Cyberpunk 2077: A Tale of Redemption, But Can History Be Rewritten?
Video games, fueled by hype, often promise the world. But what happens when the reality doesn't match the dream? Sometimes, it's just a letdown. But other times, it's a full-blown spectacle. And that's precisely what unfolded with CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077.
This action-RPG, based on Mike Pondsmith's tabletop game, arrived with a mountain of anticipation. Even before the massive success of The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk had been in development for quite a while. The E3 2018 trailer, a significant reveal compared to the initial teaser from 2013, blew everyone away. The E3 2019 trailer, culminating in Keanu Reeves's appearance as Johnny Silverhand, felt like a divine gift to gamers. We were practically begging for more!
And then, the game launched.
To say the Cyberpunk 2077 we got on December 10, 2020, for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, was different from what was promised is a vast understatement. While initial reviews were generally positive, technical issues plagued the game, especially on consoles. Things got so bad that Sony removed it from the PlayStation Store a week after launch. (I personally experienced a bug on PS4 that cost me at least an hour of progress.) CDPR's reputation, built on The Witcher 3, was eroding in real-time. This was further complicated by revelations about the game's troubled development, including months of crunch, despite co-founder Marcin Iwiński's public assurances to the contrary.
From that point on, CDPR embarked on a mission to redeem its name and salvage what it hoped would be a long-term franchise. Plans for a standalone multiplayer mode and a second expansion were scrapped in favor of patches and updates. While these helped, the real turning point was Studio Trigger's Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. Announced months before the game's release and arriving amidst the apology tour, the anime was a godsend. Critical and audience acclaim drove viewers to check out the game during its turnaround, and the developer acknowledged the show in its major 2.0 update from 2023, which followed the game's release on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S a year earlier.
The 2.0 update was, as far as CDPR was concerned, the final word on Cyberpunk 2077. With a complete overhaul of the RPG systems, the game finally became what it should have been from the start, just before the Phantom Liberty expansion. The studio had a new lease on life and successfully turned things around, highlighted by a promotional video where Idris Elba declares, "The game is fixed." A meta statement, certainly. A well-deserved pat on the back? Perhaps.
Video games often get second chances, which is usually welcomed. But with Cyberpunk, something felt off. Maybe it was the pre-release marketing, or CDPR's online behavior, which many perceived as transphobic and edgy. Or perhaps it was the studio's repeated insistence that "the game is good now," which, over the three-year period, felt as desperate as it did declarative, especially as financial reports touted the game as a reliable moneymaker.
This has made discussing Cyberpunk's life and continued presence more contentious than other games with rocky launches. Players invested in the game wanted not just a turnaround but to erase the difficult launch, insisting it was great from the beginning, especially after the game was recognized for its improved state at the 2023 Game Awards. CDPR, while proud of the work, didn't play along. Staff acknowledged the initial development struggles and discussed how work conditions have changed, and how Phantom Liberty could help "make things right," as expansion director Gabe Amatangelo put it in 2023.
In a way, Cyberpunk 2077 did "get away with it." A sequel is on the horizon, as is another Edgerunners anime and a live-action series, contributing to parasocial pride in the franchise's survival. (There are probably more TV and game spinoffs being planned, similar to what's being done with The Witcher.) But the biggest test for Cyberpunk 2077 and CD Projekt Red will be the language and attitude surrounding the upcoming sequel. The game is fixed, yes—but will CDPR play by the same rules as before?
What are your thoughts? Do you think Cyberpunk 2077 has truly redeemed itself? Let us know in the comments!
