CD Projekt Red's co-founder, Marcin Iwinski, delivered a personal statement explaining what led Cyberpunk 2077 to its disastrous launch, citing issues relating to last-gen console technology and Covid-19 restrictions.
Prior to its full release, review copies of Cyberpunk 2077 were strictly for the PC until December 8th, one of a few red flags that the game was not suitable for the PS4 or Xbox One. Once they became available to all consumers, players began noticing the number of bugs and rendering issues with the game, resulting in public outrage and mass refunds. While Cyberpunk 2077 still experiences issues such as crashing on the PS5 and Xbox Series X, most problems occurred on last-gen consoles, which is mainly what co-founder Marcin Iwinski calls back to in his personal statement.
According to Iwinksi, who takes full responsibility for Cyberpunk's problematic launch and asks players not to place blame on any teams, CDPR underestimated the challenges that would come with releasing its game for consoles of the previous generation. Because Night City is mostly a loading-screen-free environment, rendering issues on older hardware often came up during development and CDPR saw many improvements during testing, which "did not show a big part of the issues" players experienced, Iwinski says.
"We really believed we would deliver in the final day zero update," Iwinski continues. "At the same time, we were fighting for quality on old-gen consoles till the very last moment." According to the co-founder, Cyberpunk 2077 continued to show visual improvement as CDPR continued to test and resolve issues. The leadership team was certain that the patches and hotfixes leading up to Cyberpunk's full release would result in a strong launch, but Iwinski also cites issues deriving from Covid-19 restrictions and the lack of proper communication that resulted from working at home.
Iwinski ensures that Cyberpunk 2077 will continue to be improved and fixed in the coming months, to resolve the crashes and other continued problems. Big and small patches can be expected on a regular basis with the first one dropping in the next 10 days, "followed by another, more significant one in the following weeks," Iwinski explains.
While CDPR's original plan was to release free DLC shortly following Cyberpunk 2077's release, similar to Witcher 3's timeline, those packs have been pushed back to prioritize game fixes. As previously stated, Cyberpunk's first free DLC is slated to release early 2021. Iwinski also offers an update on Xbox Series X/S and PS5 versions of the game, stating that the free next-gen console update will come in late 2021.
"We treat this entire situation very seriously," Iwinski finishes, "and are working hard to make it right."
Cyberpunk 2077 is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One with PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions in development for a late 2021 release.