This year has seen its fair share of disappointments, such as film delays and cancellations, live sport cancellations, and even video game delays. The year really hasn’t really been kind, but the gaming world maintains a positive and hopeful attitude all thanks to one game: Cyberpunk 2077.
Cyberpunk 2077 is a game created by the development company CD Projekt Red, known for games such as the highly acclaimed Witcher series. Similarly to the Witcher series, Cyberpunk 2077 is an open-world role playing game (RPG) where players can customize their own character, make important story-based decisions, craft their own play style, and decide their fate in the dystopian future that exists within the world of Cyberpunk 2077.
As a passionate gamer, I was not a huge fan of the year gaming has had so far. This year has been riddled with delays, disappointments and a general air of mediocrity among the gaming world.
The long awaited sequel to The Last of Us was as controversial as it was disappointing, and a lack of major releases has led to claims that 2020 might just be the one of the worst years gaming has had in a long time.
Cyberpunk 2077 has been a consistent “light in the dark” for gamers, and remains the most anticipated game of the year even after multiple delays. According to Gamebyte, pre-sales for Cyberpunk are 31 per cent below where Red Dead Redemption 2 were 68 days prior to launch. This may sound underwhelming, but in reality it is no small feat, as Red Dead Redemption 2 was one of the anticipated sequels of all-time, and was development company Rockstar Games first release since the critically acclaimed Grand Theft Auto 5 back in 2013.
Initially, the game was scheduled to release April 16, 2020 but was postponed to Sept. 17, 2020. Following that, the game was delayed again until Nov. 19, 2020. Last week, publisher CD Projekt Red announced that they would be forced to postpone the game another three weeks to Dec. 10, 2020. According to a recent post on the company’s official Twitter account this is due to the developers having to test nine different versions of the game at home, to make sure everything runs smoothly on console, and PC.
Adam Badowski, head of CD Projekt Red, wrote this in the Twitter post regarding the game’s recent three week delay.
“The biggest challenge for us right now is shipping the game on current-gen, next-gen and PC at the same time, which requires us to prepare and test 9 versions of it (Xbox One/X, compatibility on Xbox Series S/X, PS4/Pro, compatibility on PS5, PC, Stadia) while working from home. Since Cyberpunk 2077 evolved towards almost being a next-gen title somewhere along the way, we need to make sure everything works well and every version runs smoothly. We’re aware it might seem unrealistic when someone says that 21 days can make any difference in such a massive and complex game, but they really do.”
The backlash from fans on Twitter was truly awful, a few players claiming that they booked the week off work to play this game, and some fans even sent death threats to the developers at CD Projekt Red.
Many other games such as Uncharted 4, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Persona 5 experienced multiple delays during their production period and became critically acclaimed games, and are absolutely beloved by players. Cyberpunk 2077’s delays are no different, as taking the extra time to make sure a game is up to the developers standards will only push out a near perfect game. Case in point, the three games mentioned above.
The developers at CD Projekt Red are trying to construct a game people will be talking about for years to come. Who knows? Maybe by the year 2077 people will still be talking about the game Cyberpunk 2077.
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