Cyberpunk 2077 (1 Viewer)

[jcroy]

CDPR will be just fine. Bethesda has been putting out bug riddled crap like this for a decade and is still going strong. I personally think anyone is insane in this day and age to buy a big AAA game day 1. It's standard operating procedure to rush it out the door incomplete with the intention to fix it in patches later. The days when a game is complete at release are long gone.

Ironically, Bethesda's parent company ZeniMax is being gobbled up by Microsoft. It will be final sometime next year, if there are no regulatory (ie. anti-trust) type issues.

Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax Media and its game publisher Bethesda Softworks - Stories

Iconic games portfolio, publishing expertise, and world-class talent accelerates growth in Microsoft’s Gaming business REDMOND, Wash. September 21, 2020 – More than three billion people on the planet play games for fun, escape, and human connection. Unlike any other medium, games empower people...

news.microsoft.com

Wonder if quality control will change, once Microsoft is entirely calling the shots.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Microsoft's quality control for their dev teams seems to be basically cancelling stuff and then closing the developer down.

 

[Bryan^H]

PSA: Cyberpunk 2077 Saves May Become Corrupt at 8MB (playstationlifestyle.net)

But on the other hand CDPR aren't losing any sleep over the launch of this game:

Cyberpunk 2077 reportedly sells 15 million copies, pre-orders included - Game World Observer

 

[jcroy]

Microsoft's quality control for their dev teams seems to be basically cancelling stuff and then closing the developer down.

Microsoft seems to only be interested in the intellectual property and/or brand names. Not much different than a movie studio or record company, where the primary assets of any value are the back catalog, trademarks, copyrights, patents, etc ... in a merger or sale of the company.

Everything else from the old company is largely expendable, especially if the talent/developers are not tied down by contracts.

 

[jcroy]

But on the other hand CDPR aren't losing any sleep over the launch of this game:

Cyberpunk 2077 reportedly sells 15 million copies, pre-orders included - Game World Observer

This information hasn't been confirmed independently.

The question is whether CDPR will do any huge writeoffs in their next public financial statement.

 

[Bryan^H]

This information hasn't been confirmed independently.

The question is whether CDPR will do any huge writeoffs in their next public financial statement.

It isn't accurate.
It only sold 13 million copies (after refunds).
Cyberpunk 2077 sold 13 million in first 10 days — even with refunds - Polygon

 

[Morgan Jolley]

I imagine that, like everything with pop culture, we're hearing most of the noise from the vocal minority. Yeah, people are upset with the game, but it says something that they still sold 13 million copies right away AFTER refunds. At an average of $60 per copy, that means they took in a few hundred million bucks (after licensing fees and all that; console games only produce something like $15-20 in revenue for the developer per sale, higher on digital platforms and PC). Financially, this was a huge deal for them.

From what I've seen in the past, a very successful or very bad game tend to affect the next release more than the current one. For example, Metal Gear Solid was a huge hit and MGS2 had a massive launch, but MGS2 was a bit of a disappointment because of the bait-and-switch from the E3 coverage so MGS3's release was more muted (even if MGS3 was fantastic). The Witcher 3 was a huge hit so Cyberpunk 2077 sold incredibly well, but the sour taste in people's mouths from this will affect whatever their next release is. Pick your own version of these events and you'll see it played out similarly.

Even if/when Cyberpunk's glitches are fixed and PS4/XBO performance is improved, this has tainted CDPR's reputation. Expect to see some big departures soon followed by some big hires to try and right the ship. Because that's what always happens.

 

[Bryan^H]

I think the overall theme is that highly anticipated triple A games simply do not fail financially. There may be a few odd, or rare exceptions, but overall they are big winners in the end, regardless of any issues.

That stuff I said about CDPR being possibly damaged because of the launch was just me spouting nonsense. Nothing stops the money train of triple A, nothing!

 

[jcroy]

From what I've seen in the past, a very successful or very bad game tend to affect the next release more than the current one. For example, Metal Gear Solid was a huge hit and MGS2 had a massive launch, but MGS2 was a bit of a disappointment because of the bait-and-switch from the E3 coverage so MGS3's release was more muted (even if MGS3 was fantastic). The Witcher 3 was a huge hit so Cyberpunk 2077 sold incredibly well, but the sour taste in people's mouths from this will affect whatever their next release is. Pick your own version of these events and you'll see it played out similarly.

This sounds like a videogame business equivalent of "sequelitis".

Sequelitis - TV Tropes

As the number of installments in a series grows, the probability that the latest entry will be terrible increases geometrically. While the first sequel of a work is something of a coin toss between "totally awesome" and "mediocre", the more they …

tvtropes.org

 

[Morgan Jolley]

It's more like a delayed reaction to quality based on hype.

Game will have X sales and Y review average with Z word of mouth.

Game Sequel will have A sales and B review average with C word of mouth.

If Game has a really high Y and Z, then Game Sequel will have higher sales A than Game sales X. If Y and Z are lower, then Game Sequel will have lower sales A. Unfortunately, the Game Sequel sales A is completely devoid of connection to review average B and word of mouth C, being almost entirely reliant on how people felt years ago from review average Y and word of mouth Z.

Game Sequel 2 will follow this pattern relative to Game Sequel.

 

[Dave Upton]

Looks like they have already made some serious strives towards fixing console issues with patch 1.05 and on. Video here:

 

[Jeff Cooper]

Figured this was an appropriate thread to post this.

 

[Sam Posten]

Cyberpunk 2077 patch 1.2 goes live, bringing hundreds of fixes

CD Projekt Red’s next major game update is, well, major

www.polygon.com

 

[Steve Y]

Update 2.0 for Cyberpunk 2077 was released today for PS5, Xbox Series S/X, and PC. It's a free update ahead of next week's release of the (decidedly not free) Phantom Liberty DLC.

I don't think this update will win over anyone still angry about the original launch, and the versions on Xbox One and PS4 will continue to be the (more) broken versions. Will any of you be trying this out? Or has CDPR betrayed your trust too irrevocably?

Patch notes for Cyberpunk 2077 - Update 2.0

 

[Alex...]

 

[Edwin-S]

They have sold 5 million copies of the Phantom Liberty DLC so far. Not sure if that is good or bad as far as DLC goes; although, to me, that wouldn't be a bad number considering the history of this title.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

The base game has 25M in sales and I think that 5M number is only the Steam/PC sales number. The DLC is also likely spurring some new base game sales (either through interest or bundles of the two combined).

The budget for all of Cyberpunk 2077 and the DLC, for development and promotion, was over $430M. That includes a LOT of money to fix all the bugs from the initial launch. They've definitely made that money back and the DLC will end up generating plenty of new revenue/profit for them.

 

[Edwin-S]

Wow, it is incredible that the game still crashes randomly even after 3 years of patches. It does look incredible when it is working and the story has been getting more involving.

 

[Edwin-S]

Man, I was having trouble against Oda. I was using a shot gun anf assault rifles against him. I had one long fight and still didn't manage to take him out. Finally, decided to use a Katana and a lot of med boosters and went toe to toe with the guy. The katana is the way to beat him in a relatively short time.

 

[Steve Y]

Man, I was having trouble against Oda.

Oda's tough. I went in as an edgerunner and pretty OP. Still had to rely on Cyberware Malfunction and Overheat to keep him from moving around and to better track his movements. Mostly stuck with ballistics, which slowly whittled down his health. Unfortunately, he went down on a high platform I was unable to reach, so if he had any special gear, I couldn't retrieve it.