Cyberpunk 2077 - CD Projekt apologizes

Henriquejr spotted this CD Projekt statement:

Cyberpunk 2077 -- Our Commitment to Quality

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Dear gamers,
here's CD PROJEKT's co-founder's personal explanation of what the days leading up to the launch of Cyberpunk 2077 looked like, sharing the studio's perspective on what happened with the game on old-generation consoles.

For more details about the progress being made on Cyberpunk 2077's further development, including information about updates and improvements, free DLCs, and more, please visit cyberpunk.net/ourcommitment

More information.

Re-post from my other thread.

Sigh…just makes you wonder how long we have to wait for the expansions, or if they will even bother at this point. Probably the worst launched and mismanaged game in years.

Reposted from the Youtube comments:

Thing is, I didn't even have the depth of technical issues that a lot of people had (on my Xbox One X) and the game is still very disappointing in ways that extra development time would have done nothing to change. Yes, it was a glitchy, buggy mess, and of course not being such would have improved it. But my main issue is that the quality of dialogue and voice acting, and the depth of quests, was not up to snuff, and that's bewildering. The Witcher 3 (and 2) had some of the finest dialogue in games, and voice acting to match. It was unrelentingly average in Cyberpunk 2077. And it wasn't just a failure of talent. Their choice to fill many of the major roles in the game with sub standard actors and celebrity cameos tells me that quality in this area wasn't even a priority for CDPR. There were also a noticeable absence of complex quests in this game, with the choices they touted so often before release.

I still enjoyed the game and I still hope for better things ahead. But even setting aside the technical issues and messy launch, CDPR's reputation took a major hit in my eyes. I hope they get back to what actually made their games great. Maybe they somehow don't even know what that was.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Re-post from my other thread.

Sigh…just makes you wonder how long we have to wait for the expansions, or if they will even bother at this point.

I hope they still do bother to launch any and all DLCs they've initially planned to. Well, I can make an exception here to the "multiplayer DLC" since I won't even care touching it. In an universe where multiplayer games fight each other toe to toe, I can't really see the release of such DLC bringing them boatloads of money, specially after such a disastrous launch.
To simply cut the release of future meaty single-player content would IMHO sound like an "admission of failure", and worst, that could indicate they'll kill this incipient franchise, or at the very least, that they'll put it on a freezer for quite some time.
I still hope they will keep fixing and improving the game.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Probably the worst launched and mismanaged game in years.

I agree with you here! At least in the AAA field in the recent years, I fail to see another title so mismanaged like this.

Originally Posted by henriquejr
I hope they still do bother to launch any and all DLCs they've initially planned to. Well, I can make an exception here to the "multiplayer DLC" since I won't even care touching it. In an universe where multiplayer games fight each other toe to toe, I can't really see the release of such DLC bringing them boatloads of money, specially after such a disastrous launch.


To simply cut the release of future meaty single-player content would IMHO sound like an "admission of failure", and worst, that could indicate they'll kill this incipient franchise, or at the very least, that they'll put it on a freezer for quite some time.
I still hope they will keep fixing and improving the game.
.

Yeah I'm not to keen on the online version either, but it looks like it's not a priority right now. I'm just worried the extra development time needed now will affect the expansions.

Simply put what if the newer console versions don't sell well?

Dialog and voice-overs are far from average imo. The main quest and the companion quests are also pretty good. The environment is great, too.

Although, you can see that many systems are not fully developed and the gigs and side-jobs are mostly the same, though still fun as in how to approach them. The Witcher did better in that regard. One has to wonder a bit what they did in 8 years dev time.

I am nearing 150 h right now and still have a lot of fun with the game. But it is not the second coming of Christ, sadly.

What I find disappointing is that they need a year to patch their game. You could suggest that there is no point in playing games upon release these days but how am I to avoid spoilers for an entire year? They did not tell this to us when they released the game. Other companies manage to patch their games within months from release. This game was obviously released too early or on too many platforms at the same time. Instead of apologizing, the CDPR board should seriously learn from this: add at least a year to every time estimate you make and have better communication with your communications department. Hype is worth nothing if you can't keep your word. If it's about money, make a Kickstarter where we can buy the game before it is ready. Preorder is the same as buying on the launch day.

That said, for me, the game has not been a disappointment. I love every moment of it. Only the bugs are a disappointment. Please make the DLCs, MMOs, and sequels.

Sorry but with eight years of development already saying it needed more time for development is a flawed fallacy. You should be focusing on the mis-management.

Todd Howard is 100% correct about Starfield.

It's going to be a while until we see Starfield, the release can be subject to delays etc. so he really doesn't feel comfortable talking about it yet.

• He doesn't want to reveal Starfield earlier and just release teasers until the eventual release like Cyberpunk.

To much hype can destroy a game.

Originally Posted by Darkheart
Dialog and voice-overs are far from average imo.

Couldn't disagree more. I played with the male voice and he was average at best. Poor line readings throughout. The second most important character is played by Keanu Reeves, who is a terrible actor and does a predictably poor job. Another major character, Panam, is a good character but the voice actress is completely unconvincing whenever she's trying to express excitement, anger, fear, etc. Lizzy Wizzy (in a boring, simplistic quest) is played by Grimes, a non actress. It shows. Another character is played by a Twitch streamer. And on and on. The random conversations you overhear often have better voice acting than the major quests.

@Couchpotato, that or then AAA games are too complicated for the companies to manage to develop them within a reasonable time-frame. Also, can't avoid thinking that both the management and tools could be improved.

Originally Posted by JFarrell71
Couldn't disagree more. I played with the male voice and he was average at best.

Maybe the development takes forever because of things like this While the voice-acting was not Oscar-level, you got to admit that it wasn't that bad once the irregularities in volume level etc. have been fixed. Perhaps people expect too much from games these days. Games are still just games, not BD yet

Originally Posted by largh
@Couchpotato, that or then AAA games are too complicated for the companies to manage to develop them within a reasonable time-frame. Also, can't avoid thinking that both the management and tools could be improved.

True that. Part of the problem was they didn't have a publisher this time. They tried to do everything themselves, and needed an outside party to give them a kick the behind.

At least from the sounds of things they learned a few hard lessons for future games.

Originally Posted by largh
Maybe the development takes forever because of things like this While the voice-acting was not Oscar-level, you got to admit that it wasn't that bad once the irregularities in volume level etc. have been fixed. Perhaps people expect too much from games these days. Games are still just games, not BD yet

True again it seems most of the budget went towards voice overs & music. While I didn't like V's voice actor you cant deny the music was fantastic. It was all original scores.

Still I eagerly await a day we have something similar to B's.

Originally Posted by largh
Maybe the development takes forever because of things like this While the voice-acting was not Oscar-level, you got to admit that it wasn't that bad once the irregularities in volume level etc. have been fixed. Perhaps people expect too much from games these days. Games are still just games, not BD yet

I don't have to admit that at all. I play a shit ton of games with voice acting, and this game doesn't compare well to a whole lot of them.

I don't know why people are even bothering to defend thm on this. A lot of the casting was pure vanity. You don't cast Keanu Reeves as the character with the second most lines because you think he's a good actor. He's not and never has been. You don't cast a bunch of non actors (not just Grimes but Kravitz and others) because you think those are the best actors you can get for those roles.

They apparently thought the name recognition was more important than talent. Based on your reaction, maybe they were right for some. But for me, I would much rather have had good actors I've never heard of. I couldn't name a single voice actor who worked on the Witcher 3 and that game had fantastic acting across the board.

@JFarrell71, I do agree with you that some of the voice acting felt out of place, but do not agree on being that critical. Keanu Reeves, for example, did a good job as Silverhand in some places. Perhaps we come from different backgrounds. My experience with AAA games is not that extensive and I get positively surprised if the characters talk at all - I am used to read text

Perhaps one problem is that the actors do not see the scene they are supposed to act. Instead, they are described the scene. Could be a similar situation to cartoons but those are rarely as detailed as games and have some of the most horrible voice acting out there.

PS. Don't think that the names matter to me. I did not know Keanu Reeves was an actor before the CP2077 hype. Saw Matrix ages ago but did not think about the actors.

Fair enough, @largh. I play quite a lot of AAA games, and voice acting tends to be quite good. There are a lot of good actors out there. CDPR didn't hire them, for some reason. After I posted that last comment I looked up Panam to see who actually played her and it's an actress who has had like 8 roles in 15 years, including this one. It's this weird mix of big names and people with virtually no experience. Maybe the voice acting was better in Polish or other languages, but I only have English to go by and let's just say they could have done much better.

By the way, I don't know if it's done this way by most or all studios, but Naughty Dog, for example, has their actors completely act out scenes as if they were in a film or TV show. They don't just sit behind mics. They do motion capture and interact with each other, use props, etc. That probably does help the actors understand what's happening better and give better performances. Naughty Dog games have some of the best voice acting out there.

Originally Posted by JFarrell71
Maybe the voice acting was better in Polish or other languages, but I only have English to go by and let's just say they could have done much better.

It is sick that AAA titles are expected to be released in multiple spoken languages these days and that people just can't live with subtitles. Anyway, I don't think the voice acting is the biggest issue with this game.

Originally Posted by largh
It is sick that AAA titles are expected to be released in multiple spoken languages these days and that people just can't live with subtitles. Anyway, I don't think the voice acting is the biggest issue with this game.

I'm guilty of wanting both audio and subtitles in English, but yeah I get ya. This seems to be a problem with modern games releasing in different countries.

It was much easier with PC RPGs with just subtitles in the past.

I agree with what most people have said in here. Bugs aside as I expect they will be sorted, it's a good game but I expected a lot more, considering they made Witcher 3 and it's not just false expectations. They are missing things that games had 10+ years ago

Lot of butthurt in this thread.

The voice acting isn't that bad. I've heard better, but what's there fits the setting well enough. Keanu Reeves does good job as Silverhand, and I'm glad he was cast. I was actually against it before playing the game, but he won me over as the game went on.