The head of the studio of the developer Cyberpunk 2077 CD Projekt Red disputed the claims that an E3 demonstration for the game was forged.
Adam Badowski posted a perspective on the realization of the game via Twitter following an in-depth report by Bloomberg which, among other things, claimed that the E3 2018 demo is “almost entirely false”, according to anonymous members of the development team.
Site sources claimed that basic gaming systems were not coded or even finalized until Cyberpunk 2077 was shown behind closed doors to the press and other industry professionals in June 2018, which is why it included missing features in the game. final.
The developers said it was a “loss of months that should have gone towards making the game”.
Badowski posted a statement on Twitter addressing three statements in the article, starting with the accusation that the demonstrations were falsified.
“It’s hard for a game show at a trade show not to be a vision test or a vertical section two years before the game launches, but that doesn’t mean it’s false,” he said.
“The games are not made in a linear way and start to look like the final product only a few months before the launch. If you look at this demonstration now, it’s different, yes, but that’s what the “work in progress” watermark is for. Our end game looks and plays much better than what the show ever was. “
He adds that the “missing” features are “part of the creation process”, some giving up depending on their proper functioning as part of the final product.
Badowski also disputed that the launch of Cyberpunk 2077 was “disastrous”, as the article suggests, indicating the critical appreciation it gained on the PC.
“As for the older generation consoles, yes, this is another case, but we have owned so far and we work hard to eliminate errors (and on the PC – we know that this is not a perfect version either) and we are proud of Cyberpunk 2077 as a game and artistic vision. “
Bloomberg notes that CD Projekt Red declined to comment or participate in this feature prior to publication.
Cyberpunk 2077 did launch critical complaints, but soon faced an adverse reaction after reports that console versions were so affected by technical issues that it was said to be unplayable.
Complaints about the game have led Sony to remove the game from the PlayStation Store and Microsoft to offer full refunds. The studio is also facing a process of collective action to distort the state of the investors’ game.
CD Projekt Red has repeatedly said it is working on solutions, with two big patches set to take place in the next few months, and co-founder Marcin Iwiński issued another video apology last week.
In the video, Iwiński claims that the testing did not show major problems during development. Bloomberg reports that major errors are still being discovered when Cyberpunk turned gold in October.
Apparently, engineers warned management that the game was too complex for Xbox One and PS4, due in part to visions of a busy SF metropolis. But these warnings were rejected, with management indicating what was done with Witcher 3 on Microsoft and Sony devices.
The pandemic also played a role in the misfortunes of the console edition; with the development team working remotely and testing the game on their home computers, they couldn’t access the development kits for the office consoles and were able to fully evaluate how it worked on the Xbox and PlayStation.
Bloomberg’s article – built from interviews with more than 20 current and former CD Projekt employees – claims that there are many signs that the game will struggle to meet a 2020 version.
Sources said that development did not start seriously until the end of 2016 – despite the announcement of the game in 2012 – when CDP “essentially hit the reset button” and began to change many fundamental parts of the project.
When the company announced the launch date on April 16, 2020 during E3 2019, some team members thought this was too ambitious, given the progress made in the game at the time. 2022 was considered more likely.
However, in his statement, Badowski claims that the feelings of more than 20 sources in this regard do not indicate the full team of more than 500 people.
There were also stories about language barriers, with CD Projekt requiring all meetings to be held in English after the Polish studio hired several ex-pats from the US and Western Europe.
Bloomberg claims that this has not been constantly pursued, but Badowski disputes this again, adding that with 44 nationalities in the studio, there will be situations where people speak to each other in their mother tongue when there is no someone else around.
“Everyone here speaks English during the meetings, every email and announcement at the company level is in English – everything is mandatory,” he wrote. “The general rule is to switch to English when there is a person who does not speak a particular language in a random conversation.”
The author of the report, Jason Schreier, remarked on Twitter that Badowski does not directly address statements about an unrealistic chronology or a “brutal crisis” in his statement.
In the article, former audio programmer Adrian Jakubiak claimed that he has seizures of up to 13 hours a day, five days a week.
There have been several reports of a crisis on Cyberpunk 2077. Joint CEO Adam Kiciński confirmed in January 2020 that staff members were already forced to work overtime “to some extent”.
Then, in September, it was reported that the studio was making overtime mandatory – despite previous claims for a “non-binding crisis policy” – to prepare the game for its November launch. The game fell another three weeks until December 10.
Cyberpunk 2077 was postponed three times last year, but Bloomberg sources say management said delays were not an option until 2020. Despite the seemingly unrealistic timeline, the studio was eager to launch before the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 be released or even announced so it could be “doubled” with next-generation versions at a later date.
CD Projekt shares fell 30% in December due in part to the backlash, but Bloomberg reported a 6% rise after Iwiński’s apology.
Despite the controversy, Cyberpunk 2077 sold over 13 million copies worldwide in the first ten days