Last week, CD Projekt Red launched their latest title — Cyberpunk 2077 — to a great level of critical acclaim. However, the highly-anticipated title was plagued with game-breaking bugs, glitches, and crashes across current and last-gen consoles. The game was particularly unplayable on PS4 and Xbox One consoles, with IGN giving the title a 9/10 in their main current-gen review yet dropping to an abysmal 4/10 in their last-gen review.
In response to the widespread issues, CD Projekt Red was forced to issue an apology for the mass of glitches and the lack of transparency regarding how the title performed on the older consoles. While the developer asked for users to “give us a chance” as they work to resolve the issues, they did offer refunds to those who would like them, regardless of whether it was a physical or digital purchase. The developer also promised that Microsoft and Sony would carry out refunds on their respective digital stores.
Despite this promise, Sony has largely been declining refund requests, stating: "if you have started to download or stream purchased content, you will not be eligible for a refund unless the content is faulty." This has forced CD Projekt Red to comment on the mixed messages being issued...
NEWS
A CD Projekt Red conference call reported by GameInformer has revealed that, despite the promise of refunds issued by the developer, this was seemingly done prematurely as Sony or Microsoft had at no point been consulted on the matter prior to the announcement. Further comments from the developer have offered further details on the situation, seemingly confirming that the decision of whether a refund is issued will largely be up to the various storefronts.
One has to understand: Microsoft and Sony have refund policies for every product that is released digitally on their storefronts. Despite several articles I’ve seen that things are being set up just for us, it’s actually not true – these policies are in place and have always been in place; they’re not offered specifically for us. Anyone who has purchased any title on the PlayStation network or the Microsoft storefront can ask for a refund, and if it’s made within certain boundaries, usually related to time, usage and so on, can ask for that refund. Our procedure here with Microsoft and Sony is not different than with any other title released on any of those storefronts. I want to state that clearly, as there seem to be certain misconceptions. In terms of financial participation, when our product is refunded, the share from the store that Microsoft took is refunded, and of course it’s something that is subtracted from the share of revenues that would normally be transmitted to CD PROJEKT. It’s, of course, not shared with us and is instead refunded to the given player – the given customer. I think that pretty much sums up the first one.
WHAT THIS MEANS
As a whole, the launch of Cyberpunk has proved to be a massive disappointment, as the title has faced multiple delays throughout the years of anticipation for the teams first title since The Witcher 3. While the critical reception has largely been amazing, the performance of the title across all platforms, along with the huge number of glitches, is simply unacceptable for a game of this caliber.
Obviously, CD Projekt Red are aware of the issues and are working to improve the situation. However, it's been all but confirmed that the game's performance will never reach anywhere near where it is on next-gen. The team will continue to work on fixes over the coming months before launching the first major content DLC release in 2021 along with a full next-gen upgrade which is sure to further improve performance on those platforms.
Those looking to request a refund will only be able to do so until December 21, at which point the email address ([email protected]) for refund requests will be closed, leaving users who happen to miss the deadline in a difficult position of simply waiting until fixes arrive.
Cyberpunk 2077 is available now on PS4, Xbox One (but I would strongly advise against purchase on either of those), PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.