The launch of Cyberpunk 2077 has been turbulent, to say the least. While Cyberpunk 2077 has sold more than 13 million units, it has launched in a less-than-ideal technical state, especially on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. As a result, Rosen Law Firm filed a class action lawsuit against CD Projekt on Thursday, citing the violation of federal securities laws.
The lawsuit against the Cyberpunk 2077 developer and publisher was filed in California on behalf of CD Projekt investors who had purchased stock between the dates of January 16, 2020 and December 17, 2020. Considering that stock for the Polish company dropped significantly following the launch of the much-anticipated title, it appears that there are several disgruntled investors. CD Projekt is publicly listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange and is a component of the WIG20 index which is made up of the 20 largest companies on the WSE.
In a press release, Rosen Law Firm stated that CD Projekt made a series of statements that were "false and/or misleading" regarding Cyberpunk 2077 being "virtually unplayable" on PS4 and Xbox One. This would lead to the game's removal from the PlayStation Store and refunds being offered by Sony, Microsoft, and CD Projekt itself. Consequently, this would harm CD Projekt's reputation and finances. When the full scale of problems became public knowledge, the investors "suffered damages."
While no class has been certified yet, Rosen Law Firm is asking for investors interested in joining the lawsuit to contact the firm. Besides Rosen, two other firms are considering action against CD Projekt. The Polish law firm of CD Projekt investor Mikołaj Orzechowski and New York-based Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP have stated that they are looking into the situation.
With Cyberpunk 2077 being one of the most anticipated games of all-time, its rocky launch has become extremely high-profile. Players have reported numerous amounts of bugs, ranging from humorous and fairly harmless as seen with Cyberpunk 2077's wardrobe malfunctions to the game struggling to run on PS4 and Xbox One. On last-gen systems, footage has emerged of the game suffering from low framerates, texture pop-in, and generally poor performance across the board. CD Projekt has apologized for the game's current state on last-gen consoles and has promised to fix it through a series of patches and updates.
Besides this issue, the game has faced several other controversies surrounding its development practices based around extensive crunch, potential to harm those suffering from epilepsy, and Cyberpunk 2077's representation of transgender people. CD Projekt, once regarded as pro-consumer for its work on The Witcher series and its maintenance of digital distribution platform GOG, has suffered considerable reputational damage and it will be interesting to see if it can regain its lost goodwill.
Cyberpunk 2077 is now available on PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One, with PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions coming in 2021.
Sources: Polygon, Rosen Law Firm