By now, you’ve no doubt seen the trickle-soon-to-be-flood of reviews for Cyberpunk 2077. Where’s our coverage? Where’s our review? Well, allows us to explain.
For the sake of transparency, we did not receive early code for Cyberpunk 2077. That’s not to say we will not receive code in the next couple of days (we do expect codes to go out today or tomorrow before launch), but we have no code as of this writing. I should state up front that developers and publishers are under no obligation to seed code to us early, or at all for that matter. In other words, it is not a guarantee nor an expectation for media to always receive review code.
The downside to not being able to provide early impressions is it makes our planning a little harder to predict. Our aim is to provide you coverage and information to help you make the best purchasing decision for yourself. We want to provide you our thoughts, analysis, and, yes, information on bugs and other issues which may or may not dissuade you from a purchasing decision. Receiving code early allows us to comb through the game and do just that.
But we do not have code as of this writing. So instead, here’s how we’re approaching our coverage of Cyberpunk 2077. To say that the game is large is an understatement. Therefore, if we don’t receive code by launch day (12p ET on December 9), we will simply buy the game and begin playing. More specifically, I will buy the game and begin playing.
We want to make sure this is clear, however: We will not be crunching to get a review out quickly. As I stated, Cyberpunk 2077 is a large game. Rushing through a game like this simply won’t benefit you guys, the end consumers. We’re going to take our time and do our due diligence to ensure that when we do come to a final verdict, it’s one based on a normal playthrough, not something rushed simply to appease the SEO gods. Additionally, rushing is simply not healthy. Remember, crunch extends beyond developers. It exists in the media side as well.
So, what’s our release plan? You can expect several reviews in progress over the next few weeks. How many should you expect? At this point, we honestly don’t know simply because we don’t know exactly how large and complex the game will be. This is an RPG after all.
Additionally, given the cutting-edge technology featured in Cyberpunk 2077, we will perform a PC Tech Analysis discussing the PC version of the game. Yes, this will include a deep dive of ray tracing and DLSS. If you’ve read our tech analyses of Watch Dogs Legion and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, you should be familiar with what to expect.
And that’s really it for the time being. We’re disappointed we could not have coverage for you guys on Day One, but that’s how it goes sometimes. Sometimes we’re able to do so, and sometimes it just doesn’t work out that way. At the end of the day, informing you folks is our job. But hopefully, we’ve laid the groundwork for what you can expect from us regarding coverage of Cyberpunk 2077 over the next several weeks. And as always, we encourage you to read multiple impressions and thoughts from critics you trust, not just us, to form a full opinion of whether this game will be for you.
Stay safe.
