Often described as the game of the decade, Cyberpunk 2077 was first announced by Polish developers, CD Projekt in May 2012 and the first official release date was set for 16th April 2020. But this being the cursed year 2020, the game was pushed back to 17th September, apparently because of the massive scale of the game. During the pandemic summer of love, the game was pushed back yet again, to 19th November, which at the time seemed a pretty rock solid date for fans to mark on their calendars. In fact, the game has been on pre-order for over a year with many a gamer literally counting the days until the November release date. Not to mention the October announcement that the game had ‘gone Gold‘, which further whetted the appetite.
But shock, horror, last week the date was pushed back yet again to December 10th, with CD Projekt citing the zero-day patch, thus cementing the old mantra ‘It will be ready when it’s done…’
Cyberpunk 2077 is an open-world, action-adventure role-playing video game set in the dystopian metropolis of Night City in the Free State of Northern California.
Following an economic collapse sometime during the early 21st century, the United States is forced to rely on large corporations to survive. These corporations deal in a wide range of areas, such as weapons, robotics, cybernetics, pharmaceuticals, communications and biotechnology, and many of these companies operate above the law.
(Ed note: The following video clip contains language that might be offensive to some viewers.)
As a result of this new and unexpected delay, other developers have reacted by pushing back games slated for release around the same date in order to avoid the Cyberpunk Effect. In other words, so that their own game releases don’t get drowned out by all the noise. I’m usually a little sceptical about games surrounded by massive amounts of hype, which can very often end up in tears of disappointment, with glitches and all sorts of other issues. One only has to hope that CD Projekt Red with its over 500 employees working around the clock on a crunch schedule can make good on all the anticipation and deliver an FPS/RPG blockbuster. Any more delays would simply not be acceptable to the millions of fans, especially those who have forked out over $50 in advance pre-orders. For my part, I’ll be awaiting reactions and reviews before putting my hand in my pocket. Not because I’m a miserable old git, but let’s face it, we’ve seen it all before.
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When it comes to games and pre-orders it’s a tricky one. People who have paid and been excited will get disappointed but I’ve also seen many games rushed to meet deadlines and released unfinished, buggy, as if they where a beta etc.
I think I’d rather a game was released as close to finished as possible and while annoying if a stable experience means a delay then it’s probably worth it. Bugs will turn up once its fully released but the closest to stable, the better.
No Man’s Sky suffered badly originally as it didn’t do much of what the developers had promised. The developers have earned praise since for its many free updates that added the missing features and much more but I know people who sold the game originally and haven’t played since.
The people behind this game have a good reputation. For example they own GOG games which is very respected for its many DRM free games
Forgot to add i wonder if developers and even filmmaker should add generic dates rather than specific set dates e.g. approx Nov so if a delay happens close to release it was never set in stone technically