Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red is facing even more criticism, with OpenCritic calling out the company for deliberately lying to both consumers and journalists. Since its launch on December 10, the game has been met with both praise and criticism, with the PC version receiving widespread critical acclaim. On the other hand, the console version currently available on both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One has been lambasted for its numerous bugs and glitches along with general poor performance on the systems. The anger has led to the studio offering refunds to all console players who are dissatisfied with Cyberpunk 2077.
OpenCritic, a review aggregator, had previously issued a warning to fans on its site, warning players that there are major differences between the performance of Cyberpunk 2077 on PC and current-gen consoles compared to PS4 and Xbox One. This was an unprecedented move on the part of the review aggregator, with the organization also saying that it - along with several other critics - suspected that CD Projekt Red purposely misled reviewers and players prior to the launch of the game to hide how poorly it runs on the last-gen systems. However, OpenCritic has now gone one step further with its criticism of the developer following the release of a new statement by the studio.
OpenCritic has now called out CD Projekt Red after claiming the Polish developer purposely lied about the state of Cyberpunk 2077's PS4 and Xbox One version. The motivation behind this deception, at least in the eyes of OpenCritic, was that bonuses were tied to the title receiving at least a score of 90 on Metacritic leading up to launch. This prompted CD Projekt Red to only hand out PC copies for review and disallowing reviewers from using any of their own footage. Effectively, this meant that the developer ensured that the console edition of Cyberpunk 2077 would not get any negative reviews right out of the gate despite the numerous severe issues it has.
Along with offering refunds to players, CD Projekt Red has also stated that it is committed to fixing the problems that console players are currently experiencing. The studio has confirmed that it is now working on a series of patches and updates that should address many of the issues, with those planned to begin rolling out early next year.
The launch of Cyberpunk 2077 was already embroiled in controversy long before the title even launched. The title has faced numerous delays this year, despite the fact that studio bosses have consistently said that the game would release on-time. CD Projekt Red also angered industry figures for the way it forced employees to crunch, publicly going against promises that it would not introduce mandatory overtime for staff. It now seems like Cyberpunk 2077 should have been delayed further to ensure that these issues were not present, as the game is simply not in a sufficiently finished state to be sold to players on the most popular platforms it was planned for.
Cyberpunk 2077 is available now for PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Google Stadia, and it will launch on PS5 and Xbox Series X in 2021.
Source: OpenCritic