberpunk 2077 stunted the devs' progress. The devs knew that the game wasn't ready for release, but upper management still insisted on their December 2020 launch.
Devs at CD Projekt said despite promises that crunch would not be mandatory, they felt pressured to work overtime on and off for years. I can't share all the stories, but here's one on the record that may help explain why it's been infuriating to see people downplay CDPR's crunch pic.twitter.com/Qne7pti2tT
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) January 16, 2021
We are also seeing more ways about how CDPR apparently lied or misled their fans. By the time they released their E3 2018 demo, “CD Projekt Red hadn't yet finalized and coded the underlying gameplay systems.” This explains why a lot of the features seen in the demo weren't realized in the actual product.
CDPR responds to Bloomberg article on Cyberpunk 2077
The Bloomberg article went viral, as expected. It got quoted by a lot of gaming news websites – us included. Because of the heavy allegations in the article regarding Cyberpunk 2077's development, CDPR studio head Adam Badowski felt the need to respond.
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I’ve read your piece and tweets, thank you for the read. I have some thoughts. https://t.co/T3qACdrnwM pic.twitter.com/wuzy5lXoqQ
— Adam Badowski⚡️ (@AdamBadowski) January 16, 2021
“As for the ‘missing' features, that's part of the creation process,” Badowski says about the “fake” demo. “Features come and go as we see if they work or not.”
Badowski even claimed that Cyberpunk 2077's launch build “looks and plays way better than what that demo was.” He cited the positive reviews at launch as a testament to this.
However, not all fans are buying Badowski's response.
“Our final game looks and plays way better than what the demo ever was” not true, the demo didn’t have any bugs or glitches which isn’t the case even on a high end PC
— Mohamed Enieb (@its_menieb) January 17, 2021
Can't believe I had to make a Twitter just to say this, but you should step down. When people on the forums tried to throw you under the bus I always told myself to reserve judgment until more is known. This, however, makes it clear that you're the problem or one of several.
— Deterritorialized (@territorold) January 17, 2021
https://twitter.com/th3fedsg0tm3/status/1350542592866447369
