Cyberpunk 2077: Launch failure revealed

A CD Projekt Red insider was able to explain the debacle surrounding the launch of Cyberpunk 2077. The Gamestar editorial team had the opportunity to speak with him during Gamescom 2023.

CD Projekt Red’s level designer, Miles Toast, explained that several factors contributed to the turbulent launch. One of them was developing the game for nine different platforms. This resulted in errors appearing only on certain platforms, but not all. This situation caused additional delays.

Each delay meant higher costs for publicly traded CD Projekt Red. The team had to constantly think: should they accept a postponement or accept lower sales numbers due to errors? In retrospect, it would have been a mistake to immediately announce a new release date after each postponement.

Toast admitted that the development team was very disappointed by the negative feedback on launch day. I felt let down by management. But they learned from their mistakes and developed an anti-crisis mentality.

The new mod now takes advantage of Cyberpunk’s Phantom Liberty expansion, which the team has been working on for nearly three years. Smaller teams now work on smaller parts of the game and have a lot more freedom to do so. Team leaders make sure everything fits together in the end.