It’s fitting that 2020 would end with one of gaming’s most highly-anticipated titles of all time finally releasing only for everything to go horribly wrong.
Cyberpunk 2077‘s launch has been anything but pleasant for consumers or its developer CD Projekt Red, the latter of which was already dealing with backlash well before the game even came out due to some folks feeling that it features exploitation of trans bodies. Little did anyone know, though, that the social dilemma was just the beginning of the myriad of woes to come.
Most notably, CD Projekt Red made the poor decision to put a strict embargo on console versions of Cyberpunk 2077, only allowing reviewers access to PC copies of the game prior to release. It wasn’t until it launched on December 10th that the reasoning behind this was made abundantly clear, as we found out that the PS4 and Xbox One iterations are an absolute nightmare of game-breaking glitches, horrendous visuals and overall awful performance problems.
It’s fitting, then, that Sony quickly pulled it from their digital storefront and began offering full refunds to dissatisfied players. But things are ramping up even more now, as Rosen Law Firm has filed a class-action lawsuit against CD Projekt Red for misleading both customers and investors about the state of Cyberpunk 2077, especially in regards to the severely broken console versions.
According to the lawsuit, defendants throughout the Class Period made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Cyberpunk 2077 was virtually unplayable on the current-generation Xbox or Playstation systems due to an enormous number of bugs; (2) as a result, Sony would remove Cyberpunk 2077 from the Playstation store, and Sony, Microsoft and CD Projekt would be forced to offer full refunds for the game; (3) consequently, CD Projekt would suffer reputational and pecuniary harm; and (4) as a result, defendants’ statements about its business, operations, and prospects, were materially false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all relevant times. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.
The developer hasn’t responded to the lawsuit in any form, but either way you look at it, their reputation is likely to be permanently damaged from this immense amount of blowback. It’s yet to be seen what steps they’ll take in regards to trying to repair it, but it’s obvious that this holiday season is going to be remembered by gamers forever as a very fitting end to an excruciatingly rough year.
Cyberpunk 2077 is available now on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and you can hop over here to take a look at what our reviewer had to say about it.
