CD Projekt Red’s RPG Cyberpunk 2077 infamously launched in December 2020 in such a poor technical state that Sony took the rare move to remove it from the PlayStation Store. Thousands of people refunded the game. CD Projekt joint-CEO Michał Nowakowski has now reflected on this, saying it “was for sure wrong” to launch the game in that state, but he pushed back against the theory that the studio did so to appease investors who wanted to see financial returns.
Speaking to The Game Business, Nowakowski said COVID “was a factor” in the game’s rough state at launch, because “the team was getting exhausted in a different way.” He admitted there were “people outside telling us we should launch,” and fans lobbied for this as well. The developers themselves also “wanted to push it out the door” because the ongoing development was “really tiring.”
Looking back on it, now with the benefit of hindsight, Nowakowski said, “The decision to launch was for sure wrong, period. There is no denying it.”
