I have decided to put all this together into a single, easy to find and well structured post. Or as well structured as I can make it.
Preamble
I'd like to start with the obvious: Personal attacks on anyone working within CDPR is completely and entirely unacceptable. Death threats even more so and should have never happened. People should be ashamed of this happening.
Moving past this, I don't believe the blame lies on any one person nor that this was malicious. Why? Because I am giving CDPR a second chance but only in regards to whether I believe this being malicious or not.
This post is addressed directly to CD PROJEKT RED, but not the ground floor developers who clearly did the absolute best they could under the circumstances. We love you for it. You guys did an amazing job I hope you will get the break you deserve.
This post also exists to best explain what happened, because there seems to be confusion and argument. I've now played 121 hours of the game, been active here on the forums and keeping an eye on reddit alongside watching a great deal of reviews. Though that least one was just in preparation for this here post. To sort of summarize my findings and help in illuminating the situation. So judge my credentials or lack thereof best you can.
Lets start raw and to the point without any lube or foreplay.
What should be done now
Fix the game.
Finish the game.
Be honest and transparent about it, the apology came off as neither as I shall go into later.
Two games have been in very similar situations where they launched so badly that people believed they would never even make games again following said launch. That being No Mans Sky and Final Fantasy XIV. Their handling of the situation was different but also fairly similar which was simply to finish the game.
A better launch
Lets look into how the launch of the game could have been handled better with the assumption that the release date could not be pushed any more no matter what. Just to get a better, and different, perspective as to why it went so wrong. How could it have gone better?
With honesty, transparency and relying on the built up goodwill and reputation that CDPR has.
You should have apologized with overestimating the ability of the development team to actually finish 8 console ports plus multiple PC configs alongside the still unfinished content of the game. All during a covid pandemic. Because of these circumstances the game will be released in Early Access, you are sorry for this. But you could use the help to ensure the best state of the game possible while still providing it for the most devoted of fans who actually want to play the game regardless.
That's how it should have been done. It is not a very sexy launch, nor is it ideal. But the way the actual launch was handled is that instead of relying on the goodwill and built up reputation CDPR instead decided to tarnish it.
You must always remember that with a reputation such as you had people expect more of you not less, while being more willing to deal with non critical issues especially if you are being honest and transparent in your communication. Something the launch, review process and even your apology lacked in their entirety at least in appearance.
Why people are mad
There are many layers as to why people are angry it's not as simple as "game is broken" due to a multitude of reasons that I shall now go into.
Firstly we will start with the reviews, their handling in particular coming off as malicious whether true or not.
The core Pillars of Principles for CDPR
CDPRs reputation is build on essentially standing against all the corporate greed that so sadly infects the AAA industry. Which is incredibly admirable and respectful. But this means that when you do something that goes against each and every one of your principles people are more angry than they otherwise would be. You know exactly what is wrong with the industry, you should know better and you do know better. But you did so anyways.
Lets go into the the things you, yourself as a company, stand against and how you broke said principle with the handling of CP2077s launch.
The Apology
The apology provided was awful plain and simple and came off as making CDPR look more hypocritical when you take everything else that happened with the games launch into account.
"We would always like everyone who buys our games to be satisfied with their purchase"
If this was true, actually true, and something genuinely believed in. The game would simply not be released in this state. The way it was.
If this was true, you'd have given reviewers console versions of the game to review as well.
If this was true, there would not be so much deceit around the state of the game. Whether it was on purpose or not is once again irrelevant as we are examining how people generally perceived it all and how it comes off as.
You just can't say the state of the last gen consoles was missed, even ignoring that the unacceptably broken state of the game on PC.
Your apology rang hollow because of previous actions. You had already broken peoples trust and made many folk see you as the next Bethesda or EA.
And worst off all it came off as typical corpo PR speak with a bit of "Hello fellow gamers" sprinkled in.
The Deeper Issues
A promise was made that crunch would be avoided, giving you a second chance in that regard. It's no big secret that there was a lot of crunch during the production of Witcher 3. You said it wouldn't happen but developers raised concerns in 2018, and once again it seems concerns have been raised at launch. Clearly nothing was done. Or if something was done it wasn't nearly enough.
Personally I think the teams ability was just overestimated and the difficulty with working during covid underestimated. But thats not for here or there as the crunch still happened so lets make one thing clear:
Crunch is a failure of management.
CDPR is starting to have a history of crunch, thus a history of management failing.
Previous games in the AAA sphere that have failed spectacularly like Anthem and ME: Andromeda failed due to management. CP2077 is scarily similar in that regard.
The game, what is finished of it, is amazing. It being fun in spite of its current state is a testament to the amazing work the developers over at CDPR have put into the game and the disservice done to them. They deserve all the love, praise and kudos for the excellent work that they had done on the game. Because you can see that where they had time to finish they did an amazing job. But the game very clearly needed another year or two.
It's almost clear that all the promised and shown features were in the game at some point. But were removed due to the release date being way too soon, police system is infamous. It was clearly spoken about to be something truly great yet the current teleports behind you version feels like a last minute band aid as it didn't fully function and the game needed to be released months ago.
This is the biggest game CDPR worked on hands down, the company is just not used to working on such large projects thus management failing in this regard makes perfect sense. It's not excusable, but it makes sense. However whenever CDPR is confronted about the way management does things, and the crunch, the response ranges from unacceptable to quite frankly as disgusting as death threats sent to developers but more importantly deeply disappointing.
Let us look into a quote from the bloomberg article:
"Another developer asked whether CD Projekt’s directors felt it was hypocritical to make a game about corporate exploitation while expecting that their employees work overtime. The response was vague and noncommital."
This is how it came off as:
The Game Itself
Is fun in spite of its issues, is incredibly polished and well put together in some and an absolutely broken mess in others. Looks amazing, has great visual story telling yet some places look broken and downright bizarre. The story is really well put together with genuinely touching scenes and polished to a spit shine yet the lifepath starts are shorter than a single gun fight. Which is to say that the game just isn't finished. It has what it takes to become an absolute masterpiece, what angers me personally most is that very fact. The what could have been if it was actually done.
Thank you
For staying here with me and reading through the post. As they say I'm not angry I'm just disappointed because I know you guys in CDPR can do so much better than this and already have with W3. The passion you had for the game was infectious and still is, beaming right through the many cracks in the game. I'm still amazed at how its a fun game even with these problems so you can at least be proud of that for what little comfort it offers you.
You have something great on your hands and I hope to see it be complete. Never stop fighting and don't let the game fade away.
Preamble
I'd like to start with the obvious: Personal attacks on anyone working within CDPR is completely and entirely unacceptable. Death threats even more so and should have never happened. People should be ashamed of this happening.
Moving past this, I don't believe the blame lies on any one person nor that this was malicious. Why? Because I am giving CDPR a second chance but only in regards to whether I believe this being malicious or not.
This post is addressed directly to CD PROJEKT RED, but not the ground floor developers who clearly did the absolute best they could under the circumstances. We love you for it. You guys did an amazing job I hope you will get the break you deserve.
This post also exists to best explain what happened, because there seems to be confusion and argument. I've now played 121 hours of the game, been active here on the forums and keeping an eye on reddit alongside watching a great deal of reviews. Though that least one was just in preparation for this here post. To sort of summarize my findings and help in illuminating the situation. So judge my credentials or lack thereof best you can.
Lets start raw and to the point without any lube or foreplay.
What should be done now
Fix the game.
Finish the game.
Be honest and transparent about it, the apology came off as neither as I shall go into later.
Two games have been in very similar situations where they launched so badly that people believed they would never even make games again following said launch. That being No Mans Sky and Final Fantasy XIV. Their handling of the situation was different but also fairly similar which was simply to finish the game.
- In the case of No Mans Sky they went radio silent and started working until they had everything promised in the game to rebuild trust. And then they went above and beyond.
- In the case of Final Fantasy XIV, they performed a public apology on stage and deeply expressed how ashamed they were of what they had released. Then took down the game and started to rework it into what people actually wanted of it, all with close and open communication with their community. Which has turned FFXIV into one of the best if not the best MMO out there.
A better launch
Lets look into how the launch of the game could have been handled better with the assumption that the release date could not be pushed any more no matter what. Just to get a better, and different, perspective as to why it went so wrong. How could it have gone better?
With honesty, transparency and relying on the built up goodwill and reputation that CDPR has.
You should have apologized with overestimating the ability of the development team to actually finish 8 console ports plus multiple PC configs alongside the still unfinished content of the game. All during a covid pandemic. Because of these circumstances the game will be released in Early Access, you are sorry for this. But you could use the help to ensure the best state of the game possible while still providing it for the most devoted of fans who actually want to play the game regardless.
That's how it should have been done. It is not a very sexy launch, nor is it ideal. But the way the actual launch was handled is that instead of relying on the goodwill and built up reputation CDPR instead decided to tarnish it.
You must always remember that with a reputation such as you had people expect more of you not less, while being more willing to deal with non critical issues especially if you are being honest and transparent in your communication. Something the launch, review process and even your apology lacked in their entirety at least in appearance.
Why people are mad
There are many layers as to why people are angry it's not as simple as "game is broken" due to a multitude of reasons that I shall now go into.
Firstly we will start with the reviews, their handling in particular coming off as malicious whether true or not.
- Embargo right to release day.
- Can only have officially released footage by CDPR.
- Reviews done purely on PC.
- Last minute reviews ensuring the least amount of people see it. Typically a great game will have review embargo lifted a week, or even two, ago because its free marketing. Otherwise its typically a red flag and for good reason.
- Seems to hide from gamers how there are bugs, glitches, game breaking visuals on screen practically 100% of the time.
- Seems to hide from reviewers the unacceptable state of the console version.
The core Pillars of Principles for CDPR
CDPRs reputation is build on essentially standing against all the corporate greed that so sadly infects the AAA industry. Which is incredibly admirable and respectful. But this means that when you do something that goes against each and every one of your principles people are more angry than they otherwise would be. You know exactly what is wrong with the industry, you should know better and you do know better. But you did so anyways.
Lets go into the the things you, yourself as a company, stand against and how you broke said principle with the handling of CP2077s launch.
- Greed - Releasing a practically non functional game on last gen. Just really broken on everything else. It's impossible to miss the state of the game. How it comes off as? "Doesn't work? Ship it."
- Lies - Showing off features that were more than likely removed to hit release. Lies about the game being "complete and playable" in January as has come out from the employees asking questions to the board. Lies about the game being released when its ready. Lies about the game running "surprisingly well" on last-gen hardware (even if it was said to investors). And many, many more.
- Consumer Un-Friendliness - Hiding the state of the game in terms of bugs and performance (last gen consoles), how reviews were handled, false advertising, just releasing the game in this state to begin with. Consumer un-friendliness is quite closely tied to greed so there is overlap.
- Trust - Trust is something a lot of people had in CDPR. People trust you because of your principles, you showed how you hate the greed that is so common in the AAA industry. You showed people with the so many consumer friendly acts that you have performed before. But you broke all of the principles that you stood by with the launch of CP2077. When it came to it you did not release the game when its done, you did not leave the greed to others. Actions speak louder than words and actions demonstrated with the CP2077 launch casts doubt on everything.
The Apology
The apology provided was awful plain and simple and came off as making CDPR look more hypocritical when you take everything else that happened with the games launch into account.
"We would always like everyone who buys our games to be satisfied with their purchase"
If this was true, actually true, and something genuinely believed in. The game would simply not be released in this state. The way it was.
If this was true, you'd have given reviewers console versions of the game to review as well.
If this was true, there would not be so much deceit around the state of the game. Whether it was on purpose or not is once again irrelevant as we are examining how people generally perceived it all and how it comes off as.
You just can't say the state of the last gen consoles was missed, even ignoring that the unacceptably broken state of the game on PC.
Your apology rang hollow because of previous actions. You had already broken peoples trust and made many folk see you as the next Bethesda or EA.
And worst off all it came off as typical corpo PR speak with a bit of "Hello fellow gamers" sprinkled in.
The Deeper Issues
A promise was made that crunch would be avoided, giving you a second chance in that regard. It's no big secret that there was a lot of crunch during the production of Witcher 3. You said it wouldn't happen but developers raised concerns in 2018, and once again it seems concerns have been raised at launch. Clearly nothing was done. Or if something was done it wasn't nearly enough.
Personally I think the teams ability was just overestimated and the difficulty with working during covid underestimated. But thats not for here or there as the crunch still happened so lets make one thing clear:
Crunch is a failure of management.
CDPR is starting to have a history of crunch, thus a history of management failing.
Previous games in the AAA sphere that have failed spectacularly like Anthem and ME: Andromeda failed due to management. CP2077 is scarily similar in that regard.
The game, what is finished of it, is amazing. It being fun in spite of its current state is a testament to the amazing work the developers over at CDPR have put into the game and the disservice done to them. They deserve all the love, praise and kudos for the excellent work that they had done on the game. Because you can see that where they had time to finish they did an amazing job. But the game very clearly needed another year or two.
It's almost clear that all the promised and shown features were in the game at some point. But were removed due to the release date being way too soon, police system is infamous. It was clearly spoken about to be something truly great yet the current teleports behind you version feels like a last minute band aid as it didn't fully function and the game needed to be released months ago.
This is the biggest game CDPR worked on hands down, the company is just not used to working on such large projects thus management failing in this regard makes perfect sense. It's not excusable, but it makes sense. However whenever CDPR is confronted about the way management does things, and the crunch, the response ranges from unacceptable to quite frankly as disgusting as death threats sent to developers but more importantly deeply disappointing.
Let us look into a quote from the bloomberg article:
"Another developer asked whether CD Projekt’s directors felt it was hypocritical to make a game about corporate exploitation while expecting that their employees work overtime. The response was vague and noncommital."
This is how it came off as:
- The Board is willing to accept responsibility for the lies that the game is "complete and playable" in January. The completion of the game relies on a large team of people.
- The Board is unwilling to accept responsibility for exploiting their own employees with crunch, a failure of management, which is a problem that relies on the management staff. Some of whom are on The Board of Directors.
The Game Itself
Is fun in spite of its issues, is incredibly polished and well put together in some and an absolutely broken mess in others. Looks amazing, has great visual story telling yet some places look broken and downright bizarre. The story is really well put together with genuinely touching scenes and polished to a spit shine yet the lifepath starts are shorter than a single gun fight. Which is to say that the game just isn't finished. It has what it takes to become an absolute masterpiece, what angers me personally most is that very fact. The what could have been if it was actually done.
Thank you
For staying here with me and reading through the post. As they say I'm not angry I'm just disappointed because I know you guys in CDPR can do so much better than this and already have with W3. The passion you had for the game was infectious and still is, beaming right through the many cracks in the game. I'm still amazed at how its a fun game even with these problems so you can at least be proud of that for what little comfort it offers you.
You have something great on your hands and I hope to see it be complete. Never stop fighting and don't let the game fade away.
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