CD Projekt Red admits Xbox One and PS4 Cyberpunk 2077 versions weren't ready

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Some comments on what to expect moving forward.

Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077 (Image credit: CD PROJEKT RED)

What you need to know

  • CD Projekt Red held an emergency investor call focused on Cyberpunk 2077.
  • During the call, CD Projekt Red business development SVP Michal Nowakowski explained that the focus hadn't been on the Xbox One or PS4 versions of the game.
  • Additionally, the company clarified that it does not have a special refund agreement with Microsoft or Sony.

Since the release of Cyberpunk 2077, the game has been mired in many technical issues like crashes or bugs, particularly for any players on the last-generation consoles, the Xbox One or PS4. CD Projekt Red held an emergency investor call today, giving some further insight into what exactly is going on.

CD Projekt Red business development SVP Michal Nowakowski explained that the company had mainly focused on how the game was running on PC, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PS5 versions.

"It is more about us looking – as was previously stated – at the PC and next-gen performance rather than current-gen," Nowakowski stated. "We definitely did not spend enough time looking at that. I wouldn't say that we felt any external or internal pressure to launch on the date – other than the normal pressure, which is typical for any release. So that was not the cause."

Marcin Iwiński, CEO and co-founder of CD Projekt Red, further explained that the team did not show footage from the last-generation consoles because they were working on those versions of the game until launch. "Unfortunately this resulted in giving it to reviewers just one day before the release, which was definitely too late and the media didn't get the chance to review it properly. That was not intended; we were just fixing the game until the very last moment."

Additionally, despite apologizing for the performance of the game on these lower-end consoles and promising refunds, CD Projekt Red clarified that there is no special refund policy negotiated with Microsoft or Sony, meaning players will have to go through standard processes.

"Our procedure here with Microsoft and Sony is not different than with any other title released on any of those storefronts," Nowakowski explains.

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Samuel Tolbert
Samuel Tolbert

Samuel Tolbert is a freelance writer covering gaming news, previews, reviews, interviews and different aspects of the gaming industry, specifically focusing on Xbox and PC gaming on Windows Central. You can find him on Twitter @SamuelTolbert.
3 Comments
  • Amazing since the game was elbow deep in development by the time PS5 and Series X were announced.
    You can't tell me that they didn't have Xbox one or PS4 dev kit there and no one thought, ahh maybe we should tweet the settings a little before release or hold back on last gen releases until we can make it work. Fact is, they went heavy on being a heavy hitting PC title to be the benchmark for gamers for the next few years. The new current gen PS5 and Series X got caught up and last gen got left behind in the excitement. Maybe they were banking on there being enough PS5 and Series X consoles to go around, because lets face it, the original release date wouldn't have had the 'next gen' consoles to run it on anyway. It all smells fishy, and back tracking and making excuses for their failures is just helping them dig a hole. God help them, the gaming community needs to get their teeth into something and rip apart, and they may just be the escape goat they need. I'm not bothered with Cyberpunk myself, but sitting from the side line of it all and it's not pretty.
  • Which would be pretty stupid considering it is one of the few good independant studio that has always been customer oriented... And have a great track record.... the gamers community is starting to get effing annoying like damn entitled teenagers... Ambitious rpg's have always been plagued with bugs at launch... Morrowind was no exception, fallout etc... It's not a good thing for sure but nothing new and nothing that can't be fixed in time... If you think it should have waited to be launched... Then effing wait till it's fixed same difference... If you wanted it now then deal with the bugs... It's not like it's the game that sucks or the dev that are crooks... The game is awesome but needs to be touched up to be perfect....
  • @Simon Johnny I think they did fudge up somewhere. My hunch is that they are using the same code base and textures across the board to save time. Also they most likely did not keep the ps4 and xbox one versions (bar the latest gen) up-to-date with latest changes. As that takes time and resources away from the next gen consoles. Also, the game will have been substantially reworked to incorporate RTX thus becoming an Nvidia title (They will have needed additional funding to continue working on the game for this long). It doesn't include DXR at all at present. DXR is what is supported on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S at hardware level as they run AMD SoCs and GPUs. But it still is first gen and not to mention AMD is still working on Fidelity FX. This is to compete with Nvidia's DLSS. Given Nvidia is on the second generation of RTX and DLSS. This was bound to happen as the first gen was woeful. Since no DXR or Fidelity FX at launch, the only thing left is rasterisation and for that you need a very beefy GPU. Therefore by running the same code base and textures it will literally smother the PS4 and Xbox One due to low end jaguar soc. The only exception is the Xbox Series X. Also, the launch versions contain DRM. It's widely documented DRM doesn't do much than degrade performance. Since the all consoles are x86/x64 is not a stretch to imagine the same code base being pushed.