WTF Gamers Industry Edition: Cyberpunk 2077 removed from PSN
Why hello my lovely gamers! I know it’s been a while, and after what many of us college gamers would say has been an Xtreme Legends mode semester, one thing we can rejoice about in 2020 is that: Despite 2020 being pretty low tier, gaming has been able to avoid such blunders! That was until what was perhaps the most highly anticipated games of 2020, CyberPunk 2077 released its bugs and glitches filled fury upon unsuspecting hyped gamers. That’s right y’all, after 8 years of development, one of the biggest releases of 2020 is borderline unplayable. Naturally, this has made pissed consumers file complaints, and demand refunds in large numbers. So much so that today, Sony has pulled CyberPunk from its PSN store and is offering refunds until further notice. Does this beg the question? WTF Gaming Industry?
Cyberpunk is undercooked:
Allow me to give a brief rundown of the news announced just a few hours ago from Sony. As of right now, people who purchased CyberPunk 2077 on Sony consoles can receive their refund by clicking here (you’re welcome). Despite users having trouble loading the sign-in page, users are encouraged to keep trying. The issues with the page may be due to large amounts of customers all trying to access the link at once to request a refund. Sony states that:
“SIE strives to ensure a high level of customer satisfaction, therefore we will begin to offer a full refund for all gamers who have purchased Cyberpunk 2077 via PlayStation Store. SIE will also be removing Cyberpunk 2077 from PlayStation Store until further notice.”- Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC
So for those of you who either A. Don’t have CyberPunk 2077 B. Have not been keeping up with it or C. Both, allow to explain. Despite CyberPunk being riddled with bugs and glitches that greatly impact the gameplay negatively, it was released anyway. And despite the game performing on backward compatibility mode on PS5, it is still prone to frequent crashes, low frame rates, and distracting glitches among other issues. Not to mention, as COVID19 has made PS5’s hard to come by, PS4 players have said the game is “barely functional” on the console. This is not even considering the issues Xbox One and PC users are experiencing. So with all this in mind, CyberPunk has been having a rough launch, despite only being out on the market for barely a week.
Considering that a console crashing, bugs, and glitch fest were released to the unsuspecting public, my first thoughts on this are hats off to the folks at Sony. This is the right thing to do. There have been plenty of instances over the years where array pre-orders or game launches were met with a “too bad so sad” attitude from companies in the past. So Sony offering refunds is pretty dope in its own right. But pulling the game from PSN to ensure future consumers don’t have to experience this makes Sony the real MVPs.
If it is not ready, do not release the product!
On the WTF Gamers Industry Edition side to this is what in the world the developers at CD Projekt Red were thinking, releasing this onto the public? I mean this release is giving me Drive 3 flashbacks. Folks games go through testing, where any bugs, glitches, etc are reported so that they can be fixed. So it’s not like these issues were unknown. And while I get the patches that can be released post-release to rectify issues, this game is littered with glitches and bugs that interfere with gameplay. Just search “CyberPunk 2077 glitches” on youtube and watch the horror.
This game is nowhere near ready to be sold to people at $59.99+USD. Another issue here is that considering this game spent 8 years in development, would another year to air out all the kinks and put out a Game of The Year worthy title would have hurt it? I get the development team was in deep, but it’s not like COVID19 didn’t impact economies across the globe, resulting in a shortage of PS5’s and leisure funds for consumers. Then there’s the ladder, after 8 years, the development team realizes the scope of this project was too big and to try to scale it down? The WTF here goes out to the developers 100%.
CyberPunk 2077 did make waves this year, just not the type they intended. The stuff of bad game memes. The stuff of Matt McMuscle’s “Wha Happun?” series. CyberPunk 2077 will go down in gaming history as a launch so bad, it was removed from the PSN store. I am sure it is not what the development team wanted to achieve, but when bad products are released to consumers, the results are going to mirror said product. Perhaps this will encourage developers in the future to avoid putting out games they know are not finished.
