CD Projekt apologizes again for Cyberpunk 2077 on consoles

CD Projekt co-founder Marcin Iwiński has released a video apologizing for the state of Cyberpunk 2077 on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, and providing an updated schedule for fixes, downloadable content, and the launch of next-gen upgrades for the game on Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5.

"[D]espite good reviews on PC, the console version of Cyberpunk 2077 did not meet the quality standard we wanted to meet," Iwiński said. "I, and the entire leadership team, are deeply sorry for this, and this video is me publicly owning up to that."

Iwiński said that the team was building the game to run on high-end PCs, and planned to adjust it downward to run on older consoles later in the development process, a task they underestimated.

"Every change and improvement needed to be tested, and as it turned out, our testing did not show a big part of the issues you experienced while playing the game," Iwiński said. "As we got closer to the final release, we saw significant improvements each and every day, and we really believed we'd deliver in the final day zero update."

Iwiński also addressed the games's review situation, where the company sent copies of the game on PC to reviewers in early December, but waited until two days before release to provide them with copies of the console version of the game.

"We were fighting for quality on old-gen until the very last moment, and every extra day of us working on the day zero update brought visible improvement," Iwiński said. "This is why we started sending console review keys on the 8th of December, which was later than originally planned.

"This all happened while working from home with all the challenges resulting from the COVID-related restrictions. A lot of the dynamics we normally take for granted got lost over video calls or email, and we took that hit too."

He did not explain why the company's non-disclosure agreement for reviews included a stipulation that they could not use their own video footage of the game and had to rely on the developer's B-roll visuals instead, or why CD Projekt joint-CEO Adam Kaciński told investors just two weeks before launch that the game was running "surprisingly well" on the older consoles.

As for what happens from here, Iwiński said the company was delaying the release of two DLC packs originally intended to follow on quickly from launch; those will now release after CD Projekt makes two significant updates to the game, the first in 10 days and the second one "in the following weeks."

Additionally, Iwiński narrowed the release window for Cyberpunk 2077's next-gen upgrades, which the studio hopes to launch in the back half of this year.

"Our big plans for supporting Cyberpunk in the long term did not change," Iwiński said.