Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red (CDPR) seems to understand the launch of its latest project didn’t go over well, but the company doesn’t believe it did anything that constitutes a violation of federal laws. That why CDPR said in its own legal filing Friday that it will "vigorously" defend itself against a recent class action lawsuit filed by an investor regarding Cyberpunk 2077.
The lawsuit alleges CDPR misled its investors about the quality of Cyberpunk 2077 ahead of its December release. In particular, the plaintiff alleged the company misled those financially tied to the developer over its depositary receipts and incurring losses, according to Bloomberg. The suit was filed in a Los Angeles court, and CDPR stock took another hit not long after the lawsuit was made official.
The suit asks the court to determine whether CD Projekt Red intentionally hid problems with Cyberpunk 2077 in order to defraud investors, thereby leading those individuals to incur losses. Damages were not specified in the complaint, according to Bloomberg, meaning those will be left up to the court to decide should it rule in the plaintiff’s favor.
The filing did say the company’s depositary receipts - stock shares of a foreign company operating on the American stock exchange - fell 25 percent in the three days after the game was released. Those depositary receipts fell another 16 percent when Sony removed Cyberpunk 2077 from its online store, according to Bloomberg. The company took that action after CDPR promised everyone who was looking for a refund would get one, as a way of apology to the general public for the state of the game.
It wasn’t immediately clear how good a chance the lawsuit has of succeeding. Some in the gaming community have said that CDPR’s insistence on only sending PC copies to reviewers is a sign that they knew something was wrong with the console editions. However, it doesn’t appear any evidence of those allegations has surfaced so far.
There are also some errors in the lawsuit filing itself, which could undercut its main case. In particular, it appears the claims against CDPR confuse different Microsoft consoles that are on the market. The document refers to the Xbox X and Xbox Series One, as opposed to the Xbox One and Xbox Series X.
It’s also not clear how much success the lawsuit will have considering how well CDPR’s new game sold, despite the bugs and glitches. Last week, the company announced it sold 13 million copies of Cyberpunk 2077 in just over a week, which includes copies returned and refunded.
Cyberpunk 2077 is available on PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One. It will release on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S in 2021.