Cyberpunk 2077 Dev Says Game’s Release Was “Heartbreaking”

Pretty much everyone is aware of how things went down when Cyberpunk 2077 launched in December 2020. In case you missed it, the game was a total disaster on release, bringing forth one of the worst bug-ridden gameplay experiences to date after years of due anticipation. Appearing in an interview, CDPR’s Quest Designer Pawel Sasko has commented sentimentally on the situation that unfolded back then. 

Skip on over to the 1:25:00th mark in the following video to catch Pawel in action, describing how the team is grateful for the current state of Cyberpunk 2077, but how incredibly hard it was at the time of the action RPG’s launch. For those not in the know, CD Projekt Red was significantly panned for releasing the title in a half-baked manner, to the point where it couldn’t run normally at all on consoles and PC.

Pawel Sasko said to the interviewer,  

It was tough, Neon, like honestly. After the release of Cyberpunk, man it was tough. It was heartbreaking, but I mean we kept going. And again, people like you who have been in this community, who have been supporting us for so long, pointing out things that aren’t good and things that still need to be fixed and still need to be improved—that was so valuable to have people like this in the community.” 

In a similar headline that surfaced not long ago, CD Projekt Red’s engineering director Colin Walder also expressed his thoughts on the game’s post-release period, saying that the studio’s morale took a substantial blow after Cyberpunk 2077 launched to the masses. Looking at the scenario back then, how could it not, really? 

Regarding other tools or strategies for maintaining morale post-release, especially after the difficulties we faced—it was indeed a challenge. The morale took a significant hit; that’s clear. The crucial thing was to acknowledge what happened,” said Colin. 

Anyhow, this is just a brief insight into the CD Projekt Red’s thought process from when things went bad. To talk about today, which is an age that Cyberpunk 2077 truly seems to be enjoying, having rolled over 25 million copies to date, the action RPG has been brought back from the depths of post-launch hell thanks to CDPR. This, of course, has to do with various factors, including the Phantom Liberty DLC expansion. 

Related Content to Dig Into: 

• Cyberpunk 2077 Features A Melancholic Reference To The Witcher 3
• CDPR Never Wanted To Continue V’s Story With A Cyberpunk 2077 Expansion
• CDPR Is Reportedly Planning To Make More Cyberpunk 2077 Anime In The Future

Cyberpunk 2077 came out on December 10, 2020, for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, with a next-gen patch for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S arriving in February 2022. The game’s first and last DLC Phantom Liberty was released for all relevant platforms on September 6, 2023. Here’s eXputer’s review of the expansion, rating it 4.5/5 and highlighting all the improvements that CDPR has brought to the table. 

If you’re a new player, we highly recommend going after these best Legendary weapons in the game to one-up your foes like never before.