A conversation with investors reveals more information about the status of Cyberpunk 2077

Shortly after the release of Cyberpunk 2077, the management of the RED Project CD held a conversation with investors, answering questions and sharing new, interesting information about why the game was released as it was and why there was no further delay.

You can listen to the whole call here.

We have translated a selection of interesting parts for you:

After three delays, we, as the board of directors, focused too much on releasing the game. We underestimated the scale and complexity of the problems. We ignored signals about the need for more time to improve the game on the basic consoles of the previous generation. It was a bad attitude that is against our business philosophy. In addition, during the campaign, we showed the game mainly on the PC, which caused a loss of player confidence and reputation, which we built for a large part of our lives. And that’s why our first steps focus exclusively on regaining these two things. We focus on repairing Cyberpunk 2077 on previous generation consoles. The first major set of fixes was released over the weekend. Another set of fixes will be released within the next seven days. Major updates are planned for January and February along with minor fixes. Of course, PC players will also receive regular updates and fixes to improve the game. We will do everything we can to prove that we adhere to our values. We truly hope that our efforts will allow us to restore the trust we have lost.

Adam Kiciński added that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the studio saw a decline in the number of testers, but added immediately that this was not the main source of problems.

One thing that didn’t help us is COVID-19, as although internal testers are able to test Cyberpunk 2077 from their homes, external testers who work for external companies have not been able to test the game from home because they have test centers in which they now they can’t work. So we’ve seen a drop in the number of testers, but I wouldn’t call it a major source of problems.

The call also asked whether the company felt the need to release the game before Christmas 2021, which SVP Michał Nowakowski denied.

I wouldn’t say we felt any external or internal pressure to release the game on time – that is, any non-normal pressure that is typical of each release of the game.

The point is that we focused – as already mentioned – on PCs and powerful consoles of the new generation, rather than the previous generation. We definitely didn’t devote enough time to it.

Another question was how the game in such a state could pass the certification from Sony and Xbox.

When it comes to the certification process, this is definitely our fault. I can only assume that they believed we would fix things by the time they released, and that obviously didn’t work out the way we planned.

The following question concerned the possibility of publishing first on a PC and then on a console.

“Purely theoretically, if we had decided that sooner, then yes, we could have released a PC version first.” However, Nowakowski added that it would not be possible to release the PC version at the same time as the next-gen version of the game for the console, because it is not ready. The game currently uses the power of the new generation, but only partially (the resolution or framerate is rising) a full-fledged update will be released next year.

The RED Project CD recently apologized publicly and offered assistance with refund requests (more here).

You can read our editorial impressions here.

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