They went from RPG royalty to the punchline of every gaming joke – a legendary fall from grace that few studios ever recover from. After cementing their place among the greats with the critically acclaimed Witcher trilogy, CD Projekt Red seemed destined to conquer new frontiers with the highly-anticipated Cyberpunk 2077. But when the long-awaited game finally launched, it wasn’t just a run-of-the-mill buggy release – it was an unmitigated, unplayable disaster that threatened to bury the revered Polish studio’s reputation for good. A glitchy, broken mess, Cyberpunk 2077’s botched launch incited a global backlash of epic proportions, raining down a torrent of scathing criticism, vicious memes, and litigation bombs upon CD Projekt Red. For most, the game was better left abandoned as a cautionary tale of overreaching ambition.
Or so we thought …
The Witcher Saga: From Pages to Pixels
Source: GameRant
Long before CD Projekt Red became a household name in the gaming world, the studio’s founders were avid fans of Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Witcher book series. The rich, immersive world of the novels, with its morally complex characters and gripping narratives, captured their imaginations, and they saw an opportunity to bring this beloved universe to life in a way that had never been done before.
With the release of “The Witcher” (2007), CD Projekt Red shattered the mold of traditional role-playing games (RPGs). Gone were the days of linear storytelling and rigid character development; instead, players were thrust into a living, breathing world where every choice had consequences, and the line between good and evil was often blurred.
“The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings” (2011) and “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt” (2015) further cemented the studio’s reputation for crafting epic, open-world adventures that pushed the boundaries of storytelling and player agency. “The Witcher 3,” in particular, was hailed as a masterpiece, with its vast, meticulously crafted world, complex characters, and morally ambiguous quests that left a mark on the gaming community.
CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk Calamity
Source: Cyberpunk 2077
Riding high on the success of the acclaimed Witcher trilogy, CD Projekt Red set its ambitions on conquering a new frontier – the neon-drenched realm of cyberpunk. In 2012, the studio unveiled their daring project, “Cyberpunk 2077,” an adaptation of the classic tabletop RPG system.
From the outset, the developers promised an unparalleled experience, a fully realized cyberpunk metropolis where players could forge their own destinies. Cinematic trailers and tantalizing glimpses of Night City, the sprawling dystopian megalopolis at the game’s core, only stoked the hype, captivating gamers worldwide.
As years ticked by, CD Projekt Red remained tight-lipped about the game’s progress. However, behind the scenes, the studio grappled with the monumental challenges of bringing their cyberpunk vision to life. Despite initially targeting a spring 2020 release, the studio delayed the game until the end of the year, prioritizing quality over rushed deadlines.
When Cyberpunk 2077 finally launched in December 2020, calling it a disaster would be an understatement.
The game was simply unplayable at release – a buggy, glitchy mess that looked abysmal on consoles. There were so many things wrong with the game at launch that it became the laughingstock of the gaming world, dragged through the mud much like Nilfgaard by the Northern Realms (shameless plug for my previous article). The devs blamed the need to build the game for both older and newer-gen consoles, but come on – I’m no game developer, but the decision to release the game on next-gen consoles without a next-gen update just doesn’t make sense! Did they really expect a game built with older-gen consoles in mind to work flawlessly on newer ones without any adjustments?
Source: The Gamer
This was unacceptable even by modern gaming standards, where games often release in an unfinished state requiring a massive day-one patch. And players were justifiably outraged. Expectations were sky-high for CD Projekt Red, the creators of The Witcher 3, one of the best games ever made. The hype had simply spiraled out of control.
But here’s the thing. The developers remained tight-lipped about the game and failed to set realistic expectations, leading to rampant speculation among the fanbase, who set their own (often outlandish) expectations of what this game would be (like a futuristic GTA, for instance). This isn’t exclusive to gaming; remember The Last Jedi? Everyone had their theories about Snoke, Rey, and so on. Of course, when the movie came out, none of those were correct, and people were pissed – and it probably didn’t help that Rian Johnson purposefully subverted expectations just for the sake of it.
But let’s get back on track. The studio allowed the hype train to grow, knowing damn well that the game was unplayable at release, all to sell millions of copies. Why wouldn’t they? Others have done it before, like Bethesda with Fallout 76 (speaking of, I’ll be covering the show next month, so stay tuned for that), Ubisoft with Assassin’s Creed Unity, and, more recently, Aspyr’s Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection – seriously, how the fuck did they mess that up so bad? In case it hasn’t become clear, I am a disgruntled Star Wars fan.
Anyways, as if that wasn’t enough, endless controversies surrounded the game. CD Projekt Red was sued by their investors with a class-action lawsuit for false advertising, the company was hacked and had its data stolen and held for ransom, Sony pulled the game from their store, a reviewer suffered a seizure while playing the game due to a lack of photosensitive warnings…
It was bad news piled upon bad news. Cyberpunk 2077, and by extension CD Projekt Red, deserved every ounce of the hate it received. They deceived gamers and paid the price for it.
Learning from Mistakes: A Post-Launch Analysis
Source: CD Projekt Red
After the catastrophic launch of Cyberpunk 2077, it seemed CD Projekt Red’s future, let alone the game’s, was all but doomed. The company found itself in uncharted waters, facing a tidal wave of harsh criticism and backlash from their once-devoted fanbase. They vowed to fix the game, but skepticism ran high – how often do studios actually follow through on such promises? We’ve been burned before, so it was understandable that most players wrote off the game, never to touch it again.
Yet, against all odds, they managed to salvage the game once deemed unsalvageable and turn it into what it was meant to be. They actually listened to player feedback and made the game better. Sure, it took a couple of years to mend the game’s myriad issues, but the sheer scale of the problems meant there was a monumental task ahead. They knew that if they were to remain a successful company, they had to turn it around and do something extremely difficult – not just for game studios, but for anyone:
Restore people’s trust.
Funny enough, this wasn’t their first rodeo. The Witcher 1 was rough around the edges and hasn’t aged well, and there is a reason they are remaking it from the ground up. After its release, they spent a whole year fixing it, resulting in the enhanced edition most of us are familiar with. I’m sure the subsequent sales boost played a big role in greenlighting The Witcher 2’s development. Even The Witcher 3 had its share of issues, though these paled in comparison to Cyberpunk’s woes.
But let’s be honest: that alone didn’t reshape the game’s reputation. Even with all the fixes, the perception of the game had yet to truly change. So, what was the catalyst for Cyberpunk’s renaissance?
Cyberpunk’s Resurgence: Edgerunners and Phantom Liberty
Source: Xbox
The anime adaptation Cyberpunk: Edgerunners was a massive hit that turned around the game’s reputation. Benjamin has already dissected what makes the show great, so I won’t delve into that. However, the show accomplished something incredibly rare: it made people interested in playing the game again.
Riding this wave of new and returning players, the studio announced their massive expansion, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty. An entire article could be dedicated to expounding why Phantom Liberty is such an outstanding expansion, and in my opinion, better than the base game itself. I’ll never forget the dread I felt playing through that horror-inspired level with the terrifying killer robot; it was like reliving Alien: Isolation all over again. Phantom Liberty matches the quality of the studio’s previous acclaimed expansions, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine. Alongside the expansion, CD Projekt Red released Patch 2.0, which overhauled nearly every aspect of the game, improving what people already enjoyed while addressing lingering issues. As if that weren’t enough, we recently received Patch 2.1, further improving the game – free rides on the metro anyone? Personally, I found myself using the Radioport all the time, and I loved replaying the car races, I was more dominant in those than Verstappen in F1.
So, what happens when developers listen to fans and gamers, and use their feedback to improve the game they love? I’ll put it this way:
Cyberpunk 2077 has sold over 25 million copies – it is selling faster than The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
Yeah, you read that right.
The Road Ahead: Can CD Projekt Red Sustain the Momentum?
Source: CD Projekt Red
So, what’s next for a company that has seemingly accomplished the impossible by resurrecting a dead-on-arrival game?
Judging by their most recent announcements, CD Projekt Red shows no signs of letting up. The studio has unveiled a slate of ambitious projects for the next few years, including a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 and a brand-new entry in The Witcher saga. Details on these upcoming titles remain scant, but one can hope that hard lessons have been learned by all involved. And while I’ve regained a measure of trust in CD Projekt Red, I’ll remain cautiously optimistic and temper my expectations, unwilling to get swept up in excessive hype again for either project.
Only time will tell if the studio has truly internalized the painful lessons from Cyberpunk 2077’s disastrous launch. But at the very least, they deserve credit for their remarkable efforts in reviving a game once left for dead. I’ll give them that much.
Featured illustration by Natalie Bielat
Luis is a writer based in The Lone Star State. His work has appeared on multiple blogs, covering a wide range of topics. When he’s not writing about The Witcher or Cyberpunk, you’ll typically find him in the mosh pit of a heavy metal concert, trying new dishes, or watching/playing sports.
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