Cyberpunk 2077 wasn’t as bad as it seemed at launch, but it was “cool” to hate, CDPR says

rockpapershotgun.com:

Cyberpunk 2077 was better than reviewers gave it credit for when it first released, but it struggled to overcome a “a critical mass of negativity”, the VP of PR and communications for studio CD Projekt Red has said.

In a far-reaching interview with Gamesindustry.biz, Michał Platkow-Gilewski admitted that Cyberpunk 2077’s “road was bumpy” between its first pre-release previews - including that now-iconic appearance from Keanu at E3 - and eventual launch in December 2020, facing “big pressure” as the result of the hype surrounding The Witcher 3 dev’s long-awaited next project.

As you may remember, 2077 faced multiple delays - amidst reports of heavy crunch despite CDPR promising it wouldn’t happen - before eventually launching to widespread complaints of bugs ranging from poor performance, corrupted saves and camera problems to silly things like vanishing penises and much more serious issues like epilepsy triggers. Even so, it still managed to sell like neon hotcakes, setting a new record on Steam. (But not on PlayStation, where it was temporarily pulled from sale and offered for refund as the result of its messy state.)

While Platkow-Gilewski didn’t shy away from admitting that Cyberpunk had its problems - calling the launch “a tough moment for everyone” and saying “We knew that we had to work hard to come back” - he did push back on the idea that 2077 was as bad as pretty much everyone said it was. Instead, part of the problem was more that it became “cool” to hate on the buggy, broken game around its release.

“I actually believe Cyberpunk on launch was way better than it was received, and even the first reviews were positive," he said. “Then it became a cool thing not to like it. We went from hero to zero