CD PROJEKT RED announced via Twitter today that the highly anticipated game Cyberpunk 2077 would not be meeting its original launch in April, and would be delayed by 5 months. The new release date is September 17.
The studio, known for The Witcher series, detailed in the tweet that the game is “complete and playable, but there’s still work to be done.” They added that the size and scope of the game gives them reason to do more quality control work like testing, bug fixes, and polish.
Cyberpunk 2077 And The Era of Game Delays
The Keanu Reeves vehicle is arguably the most anticipated game of 2020, and this announcement is likely to draw out frustration from many fans. However, in the current video game industry climate, most are supporting the decision. CD PROJEKT RED is not the first studio in recent months to push back a deadline of an extremely popular game, following Nintendo’s decision to delay Animal Crossing from September of 2019 to March of 2020, and Naughty Dog’s 4 month delay of The Last of Us 2 – now planned for May 29th.
The past decade has seen multiple large studios release unfinished, sometimes unplayable, games with justifiably negative reactions from players. The past two years alone have given us Fallout 76 and WWE 2K20, which have both drawn extensive criticism for being broken (especially in the case of WWE 2K20, which actually had a bug that prevented the game from being playable in 2K20), and not ready for players at release. Large titles also bring up horror stories of extremely long working days for developers, sometimes lasting for months, in a crunch to meet release deadlines.
While disappointing to some, many see delays like this to be the game studio’s way of responding to industry criticism, and appreciate that the studio wants to allow their employees less stress, and create an overall better experience for the end result.
The Illuminerdi will keep an eye on Cyberpunk 2077, as CD PROJEKT RED promises more regular updates on progress as the year goes on.
