Cyberpunk 2077 Developer Says the Game's Rough Launch Was A "Huge Lesson"

Those in charge at CD Projekt have continued to express remorse for the way in which Cyberpunk 2077 released at the end of 2020. Although the game sold incredibly well -- it shipped more than 13 million copies in less than a month -- the state of the latest RPG from the famed Polish studio was less than stellar. As such, those in charge at CD Projekt say they're making sure to learn from the entire experience.

During a call with investors going over financial data from 2020, those in charge of CD Projekt continued to stress that things didn't go according to plan when Cyberpunk 2077 released. "We managed to introduce a new IP to the market and to the minds of gamers around the globe," one of the bosses in charge of the studio expressed. "Now with The Witcher franchise, we have two strong pillars on which to build the future of CD Projekt. But of course, as well know not everything went as planned. It has been a huge lesson for us that we shall never forget."

Speaking more specifically to how it plans to fix the situation that caused Cyberpunk 2077 to launch in such a dismal state in the first place, the CD Projekt heads said that they've been looking inward quite a bit. "We are, as we've been stressing a lot, we're going through a lot of changes inside the company and we believe we've taken a lot of lessons from everything that's happened so far," one of the bosses explained. Further details on what these changes within the company might look like, however, weren't really given.

Considering how well Cyberpunk 2077 sold, the game's poor reception at launch was one that more directly impacted CD Projekt Red's goodwill with fans than anything else. Prior to the release of the game, CDPR was perhaps one of the more beloved developers in the entire industry, largely due to how greatly it succeeded with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. For the studio to burn that goodwill so quickly is something that I imagine many fans won't forget. Moving forward, CDPR will definitely have to win its trust back from fans, even if its future projects continue to look as impressive as Cyberpunk 2077 did before it released.

If you still haven't played Cyberpunk 2077 for yourself, the game is playable now on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PC, and Google Stadia. Formal next-gen upgrades for the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions are still planned to release later in 2021.

[H/T IGN]