I mean... they lied TO INVESTORS about the performance of the game on base consoles, plus they lied about it being “finished” and “just needing polish” back in Jan (something which employees at CDPR confirmed as false to Jason Schrier). Due to this, they’re now facing a potential class action lawsuit from investors.
Also, I wouldn’t necessarily say they are lying about sales, but I imagine there might have been some creative accounting with the refunds deducted to make the number appear better in an attempt to calm the stock market. For example, a huge amount of people on PlayStation haven’t had their refund yet and apparently nobody has yet on GOG.
You imagine?
Sure.
By all means point out mistakes, eventual lies and shortcomings in Cyberpunk 2077 PR, marketing and in the game itself. No company is above criticism and CD Projekt is no exception. Their behaviour during the TW3 Downgrade debacle was extremely poor, to say the least.
But stick to the facts. Be ready to support your allegations, or you'll be called out. Calling out possible misinformation is not the same thing as claiming CD Projekt did nothing wrong.
Now the facts:
- About sales figures and refunds:
- "
Subject: Disclosure of estimated sales of Cyberpunk 2077
Legal basis: Art. 17 item 1 of the Market Abuse Regulation – inside information" (
source)
"
This figure represents the estimated volume of retail sales across all hardware platforms (factoring in returns submitted by retail clients in brick-and-mortar as well as digital storefronts), i.e. the “sell-through” figure, less all refund requests e-mailed directly to the Company by the publication date of this report in the framework of the “Help Me Refund” campaign"
- About employees, plural, accusing the board of lying.
Let's look at what Jason did say (
source)
"
Developers asked blunt questions about the company’s reputation, the game’s unrealistic deadlines and the relentless overtime in the months and years leading up to the game’s Dec. 10 release."
How many developers asked blunt questions? What percentage of the workforce? What questions were asked? Did people speak in defence of the board?
"
One employee asked the board why it had said in January that the game was “complete and playable” when that wasn’t true, to which the board answered that it would take responsibility."
Ah, One employee, singular. That must vet the accusation then. Now let's look at what was said about the game being playable from start to finish and especially
who said it and
when..
- About the game being "complete and playable"
"
Cyberpunk 2077 has been in development for at least six years and its team recently hit a major milestone: The entire game is playable from start to finish. It doesn't have all of the proper assets, playtesting or bug fixes in place, but seeing the story come together is a critical step in the development process, Borzymowski said." (
source)
Richard Borzymowski , then producer, now Project manager at CDPR,
August 2018.
"We are currently at a stage where the game is complete and playable, but there’s still work to be done." (
source)
Adam Kiciński, joint-CEO of CD PROJEKT, member of the board, January 2020
"
Taking to Twitter to make the announcement, the QA Lead for CD Projekt Red – Łukasz Babiel – shared an image of the PlayStation 4 trophy dashboard featuring a 100% completion platinum file for Cyberpunk 2077, alongside the caption “Just a normal day at work.” (
source)
Łukasz Babiel , QA lead at CD Projekt RED, not a member of the board,
September 2020
Was the producer lying on behalf of the board back in 2018? Could it be they simply mean different things when they say "start to finish" and "complete and playable"?
Those pesky things called facts.
By all means criticize what you feel like criticizing. Be prepared to defend your position with hard facts. And don't tell me I'm a member of "CDPR defence team". If I'm wrong, then you should be able to show I'm wrong by presenting facts.
Simple.