Sony removes Cyberpunk 2077 from the PlayStation Store

[HEXUS]

Game banished until further notice. Any previous purchasers can get a full refund.

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[Kato-2]

Nothing more than pure public relations opportunism from Sony.

CDPR would have had to send builds of the game to Sony for approval and almost certainly Sony would not have allowed them to release it as a PS4 Pro only title.

So its bullcrap that Sony didn't know the game did not run well and are now throwing CDPR under the buss to save themselves.

Also plenty of other PS4 games ran terrible at launch far worse the Cyberpunk,like Ark Survival and even GTA5 ran badly at the start.

The one mistake CDPR made is they didn't show that it doesn't look good or run well on old consoles, if they had done this beforehand it would have defused it and all those looking to crap on the game.

[ik9000]

Well I think it's about time game devs were made to release properly finished games and not the beta bugware that too often gets trotted out. Some kind of law requiring beta to be declared as such and limiting the cost accordingly or mandatory refunds where they fail to do so would likely make them sit up.

[LSG501]

Well I think it's about time game devs were made to release properly finished games and not the beta bugware that too often gets trotted out. Some kind of law requiring beta to be declared as such and limiting the cost accordingly or mandatory refunds where they fail to do so would likely make them sit up.

True but as said above you consoles have 'validation' processes to go through before release and so it can't all be blamed on CDPR, having said that the PR from CDPR was saying the delay was for final polish etc and well they failed pretty bad if that's the case too.

It honestly feels like they rushed it out to get the 'Christmas sales' based on what I've seen, which is understandable from a financial standpoint but it should have been better finished than it is considering all the delays they've had (can't blame it all on covid imo).. imo they can do their work quite easily from home if they have the right infrastructures in place, if I can do 3D work etc at home, so can the staff at CDPR, even if it meant taking their work pc home.

[philehidiot]

Well I think it's about time game devs were made to release properly finished games and not the beta bugware that too often gets trotted out. Some kind of law requiring beta to be declared as such and limiting the cost accordingly or mandatory refunds where they fail to do so would likely make them sit up.

There is a law in the UK consumer rights act which means if it isn't fit for purpose then a refund is mandated. Blizzard definitely don't obey this law and try and give you "all sales are final" and won't do anything to accommodate you. I can certainly understand "if you've had more than x% of the single player experience, we can not refund unless it's a game killing bug" but with all the DRM and so on, they know exactly how long you have spent playing a game and I'm sure they get telemetry saying what maps, missions, etc you're on. As a result, it would be obvious if a game has been started 20 times but only 3 minutes of actual play time achieved.

My advice is to pay using Paypal or a credit card. Paypal will help you retrieve a refund for a product like this, especially when you can quote the law and multiple emails to customer support. A credit card company in the UK also may be able to help but I've not tested this.

I will not be buying a Blizzard game with DRM in the near future as a result of their stupidity. The rising cost of games means I won't be handing over my money and risking losing it when the game just does not work. You can't release a broken product and fix it with updates. If it's too complex to roll out to all platforms at once, narrow it down and do it right.

Ultimately, don't promise the world and deliver a steaming turd.

[Tabbykatze]

[cheesemp]

It does feel unfair to single out CDPR for this when all the big players are doing this - in fact it seems to be the rare exception for AAA games to come out complete. Its crazy though as it puts me completely off buying new at full price when I can just wait and pick it up for less than £10 in a years time fully patched!

The sad thing it is possible to release with quality - The outer worlds was solid for me (I only got on release due to game pass) and the indies manage it. Lets face it bugs will happen but the game should be playable.

[habilain]

True but as said above you consoles have 'validation' processes to go through before release and so it can't all be blamed on CDPR,

Just on this point: Validation doesn't stop buggy games. It's a checklist approach that ensures a few things, most importantly that the game won't brick the console, but you a game can be buggy to the point of being completely unplayable and still pass validation; decisions on the quality of the game are all down to the publisher, not the console manufacturers (indeed, the published is the one who will be doing QA - it's not a function of the platform provider). If you want more info, Rami Ismail (formerly half of Vlambeer) put out a good twitter thread explaining his knowledge of validation within the limits of NDAs: https://twitter.com/tha_rami/status/1338978911678590984.

Basically, validation isn't designed to stop this kind of thing, so this mess is firmly on CDProjekt-Red's plate.

[edmundhonda]

CDPR would have had to send builds of the game to Sony for approval

Yes, but as CDPR admitted in one of the many followups, the normal routine is to get something that'll pass cert (ie, it won't cause actual damage to a console, has the right Sony branding) as the 'gold', then promise to patch it to a level that's actually acceptable in the day 1 patch. CDPR said it'd be at an acceptable standard for day 1, then failed to deliver.

Every major publisher has this same arrangement and it's why cert on consoles is a joke. Indies have to bend over backwards before they pass, but the big releases that matter are always "it'll be ok with the day 1 patch, promise"

[EvilCycle]

This is nothing to do with the state of the game and just big corp boys playing their big corp games, it is kickback for the refunds debacle. CDPR tried to force Sony's hand and Sony said nah, we'll show you who runs things around here. There have been comparably bad releases like this many times without the game being pulled, and ones that have been in the past are usually down to the dev or publisher deciding to remove it. Kind of ironic that CDPR have seemed to accidentally leak the theme of their game out into the real world, most immersive game yet!

[Spud1]

It's the right move, but as many have said I really think Sony have to take a lot of the blame here.

Playing on PC, the game runs well, looks amazing and i've had so few bugs...this feels finished and polished to me on PC. Way moreso than RDR2 did (that was in a shocking state!) or any bethesda RPG ever made.

Cyberpunk still runs better than Fallout 4 and is less buggy than Skyrim (without the fan made patches that fix both games)

They should have delayed the last-gen release (at least) by another month to get it ready, but I guess they [the dev team] were forced into it.

[QuorTek]

For me Cyperpunk is still a pen and paper game... and to hard to put into a game, especially today... most AAA games has to little content as it is.

[darcotech]

They were probably forced by that same Sony so the console sales will go up.
And they were probably also forced by stock holders. CDRP tries to go the honest route hear, but that doesn't goes well in evil corporate environments.
I am sure, that if it was to them, they would publish it only when they were sure it was good for that.

[Corky34]

It's the right move, but as many have said I really think Sony have to take a lot of the blame here.

I'm not sure it's Sony's fault either, by all accounts it runs like a turd on the Xbox One as well. I'm left wondering why CDPR even bothered with last gen consoles, something must have motivated them to do so, did Sony, Microsoft, or someone else offer financial incentives?

[Joe91]

This is NOT the programmers fault. This mess lies entirely in the hands of both the studio owners - AND - Sony. Both were ultimately responsible for QA decisions. For both to fail so publicly is a truly damning indictment of the current state of gaming. It should also be understood just how much impact Nvidia's 'RTX financial sweetener' will have been in all this - that sweetener will primarily be going to upper management. What a shame for the programmers, gfx and audio artists on this game - though maybe a change in their management might now be in order...!!!
(note: there is little/no QA standardisation in most software - gaming or otherwise).

[Spud1]

I'm not sure it's Sony's fault either, by all accounts it runs like a turd on the Xbox One as well. I'm left wondering why CDPR even bothered with last gen consoles, something must have motivated them to do so, did Sony, Microsoft, or someone else offer financial incentives?

True enough - I imagine they had to as they announced the game 8 years ago and heavily promoted it on console (well, Microsoft certainly did!) and they will have had thousands of pre orders on those platforms. Very hard for them to give that cash back early on, but it should not have made it onto the store.

MS and Sony's review programs both do include quality checks and somehow this made it through. It's not there to catch bugs - but despite the press coverage, the bugs are not the major issue on those platforms - its the fact it looks a total state, runs like a dog (to the point of being unplayable in many cases) and crashes. Thats far beyond bugs.