Loving or hating Cyberpunk 2077 might come down to what platform you’re playing it on, but according to a recent CD Projekt Red investor call, not only are they to blame, but they willfully ignored the signals that the game was largely misrepresented on last generation consoles.
Recently, CDPR has acknowledged that they haven’t done their best in making the most anticipated game of the year, Cyberpunk 2077, playable on all of its release platforms, and has offered players refunds. Unfortunately, refunds have been met with mixed responses, especially on the two platforms the game is least likely to run well on, the Xbox One and the Playstation 4.
During the call, Michal Nowakowki, Vice President of Business Development, mentioned that both Microsoft and Sony have their own return policies, and that the refunds are not just in relation to Cyberpunk 2077 but the return policies are usually based on time, usage and so on. If CD Projekt Red does not have a specific deal with either Microsoft or Sony, it could explain the severe inconsistencies that players are having when they attempt to get refunds.
Sony’s policy for example, would only issue refunds 14 days from purchase, and would only allow the game to be refunded if the content was “faulty” which seems to be up to the discretion of the support personnel that you reach when you request the refund. In every other instance, if the game has been downloaded and played for any amount of time, Sony’s policy is to automatically deny the refund.
Microsoft on the other hand has always been far more amenable, with their policy acknowledging situational aspects before a ruling on a refund can be determined. This essentially bows in favor of CDPR’s statement requesting players go through the digital store refund channels, as Microsoft is far more willing to issue refunds based on the widely known and easily substantiated developer request that players receive refunds due to CDPR’s shortcomings.
In the emergency investor call, Co-CEO Adam Kici?ski solemnly acknowledged the missteps of the board and confirmed that fixing these issues, making things right with gamers, and earning back their reputation were the most important things to them at this moment.
"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."
- Adam Kici?ski
In a follow up to what Adam said, Piotr Nielubowicz went on to explain that the costs to patch the game are “irrelevant” in comparison to what was already spent, and that by doing so they are living up to the promises they made to gamers.
"Unfortunately, I cannot share the cost related to additional work, but the cost of patching the game is irrelevant compared to what we have already spent. So there’s no question – we definitely want to fix the game; we made a promise to gamers and we’ll be doing everything to stick with it."
- Piotr Nielubowicz
Cyberpunk 2077 released on December 10th, to mixed reactions. The reviews for The reviews for Cyberpunk 2077 on last generation consoles were so poor, and the debacle by CDPR to hide the underlying issues, so severe, Opencritic has placed a disclaimer on their site, plainly stating the problem.
This issue is ongoing, and resolutions are pending, which includes a series of patches that hit last gen consoles sometime last weekend, with more on the way. We will keep players informed of Cyberpunk 2077’s progress when more information becomes available.
[Updated]
According to CDPR they may have something in the works with Microsoft, or at leat Microsoft is willing to issue refunds. Players are receiving a message when they contact CDPR directly for refunds:
People are starting to get this response back from CD Projekt RED, after emailing their “help” address for refunds. The language is interesting: it doesn’t tell you to request a refund from Sony anymore. You’re supposed to wait. pic.twitter.com/Hb77SQ5teD
— Patrick Klepek (@patrickklepek) December 16, 2020
