As Iwiński says in the video, Cyberpunk 2077 was developed with PC first and foremost in mind. This was evident in IGN’s review of Cyberpunk 2077 where the PC experience was relatively smooth but almost unplayable on PS4 and Xbox One systems.Currently, token players, even those with PS5 and Xbox Series X systems, are playing a backwards compatible version of the PS4 and Xbox One game.
The performance issues for Cyberpunk 2077 on consoles are so wide-ranging, CDPR opened an unprecedented refund policy, and companies like Sony have even removed digital versions of Cyberpunk from the PlayStation Store. CDPR is also being investigated by the Consumer Protection Agency regarding their launch.
The Iwiński video, which is nearly five minutes long, took a brief look at a number of questions about the launch of Cyberpunk 2077, including why there is such a gap between PC versions and tokens of Cyberpunk 2077, and as to how he handled review copies.
Dear gamers,
Below, you’ll find the co-founder of CD PROJEKT’s personal explanation of what the days before the release of Cyberpunk 2077 were like, sharing the studio’s view of what happened with the game on older generation consoles. pic.twitter.com/XjdCKizewq
– Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) 13 January 2021
As for bringing Cyberpunk 2077 to consoles, especially the older ones, Iwiński says “things didn’t look terribly difficult at first, as long as we knew about the hardware game, at in the end, time has shown that we have disregarded the action. “
He says the main culprit is the in-game streaming system, which “relies on feeding the engine with what you see on the screen, as well as the game mechanics.” Iwiński states that disk broadband performance on older systems capable of keeping up with the city’s packaged design.Iwiński also says that his internal test did not show “many of the issues” that players saw and that each working day saw “significant improvements” in performance. But even then Iwiński says the developers were working on making the most of the token version for the Day 0 piece until its launch. This accounts for the delay between receiving PC review codes and token review copies issued on December 8, according to Iwiński.
As of early 2021, CD Projekt pushes several pieces regularly throughout the year. The first update will be released “in the next 10 days” and a larger “more important update” will be released weeks later.
New CDPR roadmap. Source: CD Projekt
There are still plans to release free DLC as with The Witcher 3, but they may not aim for “early 2021” as previously expected as CDPR has shifted its priority to “a work on the most important solutions and updates ”and DLC will follow.
The Projekt Red CD has faced a number of hurdles since the launch of Cyberpunk 2077 in December 2020. The company is facing a lawsuit over the “misrepresentation” of Cyberpunk 2077 as a result and had to reject rumors about the his developmental difficulties. Despite these issues, Cyberpunk 2077 sold more than 13 million copies, despite resale, and earned full development and marketing costs.
MattTM Kim is a reporter for IGN.