It is ironic that a couple of weeks ago Sony pulled Cyberpunk from the PS Store and offered refunds to all purchasers December 18th, 2020. I cheered.
Around a year ago, December 5th, 2019, they stopped supporting Gwent for consoles due to an inability to support different versions of the game on multiple platforms. Many of us console players were pissed, as in 2018, Homecoming had been launched on PC and console players were forced to wait 4 months before being allowed to play the newest content. Learning we were being left behind for good led to a few different reactions from the Gwent perspective, but only one applied to the company overall, never buy anything from this company unless it is on PC or mobile.
Refunds were never offered to any of the Gwent players who wanted to quit after the console cancellation, only the chance to move to PC, iOS, or Android which was 4 months away from launch. No wonderful incentives or additional perks were provided to console players as well, just a "here's your stuff, go play." I have stayed, and even supported the game at a much more muted level since then. As far as other CDPR products go, I am currently resolved to never again purchase any new content from them. When Gwent closes shop, that is it for me and this company. Flash forward a year later, scores of other console players are presumably saying the same thing. Outside of Keanu fans who don't own PCs, who in their right mind would buy CP2077 on console, long term, who would consider even bothering with the Witcher 4 or any other new IP CDPR may try?
Could this have been averted? Could it have helped CDPR to beef up its console team and kept Gwent going on consoles for real time practice? Would it have killed them to delay the PC launches of Gwent updates so they could pass the bug checks of the console companies? Did the pulling of Gwent give the console heads pause, and influence them to allow CP2077 to bypass their normal protocols on good faith and the need to have new IP for the next generation of devices.
It may take a while and some heads may roll before the whole story is known, if ever, but in hindsight some things are clear
a) One can only assume resources have been diverted from Gwent and their other properties to get Cyberpunk out.
b) It is a known fact that the more you work on a certain console, the better you become programming it, cancelling your console projects a year before a major release is not a wise decision
c) both games have suffered...Gwent underwent a 6 month new content drought and only released 2 expansions in a market where the minimum is 3. And CP2077 was a dumpster fire good only for memes until a GB of patches went in last week... and it is still pulled from the PlayStation Store.
Will they recover? Financially, certainly. Money cures all ills and this game made a ton of money even after refunds. As for Trust, no. They are the nice company that releases tons of DRM free glitchy products at launch. Why buy at launch when you can wait for a cheaper finished game that won't corrupt your save files randomly or just stop supporting your console all together?
Sure, many will still love them unconditionally and live on the CDPR roller coaster of faith, not me though.