Not that it’ll come as any surprise, considering the state in which Cyberpunk 2077 launched, but new insight into the ambitious RPG’s development has revealed just how poorly-handled and mismanaged the title truly was.
A massive report published by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier containing statements from former and current CD Projekt RED employees paints a picture proven to have become all too familiar in the realm of AAA game development. Miscommunication, pressure from upper management, unrealistic deadlines and a dangerous lack of foresight: all of these undesirable ingredients would ultimately end up being baked into Night City, to the extent that even getting the fictional metropolis to function on a respectable level was nothing short of a minor miracle in itself.
According to comments from one staff member, the creation process was hampered by a lack of vision or direction, likening progress to “trying to drive a train while the tracks are being laid in front of you at the same time.” In fact, when CDPR announced that its first major release following the critically acclaimed Witcher 3 would be arriving on April 16th, 2020, one person said they “thought the date was a joke” due to its clearly unfinished nature.
Likewise, some individuals, speaking anonymously for obvious reasons, claim that a gameplay demo shown back in 2018 – one which would later be used by fans to document obvious instances of cut content – was “almost entirely fake,” and a far cry from reality. “CD Projekt hadn’t yet finalized and coded the underlying gameplay systems, which is why so many features, such as car ambushes, were missing from the final product,” Schreier notes, adding: “Developers said they felt like the demo was a waste of months that should have gone toward making the game.”
A damning exposé if ever we’ve seen one, then, and it’ll be interesting to see how CDPR responds, if at all. Numerous patches have no doubt helped to hammer Cyberpunk 2077 into a more respectable shape since December, of course, but there’s still plenty of work to be done. Watch this space for further developments.
