The disastrous launch of cyberpunk 2077, we are sure, it will leave its mark in the years to come. And not just on gamers, but on the entire gaming industry. The consequences of this negative enterprise were there for all to see during this first month since the launch of the title of CD Projekt RED, and the market is starting to take the necessary countermeasures. One example above all: the postponement of Hogwarts Legacy. This postponement must make us reflect. The game in development at Avalanche Studios, in fact, it did not yet have a precise release date, yet the software house still felt compelled to inform future buyers of the postponement of a game that, until a few weeks ago, it would only come out hypothetically in the course of 2021. The conclusion we can draw is one, and it could be at the same time comforting and terrible: the economic and confidence loss that Cyberpunk 2077 has suffered since its release is generating a a ripple effect that could almost force software houses to postpone their projects.
On the one hand, this could be good: an extra year gives developers plenty of time to test their games, so as to get them to the market to the best of their ability (but, rest assured, the Day One patch is far from disappearing from the horizon). But, on the other hand, it could to dry up the market, making this 2021 poor in outputs also because of the fear that could grip the smaller development houses, which could not withstand a media shock wave that nowadays, I play it, would hurl itself against them in case of failure, thus almost obligatorily pushing them to postpone a title that , if it only came out last year with a few bugs here and there, it wouldn't have suffered any criticism. Let's see together then what are the pros and cons that the domino effect that the Cyberpunk affair seems to have triggered.
Why referral is the best solution ...
Crunch for 13 hours a day, numerous postponements, undervalued deadlines, false promises. And, despite all this, the disastrous launch (on consoles, at least) and the consequent media tussle, have not been avoided. Wouldn't it have been better, perhaps, in front of the first signs of what could have been, and what then was, pull the oars in the boat for a second, breathe, and announce that Cyberpunk 2077 would be released much later than initially announced? Just a few months ago, what was supposed to be the flagship title of Xbox Series X, Halo: Infinite, following the strong criticism suffered by users, it was postponed for a full year. Surely, given the numerous pre-orders of the title, postponing it for so long would have brought a severe backlash to CD Projekt Red. Maybe many would have canceled their copy. But confidence, at the time, was skyrocketing, and the public, after the initial noise, would have understood, and the gains would have come anyway. Maybe not all in one day, as happened, but spread over the months to come. And the trust would remain intact.
Instead, it has chosen the path completely and immediately, overestimating, perhaps, its own means, and we have met the disaster that we have all seen. Still, CD Projekt Red wasn't born yesterday. Marcin Iwinski he put his face on it just a few days ago, illustrating the recovery plan for this lost trust and, in time, we are sure that it will return. Different, certainly, because the user forgives but does not forget, but with the January and February patches, free DLCs and a few more fixes in the months to fade, Cyberpunk 2077 will come to be what it was originally meant to be. But, and this is the fundamental question, Is the risk taken by the Polish company a risk that the other software houses can also take? And above all, a new failure, even a decidedly minor one, would today, in light of the difficult path opened by Cyberpunk, be forgiven by users?
Skyrim, back in 2011, it was initially killed by bugs, which over time have been corrected. He came out today, we are sure that Bethesda it would be targeted by critics much more than what happened at the time. TO No Man's Sky it took 4 years to reach the initially promised state of playability. Imagine now if Cyberpunk's definitive fixes arrive in 2024. At this point, there is only one solution: postpone. So here we are back in Hogwarts Legacy. Avalanche Studios' RPG Open World carries on his shoulders a very heavy brand like that of Harry Potter and he absolutely cannot afford to fail. But, and that's the point, he can't afford to fail today. Because the hype for the game is that of great occasions, and all the media attention that follows already brings with it the nickname of Cyberpunk 2 at the slightest error. Same path followed by Outriders. The boys of People Can Fly, perhaps precisely because compatriots of those of CD Projekt Red, they sensed the danger and decided to postpone the title by two months, releasing it in April. This year has started two weeks ago and we already have two postponements, and if all that were not enough, it would seem that Sony has changed the release dates of the third party titles that had been announced, albeit in a generic way, at CES 2021.
... but not necessarily the right one
If a good morning starts in the morning, even the titles that would come out on paper by the end of this year, I'm not safe anymore. 2020 was marred by the Covid-19 pandemic, and like all sectors, even the gaming sector has seen a progressive reduction in job opportunities, and, as a result, numerous postponements have arrived. The situation this year does not seem to be improving at the moment, but the pandemic may not be, as we have seen, the only reason behind these postponements. This 2021 could therefore be really poor in releases. Many software houses, given what happened, will probably look in the mirror to decide if the time has really come to publish their work.
Postponing a title, as we have seen, might be the best solution. It would save developers from impossible working hours, improving their health and facilitating a task already made difficult by mandatory smart working. Furthermore, it would deliver to us players a product as close to the state of the art as possible, free from bugs, glitches, various errors and without the need for heavy corrective patches to be released within a week of launch. Still, it may not necessarily be the right solution. The cataclysm generated by Cyberpunk 2077 has now certainly marked the gaming world. Reviewing how far your products have come is never a bad decision. But this shouldn't generate fear in the developers. The way of postponement should not be pursued at all costs. The fear of failure could in fact slow down a market already blocked by the virus, bringing to us players fewer titles and postponing those announced over a very long time.
What could be the solutions? It might not be possible to announce more precise dates: more and more titles have a broad launch window, which generically covers a season of a future year. Players could be asked not to follow that hype culture that the market continues to feed every day. While we had a Cyberpunk 2077 announcing a new detail to the world per week with an unknown number of Night City Wire in the last year, on the other hand we have a Elden Ring who after revealing himself hid in a thunderous silence, which does not lead to pre-orders and could in the long run dishearten the fan. It depends on your point of view.
It is not our goal to reveal to you what the best truth is. But just tell you that Cyberpunk 2077 has changed the gaming market. A market that will now pay the utmost attention to its every move, that will be careful not to reveal too much or too little about itself, to carefully consider each announcement, to choose real and concrete release dates, to try to deliver the better version of their offer. We cannot know that all this will be a guarantee of quality. What is certain is that the rules of the game have changed.
