What does it take for you to lose your faith in a game studio?

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It's been an eventful week, and you've no doubt read a veritable deluge of information and ranting about Cyberpunk 2077's highly-criticized launch. Why don't we take a little time to reflect, and recap these recent events? Or, perhaps, even compare CD Projekt Red and their woes to a very familiar bug-prone studio.

For a time, Bethesda could do no wrong. Consumer support was strong after the landmark release of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and their revival of the Fallout series in its third installment. Followed by publishing Dishonored, DOOM, and Wolfenstein reboots, it seemed the company was the prodigal child of the industry. Beloved by all, even in the face of its flaws.

It peaked when Bethesda revealed Fallout 4 for the very first time, with a release date just mere months away. But when the game did launch, the praise and hype were marred by complaints of bugs, a weak narrative, and endless vapid radiant side quests. The dissent was taken further when gamers began questioning Bethesda’s writing abilities, going back to Fallout 3 and claiming that it was never good in the first place, compared to what came before. The drama further unfurled when Bethesda released Fallout 76, a few years later, and the game suffered a downright terrible launch, which brings us to their reputation today: a studio that is still popular, but has lost a fair amount of the vocal and dedicated fan base it built in a decade in a matter of years, thanks to questionable practices and endlessly buggy releases.

In a very similar vein, it took a little over a week to sour gamers’ opinions of the once darling studio that could also do no wrong: CD Projekt.

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Having developed one of the most renowned modern RPGs, The Witcher 3, and their creation of Good Old Games, a storefront dedicated to releasing DRM-free PC games, CD Projekt became an absolute titan of a company. Combined with their PR department valuing being transparent with fans, it was the perfect recipe for success. With Cyberpunk 2077’s hype through the roof and looking like the perfect send-off to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the stage was set for them to take the throne as the most-loved company in the industry, besides Nintendo, of course.

Then, the delays hit. Pushed back a few months here, delayed a few weeks there. But players had waited nearly a decade for the game, and a few more months didn’t matter much in the long run: after all, a delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad, right? Around the time of one of the few delays that Cyberpunk 2077 faced, questions began to arise regarding the working conditions of those at CD Projekt Red, hard at work on the game. While 2020 has featured many dramatic industry revelations, one of the biggest topics has been that of development “crunch” at major game studios.

So, when the higher-ups at CD Projekt Red ensured that its team wouldn’t force crunch on its workers, at least on a large, mandatory scale, it seemed like yet another win for everyone’s favorite developer...Until it wasn’t. As the new September release date loomed ever closer, an investor call revealed that there would be some degree of crunch happening in order to get the game out on time, followed by further reports of crunch becoming “mandatory”, to hit the shifted November release date, then things began to involve over-time and 6-day workweeks, all to reach a newly-established launch date of December 10th. A game eight years in the making had been unable to meet multiple deadlines, and the development team had been pushing themselves for over a year like this. Still, many defended the choice, as CD Projekt would be kind enough to compensate their workers, and even promised a large bonus to its team, based on the profits made following Cyberpunk 2077’s release. Not many other companies would do the same.

Still, it was enough to begin to shake some peoples’ faith in the game, or even the company itself. Even so, CD Projekt Red was still beloved by many, and fans fervently defended them across the internet when anyone dared question their developmental problems.

When review scores were published, it seemed like Cyberpunk had hit the mark, delivering well within instant-classic status, with Opencritic’s average sitting at 88/100, and its Metacritic score similarly around 90/100. It was curiously observed that review codes for the console versions of the game weren’t being provided prior to release, but the concern didn’t really gain traction until after Cyberpunk 2077 had hit retail shelves. By then, the public had realized that the game was not nearly what players had expected, to the point of refunds being demanded.

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As aggregates began to publish reviews for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of the game, the Opencritic average score of 88 fell to an 81, while Metacritic’s decreased from 90 to 87 (as of the time of writing). It was then that CD Projekt began to walk back its initial claims of giving employees a bonus payment if Cyberpunk 2077 hit a 90 or above on Metacritic, to promising a bonus no matter what the score was, as it had fallen from its threshold, and continued to tick down with every passing day.

Now, the fanbase had become incensed, thanks to a launch that saw reportedly awful performance on last-gen consoles, low resolution textures that hit instant meme status, and so many bugs and glitches on PC that players had lost count. The rage furthered, as PS4 users continued to demand refunds for digital copies, which were no longer being offered, despite being guaranteed originally. CD Projekt publicly apologized for releasing the game in such a state, attempting to smooth things over by promising performance patches and constant quality updates, though the biggest bugfixes would require patiently waiting until February--more than two months after launch.

Irritation grew towards CD Projekt issuing yet another yellow-background apology note, and for the inconsistent quality of the game. As if they hadn’t hogged the entire news flow for a week, things got worse, as CD Projekt barred the sale of Devotion from their GOG storefront, mere hours after the developer announced its release on the platform, with minimal explanation other than a vague and confusing “many messages from gamers” had influenced their decision.


With the ongoing drama regarding refunds and shady subterfuge over the console release of Cyberpunk 2077, Sony stepped in, removing the game from sale on the PlayStation Store entirely, and refunding any and all customers who bought the game and wished for their money back. A major AAA title had been pulled from sale overnight--a rather startling sight to behold. If things couldn't get worse, physical retailers like Best Buy were allowing refunds for the game, alongside Microsoft also letting digital buyers refund their copy, even if it was over the 2-hours played limitation.

The story isn’t even close to ending yet--it’s only a matter of time before the next headline regarding CD Projekt’s latest move or Cyberpunk 2077’s most recent pitfall hits the front page of every gaming website out there. But in this past week alone, it seems that the company has repeatedly shot itself in the foot, to the point where even the most devout of fans have been shaken. At the same time, CD Projekt appears willing to please unsatisfied customers by allowing these refunds on the basis of false promises and constant crashes, to the point of saying they'll pay for some players' refunds out of their own pocket. Even the game that helped boost CD Projekt to their critical acclaim--The Witcher 3--didn't release without its own set of issues, all the way back in 2015.

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Have the negative events of this past week been dramatic enough to deter you from CD Projekt and their practices, despite years of quality content prior to this, much like how gamers found themselves done with Bethesda after Fallout 76's mess of a release? Was Cyberpunk 2077 doomed to never live up to its hype, even if it launched bug-free? And have you given up on the game, or are you holding out hope, waiting for that eventual bug-fixing patch or PS5/XSX|S release?
 

pedro702

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nope, i honestly cant think of any EA product that has ever been good. theyve always been shit to me and always will. there is nothing about their products that are captivating, fun or original, and if its even close to being one of those things there is most likely another AAA or indie that does it 10 times better. All i see when i hear the word EA are a bunch of talentless hacks from the day the company was formed to today.

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Nope literally all corporations i can think of are our enemies, all of them have shitty retarded ceos that only exist to siphon money out of our wallets, they hold massive monopolies over the market and shut down all forms of competition, either that or they straight up buy them like disney and maybe kill them later like with EA.
Companies are like the devil, you make deals with him but you're an idiot if you actually put your faith in him to have your back. Like the art not the artist
cmon EA still does good games, i dont like football games but fifa is the best football game out there you can ask everyone that likes to play football games, even tough i dont care one bit i can see the appeal.

also they got some good games out there
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
star wars Squadrons

they did 2 pretty good star wars games in a row with both user praise and critic praise alike, so if you never saw EA doing anything good you are blind by the hate
 

64bitmodels

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cmon EA still does good games, i dont like football games but fifa is the best football game out there you can ask everyone that likes to play football games, even tough i dont care one bit i can see the appeal.

also they got some good games out there
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
star wars Squadrons

they did 2 pretty good star wars games in a row with both user praise and critic praise alike, so if you never saw EA doing anything good you are blind by the hate
I havent played jedi fallen order or squadrons but looking at the latter it seems like its the same microtransaction fueled bs ea has made themselves known for
The people who are "blind by the hate" are actually the people that see the most clearly. Pessimistic people are usually the realists nowadays
 

pedro702

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I havent played jedi fallen order or squadrons but looking at the latter it seems like its the same microtransaction fueled bs ea has made themselves known for
The people who are "blind by the hate" are actually the people that see the most clearly. Pessimistic people are usually the realists nowadays
there is no microtransactions on any of those games...

this is just blind hate and not even wanting to know online, seriously now you just showed true blind hate for 2 games that dont have microtransactions at all...
 

64bitmodels

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there is no microtransactions on any of those games...

this is just blind hate and not even wanting to know online, seriously now you just showed true blind hate for 2 games that dont have microtransactions at all...
still wouldnt play them bcz they were made by EA so it was probably greedy in some other way that i dont know about
 

pedro702

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still wouldnt play them bcz they were made by EA so it was probably greedy in some other way that i dont know about
lol are you serious?

jedi fallen order is a great single player story game in third person, came out on regular retail price, there is a gold edition but just includes the ost and such not even has dlcs and whatnot so its just for star wars ost lovers.

squadrons is a 40$ new retail price game that came complete out of the box for 40$...

This is the most stupid answer i ever saw, im not going to play a game because its made by EA because it is greedy on some way?

even tough it has no microtransactions or any out of the ordinary pricing, no season passes and even has amazing reviews on every front...
 
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A Generic User

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still wouldnt play them bcz they were made by EA so it was probably greedy in some other way that i dont know about
Then just say "I don't like the greedy EA games so it turns me off from wanting to try anything from their library".... No need to say something as presumptuous and ignorant as that.....
 
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pedro702

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Then just say "I don't like the greedy EA games so it turns me off from wanting to try anything from their library".... No need to say something as presumptuous and ignorant as that.....
And he is also saying that about probably the best cost/quality content games that EA made in the last years



Seriously if EA continues to make games like this 2 game, complete on release no dlcs or microtransactions they get my money on said games, i buy games on a game by game basis, not on an developer base imo, if a game is good, doesn't abuse and go all huge season pass/microtransanctions and its my type of game, i will buy it, i dont care if its done by EA or rockstar or whatever imo.
 
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Robika

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Well Square Enix was my favourite developer/publisher I love final fantasy and everything they made in the 90s and early 2000s. My problem was that they put Tetsuya Nomura on the director's chair, when he is not a director. He is an awesome character designer. That is it. They put so much faith in his work that we got crap like Kingdom Hearts III and Final Fantasy XV(I know it was taken from him and Tabata finished it, but it is stil his fault it took 10 years). I don't buy any of their games day one. I used to have blind faith in their work. Games are messy, unfinished, and after 10 years of development they somehow feel rushed.
 
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WhiteMaze

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whats it take? be nintendo -__-. they are becoming a shitty company ethics wise. i loved nintendo, grew up with them and even as a pc gamer i always have a nintendo console but they are becoming more and more assholes. and its NOT like they are financially suffering to have to protect everything they own with a iron fist.

Everytime Nintendo is on top of the world, they become anti-consumer.

Nintendo has sales up the ass, has the most popular console by far, and is swimming in money. They are on top of the world right now.

Therefore they no longer care to hear your opinion, or be friendly to their costumers.

Its a disgrace but its true.
 

Bladexdsl

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what does it take? keep releasing dated hardware and completely ignore 3rd party, fill your shitty store with trashy indies no one gives a fuck about, make nothing but remakes and rehashes, release a game which is basically a rom, have garbage online, dmca the fuck out of everyone and don't give a rats ass about your fans!

can you guess WHO I am talkiing about?
 

nolimits59

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I honestly think the Cyberpunk 2077 drama with CD Projekt Red is a bit overblown
Someone said the same thing on Reddit, but i've kept a list of stuff i've noticed during my playtrought of Cyberpunk and typed most of stuff I saved or stuff I remembered, here is a short list after 15-18hours of play;

EDIT: I still like the game tho, but this is really "angering" to have such an amount of bugs and problems on a game like this.
  1. AZERTY is not supported natively (thanks to the modders that got this fixed day one !) and missing bindings for PC (open map, inventory, the "fast read message" or "fast mark location" when you receive a text button is missing and not even displaying too when it says "read message")

  2. People/cars disappearing the second you turn around

  3. "exploding" physic that toss stuff randomly or explode them when you touch it

  4. Objects that don't load fast enough and can get you stuff in it if you happen to be in it when it load

  5. randomly appearing personal vehicle even when doing missions in closed area (like basements)

  6. NPCs randomly clipping trough walls even when they where scripted for a specific thing

  7. Object hold by NPCs often disappear from their hands

  8. Unpickable objects (this is common af and is extremely annoying)

  9. Random acceleration when you sprint

  10. Random unavailable jump or double jump

  11. Tposing NPC right on my first 10min of play in the club

  12. I got stuck in random scaffolding even when you are supposed to climb them because there was an object on top of it

  13. floating objects (there is alot of it)

  14. blind enemies that just can't see you even when they're still in alert mode

  15. People attacking you for 0 reason

  16. Difficulty balance (getting 1 shot right at the start should happen like that...)

  17. Mantis blades superposing with your hands

  18. Mantis Blades appearing during script scene even when they shouldnt

  19. I once got my Mantis blades acting as my sniper rifle while I was on the blades, not the sniper

  20. Mantis Blades flickering

  21. Vehicle you drive can't move forward on certain areas (tires are like stutering and you move at 0.5km/h

  22. Lag with the steering when driving

  23. Driving is a pain in the ass with such a bad handling

  24. the vehicles you drives go drifting every turn you make and can get crazy if you steer back too fast (so everytime with a keyboard)

  25. The unability to craft multiple amount of the same thing (like I don't know... BULLETS or... MEDKITS ?????)

  26. Always the same cars

  27. The fact there is a delay of more than 1second by HOLDING A KEY, to CRAFT A SINGLE ITEM

  28. You can't see how many bullets you have when you craft bullets

  29. Bullets don't have a tab in the craft menu, YOU NEED TO SCROLL ALL THE WAY DOWN OBLIGATORY

  30. NPCs are pissed everytime you approach them

  31. No public transport when there is a metro doing turns around the districts (not really a problem I find this just stupid)

  32. You can't go to messages/shards/tarot when you entered the menu with the log/map/craft subcategory key, you have to exist the menu (then hover onto log if you pressed the log key) to gameplay and press the "inventory key" to hover log then go to any of it.

  33. You can't "unpin" a mission, you always have to have a mission pinned in yellow

  34. You can't unpin the white marker from a right clic on the map, you have to right-clic on it

  35. Missions from known persons from the main quest (like Panam or Judy) should be appart from mission given from random NPCs

  36. Entering crafting is making buggy visuals (missing pictures) and can also put V with the weapon in his/her hands (with position of the gun bugged of course)

  37. NPCs sometime not saying their lines on scripted areas

  38. Lightning can take time to load sometime on indoor areas, so it's dark for around 1-5sec sometime

  39. Not enough checkpoint sometime

  40. The time to switch weapon is crazy long

  41. I found some part of the maps missing collisions or even completely missing walls (I saw at least this 2 times during my play, and I've done very few side quest, mostly mainquests

  42. cops litterally spawn from thin air when you are wanted
 
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wolf-snake

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Never had faith in that studio. EA knows they're evil, but CDPR spend more time telling everyone how they were not the bad guys than actually developing the game they announced 8 years ago.
 

pedro702

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Everytime Nintendo is on top of the world, they become anti-consumer.

Nintendo has sales up the ass, has the most popular console by far, and is swimming in money. They are on top of the world right now.

Therefore they no longer care to hear your opinion, or be friendly to their costumers.

Its a disgrace but its true.
excuse me? Sony is the one with the most popular console by far... last gen and even this new gen nintendo hasnt been the popular one since the wii days... and before that it was the snes/nes days only.
 
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Daggot

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Someone said the same thing on Reddit, but i've kept a list of stuff i've noticed during my playtrought of Cyberpunk and typed most of stuff I saved or stuff I remembered, here is a short list after 15-18hours of play;

EDIT: I still like the game tho, but this is really "angering" to have such an amount of bugs and problems on a game like this.
  1. AZERTY is not supported natively (thanks to the modders that got this fixed day one !) and missing bindings for PC (open map, inventory, the "fast read message" or "fast mark location" when you receive a text button is missing and not even displaying too when it says "read message")

  2. People/cars disappearing the second you turn around

  3. "exploding" physic that toss stuff randomly or explode them when you touch it

  4. Objects that don't load fast enough and can get you stuff in it if you happen to be in it when it load

  5. randomly appearing personal vehicle even when doing missions in closed area (like basements)

  6. NPCs randomly clipping trough walls even when they where scripted for a specific thing

  7. Object hold by NPCs often disappear from their hands

  8. Unpickable objects (this is common af and is extremely annoying)

  9. Random acceleration when you sprint

  10. Random unavailable jump or double jump

  11. Tposing NPC right on my first 10min of play in the club

  12. I got stuck in random scaffolding even when you are supposed to climb them because there was an object on top of it

  13. floating objects (there is alot of it)

  14. blind enemies that just can't see you even when they're still in alert mode

  15. People attacking you for 0 reason

  16. Difficulty balance (getting 1 shot right at the start should happen like that...)

  17. Mantis blades superposing with your hands

  18. Mantis Blades appearing during script scene even when they shouldnt

  19. I once got my Mantis blades acting as my sniper rifle while I was on the blades, not the sniper

  20. Mantis Blades flickering

  21. Vehicle you drive can't move forward on certain areas (tires are like stutering and you move at 0.5km/h

  22. Lag with the steering when driving

  23. Driving is a pain in the ass with such a bad handling

  24. the vehicles you drives go drifting every turn you make and can get crazy if you steer back too fast (so everytime with a keyboard)

  25. The unability to craft multiple amount of the same thing (like I don't know... BULLETS or... MEDKITS ?????)

  26. Always the same cars

  27. The fact there is a delay of more than 1second by HOLDING A KEY, to CRAFT A SINGLE ITEM

  28. You can't see how many bullets you have when you craft bullets

  29. Bullets don't have a tab in the craft menu, YOU NEED TO SCROLL ALL THE WAY DOWN OBLIGATORY

  30. NPCs are pissed everytime you approach them

  31. No public transport when there is a metro doing turns around the districts (not really a problem I find this just stupid)

  32. You can't go to messages/shards/tarot when you entered the menu with the log/map/craft subcategory key, you have to exist the menu (then hover onto log if you pressed the log key) to gameplay and press the "inventory key" to hover log then go to any of it.

  33. You can't "unpin" a mission, you always have to have a mission pinned in yellow

  34. You can't unpin the white marker from a right clic on the map, you have to right-clic on it

  35. Missions from known persons from the main quest (like Panam or Judy) should be appart from mission given from random NPCs

  36. Entering crafting is making buggy visuals (missing pictures) and can also put V with the weapon in his/her hands (with position of the gun bugged of course)

  37. NPCs sometime not saying their lines on scripted areas

  38. Lightning can take time to load sometime on indoor areas, so it's dark for around 1-5sec sometime

  39. Not enough checkpoint sometime

  40. The time to switch weapon is crazy long

  41. I found some part of the maps missing collisions or even completely missing walls (I saw at least this 2 times during my play, and I've done very few side quest, mostly mainquests

  42. cops litterally spawn from thin air when you are wanted
I've been playing it as well and while I agree that it's not the game that was promised. I just think that the reaction to the games current state is a bit much compared to what we've seen before. I'm all for it if it sets a new precedence to how consumers react to buggy games but my opinion stands. I do think the game needed another year in dev time before release. btw I have something to add to your list. if you put too many crafting materials and items in your inventory(way way above encumbrance) and you save and your file ends up being above 8mb you'll permanently corrupt your save. Can't even make this shit up.

https://support.gog.com/hc/en-us/ar...-is-damaged-and-cannot-be-loaded-?product=gog
 

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