Cyberpunk 2077: The Disappointing Result of a Hype Machine
I’ll tell you what, I’ll never trust CD Projekt with my money again and nor should you. The bug-laden launch of their highly anticipated game, Cyberpunk 2077, has broken the trust of millions of people: customers, investors, and their own staff. It all contradicts the company’s mission statement which their website states is “making the best video games on the planet”.
Does that look like the best video game on the planet to you? It doesn’t even look like a mediocre game. Of course, I’m choosing an extreme example taken from one of the worst versions of the game to make a point.
The game was advertised over it’s five-year long development as the ultimate Cyberpunk role-playing experience. Instead, it’s a very linear and relatively mediocre story bolstered by impressive visuals and technology. It’s really the epitome of a hype machine game.
I was one of those excited fans greatly anticipating Cyberpunk 2077. I was one of the eight million people that pre-ordered. The game that I ended up playing was very different from what I was promised, and I’m not happy about it. You shouldn’t be either. Even if you didn’t buy this game, you should be mad too.
Not because you wasted money, no. It’s because an entire multi-billion dollar industry is manipulating me, you, and everyone else into thinking that this sort of deception is normal. More on this later, for now though let’s focus on CD Projekt.
I’ve talked about breaking trust, and how CD Projekt did it. So let’s talk about what this cost them, and how we might learn a little something from this crazy fiasco. Here’s my list of the consequences.
- PlayStation and Xbox both stopped taking digital orders of Cyberpunk 2077 shortly after launch; reducing sales
- CD Projekt had to issue multiple statements to apologize for the deception which likely cost them sales of the game
- Multiple lawsuits have been brought against CD Projekt by investors
- Refunds for digital and physical copies of the game have been issued since release
- Unhappy employees that will likely be looking for new jobs
- Sold 13 million copies of the game after refunds despite everything above
You read that right. You’d think that after everything I laid out here that CD Projekt would be out of business. They’d be laughed out, in fact, and they should be.
Instead, we’re still looking at a very healthy business with incredible sales on a game that doesn’t deserve it. It’s almost like the new normal for games like Cybperpunk 2077, and similar disaster launches like Fallout 76, No Man’s Sky, Marvel’s Avengers, and Anthem to name a few.
Some of those projects I mentioned weren’t exactly super profitable, but what they all have in common is that they were unfinished games at launch. Game publishers like CD Projekt in charge of selling these games had no business releasing them. But they did it anyways and still made money.
This is what I meant earlier when I said that the game industry itself is at fault for dumpster-fire projects like Cyberpunk 2077. And we’re partially at fault too. We keep giving them our money for the sweet little lies they keep telling us, and so we pre-order this crap.
Cyberpunk 2077 cost CD Projekt what should be the most important thing to any company: integrity. Theirs is shattered to pieces, and it will take them quite some time to recover from it. What’s crazy is that despite their corrupt morality, the company is still rewarded with great success.
What I took away from all of this insanity is that I’m never pre-ordering games again. Forget about the hype, it’s all a facade. I can’t trust these corporations that tell us that they care about us, and would never do us any harm. They say they’re looking after our best interests, after all they only want to give us the best games ever.
Until they don’t. Maybe because we trusted them too much. Maybe because they can convince enough of us of their lies that the blowback in the end won’t stop them from making hundreds of millions of dollars.
I mean, they still delivered a game with the name Cyberpunk 2077, right? Just shutup and enjoy it. That’s the message being sent, and it’s up to all of us to vote with our wallets.
We can either continue to give in to this wacked game of trust roulette, or we can be smarter. Wait for reviews, and wait for other opinions you trust before buying. It might just save us all from some pain in the future.
Until then, I’m waiting for the inevitable “Ultimate” edition so I can finally play this game. Good luck out there, samurais.
