Cyberpunk 2077 was one of the most anticipated video game titles in the last decades. Seriously. The amount of hype around this game was unbelievable. Since CD Projekt Red—the development studio behind the game—announced Cyberpunk 2077 back in 2012, people were eagerly waiting for its launch, year after year.
If you are a gamer, you are probably familiar with the unwritten law of hyped-up games: the more the hype around a game, the more likely it is to disappoint fans at launch.
People were waiting for Diablo 3 since Blizzard launched Diablo 2 back in 2000. Even though Diablo 3 was, by all means, a good game, it did not live up to the unrealistic expectations of the fans. Diablo 2 was ahead of its time, and anything that Blizzard came up with for Diable 3 would not be enough.
While Diablo 3 was a ‘good but not good enough’ type of situation, this was not the case for Cyberpunk 2077.
It was a lot worse. And worse here means so bad it was pulled off the PlayStation Store and millions of players were issued a refund. To boot, there is a class-action lawsuit on the horizon for CD Projekt Red.
What is Cyberpunk 2077?
Cyberpunk 2077 is an action-adventure RPG that takes place in a dystopian future where players can enhance their bodies with different types of weapons and have Keanu Reeves guide them. It was pretty much every gamer’s dream. Cyberpunk 2077 was supposed to be GTA 5 on steroids, the kind of game that would set the standard for future titles of the same genre.
The game was to be released on PC, PS4, Xbox One and to be playable on next-gen consoles: PS5 and Xbox Series X.
As Cyberpunk 2077 was getting closer to the launch date, people were already going crazy online. Having a highly-anticipated game come up at this particular time is indeed super-exciting.
While anything crazy that people did at that time is justifiable (we are in the middle of a pandemic, after all), CD Projekt Red’s boasting while they knew the status of the game was unjustifiable.
When a player asked CD Projekt Red on Twitter if Cyberpunk 2077 will have any memes, they replied that the entire game would be a meme. And that is exactly what happened.
What Is Wrong With Cyberpunk 2077?
In short, the game came out riddled with bugs. The type of bugs that are hilarious and render the game completely unplayable.
You’re cruising around Night City on your futuristic bike, on your way to meet Keanu Reeves or something then BAM, you turn into a half-naked character standing on the bike in a mannequin-like pose. And just as you start wondering what is going on, you turn into a completely naked, armless mannequin and magically sink in the asphalt.
While all games—and software in general—do have bugs, the number of bugs in Cyberpunk 2077 was not something you would expect in a AAA title.
Why The Refunds?
When you are waiting for a game to come out for almost a decade and it ships with such laughable bugs, you are furious. Makes sense.
With a staggering 8 million pre-orders and almost 1 million concurrent PC players on Steam almost immediately after the game was launched, Cyberpunk 2077 had a record-breaking launch. And suddenly, many of those fans turned into angry customers who wanted their money back.
Sony and Microsoft were overwhelmed by refund requests and announced that they would refund all gamers who purchased the game on their online stores. Despite not allowing returns after more than 14 days or playing a game for more than 2 hours, Steam announced it would consider refund requests that fall outside those parameters.
What About Physical Copies?
Unlike digital copies, things like being opened or not and the overall condition affect returning physical copies of video games. While the return policies for different vendors might vary, most big retailers have made exceptions for Cyberpunk 2077 returns.
To verify whether your physical copy of Cyberpunk 2077 qualifies for a refund or not, you will need to check with your vendor.
To Wrap It Up
While it’s true that most of the highly-anticipated games never live up to the expectations—which are often unrealistic—Cyberpunk had different shortcomings. The game has simply failed to meet the industry standards for a AAA title.
For a respected studio with a hit game series that has sold over 33 million copies—The Witcher—Cyberpunk 2077 was nothing short of a scandal. While it is understandable that CD Projekt Red didn’t want to let the fans down by delaying the game again, doing so would have probably been better than launching a half-baked title and wasting years of hard work.
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Here is everything you need to know about this AAA game disaster.
