A few days have passed since the launch of cyberpunk 2077, highly anticipated new IP of CD PROJECT RED that promised to be the swan song of this generation, a title that should have set a new standard of excellence in history and gameplay, and a starting point for the videogame years to come… and in a sense it was. But not for everyone. The adventures of V e Johnny Silverhand they turned out to be radically different when played on PC, next-gen consoles, mid-gen consoles or old-gen machines, creating a noticeable gap in user experiences. For those who bought the title on PC, Cyberpunk 2077 is as close as possible to the idea that the guys at CD Projekt RED had - and have - of their creation. A step back, but not very far, is if instead you play it on Playstation 5 e Xbox Series X | S. The speech then changes radically if the game is run on mid-gen consoles, and becomes almost unsustainable on PlayStation 4 e Xbox One. But let's go in order, trying to reconstruct the launch of the most anticipated game of the year and the complaints of users. It will be up to you to decide whether or not they are justified, and who bears the greatest responsibility in this matter.
Cyberpunk 2077: Day One
Cyberpunk 2077 was launched on the market on December 10th, and after the first hours of the game the first complaints emerged on the net, which over the next 24 hours and in the following days became a real protest. A protest that, however, did not involve all users. The peculiarity of the Cyberpunk affair was precisely that of being a different case based on the type of user. Let's start with PC gamer: on the platform of Steam, fans of the title who had been waiting for him for untold months, immediately started downloading and playing, reaching a peak of over one million concurrent users in less than 12 hours after launch. A remarkable number, keep that in mind. In fact, if we consider that Cyberpunk 2077 is also available on other stores, such as GOG ed epic Games, we easily exceed that figure only on the first day. For this large number of players, as we said, Cyberpunk was the experience that the guys of CD PROJEKT RED had thought of and actually made. A wonderful, wonderful game, with all the demands that can be made for a next-gen title. Stable frame rate, high resolution, very few bugs, exciting gameplay and a Hollywood storyline. The game that convinced the critics, and that well deserved a higher score than the 9 on Metacritic. The game everyone was waiting for.
Let's move on to the test of next-gen console users. For those few (but not too few, given the sales) owners of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X | S, the experience of these early days has come very close to that of PC players great thing if you think that it is an "emulated version", because the actual next-gen version of Cyberpunk 2077 will arrive in 2021. Net of some graphic or technical compromise and some interpenetration and pop-ups, Cyberpunk runs beautifully on the next-gen console. For such a vast and complex Open Word, expecting the total absence of problems related to graphic glitches and bugs is impossible, and we don't even expect it. Therefore, it was not even the players in possession of next-gen consoles to trigger the spark that then ignited the fire of the controversy, as the latter can be considered fully satisfied. But, if we go down one more level, entering the largest slice of users, that one old-gen, the speech becomes decidedly different.
The vast majority of gamers have experienced a situation radically opposite to that of their lucky colleagues from the very first hours of the game. Strengthened by a monumental advertising campaign, the credit generated by the great success of The Witcher 3, and the positive reviews of the critics arrived in the days next to the launch, CD PROJEKT RED has convinced millions of users to book and buy the game, so much so that Cyberpunk 2077 was launched with the beauty of 8 million pre-order, a figure to which the day one sales numbers must be added, thus managing to immediately repay the costs of development and the marketing campaign. The heart of this large number of buyers is, inevitably, made up of owners of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, consoles on which the title is unfortunately very far from the image that these had created in the numerous Night City Wire released in the months prior to launch. And it is precisely from this large audience that the protest was born, which hit the Polish software house like a boulder, leading to the collapse of its shares on the stock exchange: the loss would amount to 29% of the peak value recorded on 4 December 2020, i.e. 443 PLN.
Patch 1.04
Bugs, frame rate drops, graphic glitches, very slow or absent texture loads. These are just some of the problems old-gen players encounter during their first few hours of play. The situation on PlayStation 4 PRO and Xbox One X improves a little, but nothing that brings the experience closer to that on PC. Although aware that the differences would obviously have been, the old-gen gamers nevertheless did not expect this series of criticalities, and therefore took action. Most of it, protesting on social media, or even reaching refund requests. Another part, however, directly attacking CD PROJEKT RED, which saw the average rating of the title on Metacritic drastically lowered regarding the old-gen versions, with that PlayStation 4 reaching a 2.3 out of 10. The anger of the users then increased, when information about some bonuses that would go to the development teamdespite the progress of the game. To turn the knife in the sore then came too Google Stadia, who made fun of Sony and Microsoft, asking users how Cyberpunk ran on PayStation 4 and Xbox One.
CD PROJEKT RED then immediately ran for cover, releasing Patch 1.04, reassuring to have solved most of the problems. The developers explained that they tried to improve the fluidity and the visual quality, reducing the annoying pop-in effects of vehicles on the road; it was therefore speeded up the change of the view from the first person to the external one while driving and solved several problems of animations that involved a large number of NPCs during some missions. As far as gameplay is concerned, an annoying problem has been fixed that concerned the preview of weapons, in the crafting section. However, user protests have not ceased with this patch, quite the contrary, since the major problems of the title on old-gen are still all there. Even Sony was forced to open up refunds for dissatisfied users.
And now?
A few hours ago, in the morning of today 14 December, CD PROJEKT RED officially intervened on the matter, apologizing publicly on its social channels. The software house apologized for not showing the base game on old-gen consoles before its official release, promising that a new patch will arrive in 7 days. Not only that, they will release further updates whenever improvements are available, already planning two, one for January and one for February. Finally, promising constant support to PC users as well.
It therefore seems that for those who have not yet moved on to the next-gen, there are openings towards a better gaming experience. It will be necessary to see, however, if the fracture created between the user and the Polish development house is not by now irremediable, and if gamers will have the patience to wait for CD PROJEKT RED a little longer.. The software house has also worked towards those who have now decided not to place trust in them anymore, opening to a refund policy, both at the reviewers and directly on their official website. In this brief analysis, we have tried to be as objective as possible, reconstructing the facts of the last week so as to give you all the means to deepen the question and get an idea of who occupies the positions of right and wrong; and in case you are among those who have been involved in this debacle, we invite you to tell us your experience.
