Cyberpunk 2077 gets delayed yet again

Cyberpunk 2077 has been delayed yet again. This time, CD Projekt Red has pushed the hotly anticipated release back another few weeks to December 10th.

This is the third time this year the game has been delayed. While the Communist Orchestrated Viral Infection Disaster has been blamed for a lot of these issues, it’s important to point out that Cyberpunk has been in active development for over eight years now. The very first trailer was put out way back in May of 2012, at a time when the PS3 and Xbox 360 were still top dogs of the console market.

While AAA game development has grown more complex over the last decade, eight years is still a considerably long development cycle. It’s rare that a game will go an entire hardware generation between announcement and release. Which tells me that Cyberpunk may have already been suffering from feature creep, among other things, before the CCPVirus threw a monkey wrench into the works.

While one does have to circle back to that classic Miyamoto quote about rushing versus delays, one really does have to wonder why CD Projekt is struggling so much to get this game out. The latest delay stems from optimization issues with current gen hardware. Remembering that the game was originally being developed for current gen hardware, with next gen PS5 and Xbox Series support only being fairly recent announcements.

It seems to me that they’re spreading themselves way too thin. A lot of their focus has gone into making it a next gen launch title. Yet the problem is that very few people will even have access to next gen hardware due to supply problems, so all that effort has been for naught. While Rockstar gets a lot of heat for double dipping by releasing the same games across multiple console generations, there certainly is an advantage to focusing on one set of hardware at a time. Releases can always be staggered. Key platforms, current gen and PC, should have been the main focus. Especially since next gen consoles can play current gen games. All they would need to do is push out an upgrade patch somewhere down the line. Which is what a lot of other studios are doing.

Fans who are eager to play Cyberpunk are understandably upset at the news. Especially since the game had reportedly “Gone Gold” at the start of October. Many took to social media, with some of the crazier elements issuing death threats to the developers. Which… no. You’re a pile of human garbage if you do that.

This whole kerfuffle does give us yet another painful reminder to not pre-order. Even from a so called trusted developer. You’re really just setting yourself up for letdowns. It also shows us the mistakes we make when we get sucked in by the hype machine.

Hype is a big marketing weapon in the publisher’s arsenal. However, stirring fans up into a mad frenzy for a product can easily backfire in situations like this. Get fans angry enough, and they start cancelling those precious pre-orders. Ultimately souring trust in the brand. We saw this way back when No Man’s Sky came out a couple years ago. Even though the game has been largely fixed, Sean Murry and company have yet to recover their reputations over that debacle. CD Projekt is at risk of the same. If their recent stock performance is anything to go by, it seems investors are fed up with their BS too.

Right now, it looks doubtful whether Cyberpunk will actually release in 2020. Adding yet another trash bag to the dumpster fire this year has been.