Yesterday CD Projekt issued an apology to customers, mostly those on last gen consoles, who are having a terrible time with Cyberpunk 2077. Following this, the company held an emergency call with investors about the game's launch and subsequent reception, prefaced by a statement from CDP joint-CEO Adam Kiciński that is a real hairshirt moment.
"So how was it even possible that it has come to this? After 3 delays, we as the Management Board were too focused on releasing the game. We underestimated the scale and complexity of the issues, we ignored the signals about the need for additional time to refine the game on the base last-gen consoles. It was the wrong approach and against our business philosophy. On top of that, during the campaign, we showed the game mostly on PCs.
"This caused the loss of gamers’ trust and the reputation that we’ve been building through a big part of our lives. That’s why our first steps are solely focused on regaining those two things. We are concentrated on fixing Cyberpunk on last-gen consoles. The first substantial set of fixes was released over the weekend. The next set of fixes will be released within the next seven days. Big updates are planned for January and February, together with smaller fixes. Of course, PC gamers will also be getting regular updates and fixes to improve the game. We will do everything possible to prove that we stick to our values.
"We truly hope that our efforts will let us rebuild the trust we have lost."
Following this the call went into a Q&A, much of which focuses on the last gen console versions so we'll largely skip over that. But it is worth pausing for a moment over the suggestion that Cyberpunk 2077 had a rather easy ride in the console certification process, which Marcin Iwiński, CDP joint-CEO and co-founder, basically confirms in the middle of another answer. "In terms of the certification process and the third parties – this is definitely on our side. I can only assume that they trusted that we’re going to fix things upon release, and that obviously did not come together exactly as we had planned."
To our friends playing Cyberpunk 2077 on the PS4 or Xbox One: we're here for you.
Perhaps the most interesting nugget came after a question about criticism of the AI and NPC behaviours, and whether problems like these would be part of CDPR's post-launch focus.
Marcin Iwiński answers: "So for the first question – whether we’re focusing just on technicalities or gameplay elements; things like AI – for example. To be honest – these are the same for us, from the production standpoint AI and NPC behavior fall within the general category of bugs, so if I can give you an answer – I think it does actually include that as well."
Finally, a question was asked about whether multiple DLCs in 2021, and multiplayer in 2022, is still the plan. Of course they didn't answer it, but did say they'd talk early next year. "To be honest it’s too early to judge," says Adam Kiciński, "At the moment please let us handle the situation, and please let us make some more assessments – that’s still ahead of us; we don’t know yet, and we’re now focused on improving Cyberpunk. We’ll discuss this early next year."
