Sincere advice to CDPR and why people are disappointed and angry

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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.
  • 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.
Both games and companies came out a lot stronger than before the launch because of their dedication to righting a wrong. Theres no reason CDPR can't do the same, certainly in not the same fashion as they did. But either a mixture or something else would work. But the important thing here is finishing the game alongside rebuilding what was broken.

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.
  1. Embargo right to release day.
  2. Can only have officially released footage by CDPR.
  3. Reviews done purely on PC.
These 3 points made it look like you [CDPR] were hiding the state of not only the console versions, but the PC version, on purpose. True or not is irrelevant because that is the public perception for the following reasons. Lets go over the previous three points one by one:
  1. 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.
  2. Seems to hide from gamers how there are bugs, glitches, game breaking visuals on screen practically 100% of the time.
  3. Seems to hide from reviewers the unacceptable state of the console version.
No matter what this comes off as not only shady but incredibly consumer unfriendly which goes against the entire ethos of CDPR that you have so thoughtfully and carefully built up over the years. This is a big strike against you as a company when you hold up this ideal so much.

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.
  1. 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."
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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 launch of CP2077 has been a stereotypical AAA disaster launch. Which doesn't help with how much it clashes with the built up CDPR image.

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.
This wouldn't be that big an issue if this was a one time thing, but it isn't. The issues of crunch were brushed off previously. Meaning you are on your third chance in terms of dealing with crunch, not your second, if people are being generous. Fourth chance if they aren't considering 2018 allegations.

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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No Man Sky was another game that the press took an aspect of the game and speculated on top with tons of stories that narrated 'I heard you say' (without any confirmation). Of course, this, at the same time, created more and more expectations in his fans ...

What many do not understand or do not want to understand is that it is one thing to have an idea about something, another to make categorical promises about that something. Which part of the press uses sensationalism to attract audiences to its newspapers and pages, in addition to selling advertising carried by third parties on its pages.

I even understand if I have ideas, suggestions for something, but that is a galaxy away from what is said, what is promised and what can be fulfilled.

Fact is, the same portion of the press and some streamers who hoped to make a big profit with their 'assumptions' supported by 'I heard' ... (nothing really proven) are angry because things did not go as they wanted and imagined .. .
 
They could have just be honest near release what will be in the Game and what not - where would be the focus where not.

Eating
Drinking
Smokes
Drugs
Clothing system (where is the big announcement of style? Looking. Like a hobo just for the defense amount)
Clubs
Braindances
Public Transport
Animations in Combat (2 kill moves)
AI
Gangs which don't have a purpose
Performance
Bugs
Background (don't. Matter)
And much more Decisions after launch of the Game.

Look what they did.. My Boy :cry: :giveup:
 
No Man Sky was another game that the press took an aspect of the game and speculated on top with tons of stories that narrated 'I heard you say' (without any confirmation). Of course, this, at the same time, created more and more expectations in his fans ...

What many do not understand or do not want to understand is that it is one thing to have an idea about something, another to make categorical promises about that something. Which part of the press uses sensationalism to attract audiences to its newspapers and pages, in addition to selling advertising carried by third parties on its pages.

I don't read any gaming press, all my expectations were built off of 1) CDPR's own promises and marketing material 2) the advances of videogames over the past 10 years (a lot of games are bad, but I like to think we still figured out what works and what doesn't), and 3) CDPR's previous games being janky but fun.

Like come on, CDPR have some good devs, surely they know the difference between 'RPG' and 'Open World Shooter with Dialogues and Loot'? By that merit Rage, Far Cry and Borderlands are also great RPG games.

Is it too much to expect a game that for 95% of 8 years was sold as 'an rpg' to be 'an rpg'?
 

JexN7

Forum regular
Yes, truly.

People are really angry and rabid over the bugs and glitches, and while the sheer amount of those seen (especially for PS4/Xbox players) is unacceptable, what truly bothered me was the advertising for an edgy game of which those edgy features were removed. Where's the naked man with the booty in the hookup trailer with female V in the game, and why can't both male and female V bang him? Where's all the toys? Where's the bold? The edgy? Where's the content we saw from the trailers and teasers and clips?

Where? Fix the bugs, of course, but bring all that back too. Only then will we be happy.
 
There is something else here

The interpretation given to what the CD developers said and say. A good example is in the topic 'hotfix 1.05' - just read the comments there.

Its says clearly, categorically that the patch for PCs will be released 'soon'. Then, in the course of the comments, malicious speculations such as 'look, I think this will soon be never' ... to the point that others have posted 'will be released on December 25' and thus 'fake news' spreads (not least because rare ones contest and try not to generate disagreements).

I know that in a community we must be polite, I try to be, despite my strong temperament - I apologize for that - but I also know that the 'lie' spreads faster, because sometimes it is more loud to our desires.
 
No Mans Sky did have many features planned and in the works but as a tiny indie studio they just did not have the manpower to finish it in time. Were also locked into a release date with Sony.

Which put them into an awkward situation of "We cant finish more than half of this in time." so they started chopping out features just to have something somewhat functional at launch. Their "marketting team" was also just Sean. An introvert who was absolutely terrified of all attention. Being on stage in front of tons of people at E3 and so on. Also a programmer. So he just spoke whatever, so understandable in his case.


I think it's a massive disservice to the team at CDPR to say that people had high expectations. They can and would have done better if they just had the time to do so, which they didn't. San Andreas had many features that CP2077 lacks back in 2004. Even if you weren't expecting something outlandish it's just not in.

Something as simple as AI for cars and pedestrians. It's so simple in game that it can barely be called AI. The high expectation was a finished game and we didn't get that. That much is clear.

Even if each and every bug is fixed there are still many greater issues with CP2077 that are solely related to the gameplay alone. It lacks everything an open world game should have, everything they even said it would have. They clearly advertised certain features and confirmed many on twitter and facebook.

I don't think they were lying. Much like with No Mans Sky there were no lies just the cuts done in development to meet launch. It was clearly rushed and I feel heart broken for them.
 
Yes, truly.

People are really angry and rabid over the bugs and glitches, and while the sheer amount of those seen (especially for PS4/Xbox players) is unacceptable, what truly bothered me was the advertising for an edgy game of which those edgy features were removed. Where's the naked man with the booty in the hookup trailer with female V in the game, and why can't both male and female V bang him? Where's all the toys? Where's the bold? The edgy? Where's the content we saw from the trailers and teasers and clips?

Where? Fix the bugs, of course, but bring all that back too. Only then will we be happy.

I thought I would never say that but please no post about nudity and that stuff see

As this topic is good and would be a shame if it would be locked. And trust me I am the last who don't understand you. Trust me.

Sincerely
 
No Mans Sky did have many features planned and in the works but as a tiny indie studio they just did not have the manpower to finish it in time. Were also locked into a release date with Sony.

Which put them into an awkward situation of "We cant finish more than half of this in time." so they started chopping out features just to have something somewhat functional at launch. Their "marketting team" was also just Sean. An introvert who was absolutely terrified of all attention. Being on stage in front of tons of people at E3 and so on. Also a programmer. So he just spoke whatever, so understandable in his case.


I think it's a massive disservice to the team at CDPR to say that people had high expectations. They can and would have done better if they just had the time to do so, which they didn't. San Andreas had many features that CP2077 back in 2004. Even if you weren't expecting something outlandish it's just not in.

Something as simple as AI for cars and pedestrians. It's so simple in game that it can barely be called AI. The high expectation was a finished game and we didn't get that. That much is clear.

Even if each and every bug is fixed there are still many greater issues with CP2077 that are solely related to the gameplay alone. It lacks everything an open world game should have, everything they even said it would have. They clearly advertised certain features and confirmed many on twitter and facebook.

I don't think they were lying. Much like with No Mans Sky there were no lies just the cuts done in development to meet launch. It was clearly rushed and I feel heart broken for them.

CD can and should control what it says, but it cannot control the expectations of others. It is and it was simple.
 
No Mans Sky did have many features planned and in the works but as a tiny indie studio they just did not have the manpower to finish it in time. Were also locked into a release date with Sony.

Which put them into an awkward situation of "We cant finish more than half of this in time." so they started chopping out features just to have something somewhat functional at launch. Their "marketting team" was also just Sean. An introvert who was absolutely terrified of all attention. Being on stage in front of tons of people at E3 and so on. Also a programmer. So he just spoke whatever, so understandable in his case.


I think it's a massive disservice to the team at CDPR to say that people had high expectations. They can and would have done better if they just had the time to do so, which they didn't. San Andreas had many features that CP2077 lacks back in 2004. Even if you weren't expecting something outlandish it's just not in.

Something as simple as AI for cars and pedestrians. It's so simple in game that it can barely be called AI. The high expectation was a finished game and we didn't get that. That much is clear.

Even if each and every bug is fixed there are still many greater issues with CP2077 that are solely related to the gameplay alone. It lacks everything an open world game should have, everything they even said it would have. They clearly advertised certain features and confirmed many on twitter and facebook.

I don't think they were lying. Much like with No Mans Sky there were no lies just the cuts done in development to meet launch. It was clearly rushed and I feel heart broken for them.

Don't feel heart broken. They had enough time to maybe reconsider before launch to tame expectations and Inform that they will enhance the experience step by step after release. But they didn't. And now it has its price.
 
To complete

I think that all suggestions are valid, all of them, without exception. But from the suggestions to what they will do, there are huge differences and they involve multiple themes and aspects, from commercial issues to techniques. Still, we have an entire forum section dedicated to these suggestions. It is one thing to want something, another to have that something. We don't always have what we want or when we want it. It's part of life...
 
Expectations are set by price tag, quality of previous works alongside trailers and any announcements. These are the baseline.

Anything above that with people overhyping is added to that.

How badly the game is received due to not meeting said expectations is the difference between set expectations and what is actually developed. Unfortunately they missed the mark even with the self set expectations. Perhaps they should be more careful but more importantly better manage when they release things.

Honestly they should take whatever release dates they have from now on and add a year to it for good measure. Be on the side of caution.

They had enough time to maybe reconsider before launch to tame expectations and Inform that they will enhance the experience step by step after release. But they didn't. And now it has its price.
Yeah pretty much my analysis with what they could have done with launch.

It could have been handled gracefully but instead they handled it in a very confusing way. At least confusing because how could they not know this would happen? Especially if they actually care for people being satisfied with what they buy. Probably weighed their options and decided that just launching in this state will work out but yeah...
 
I ll sugest here to ilustrate, a short movie, a masterpiece from Bethesda. Everything you’ll see in the trailer, doesn’t actually exist in the game, just the narrative reference. This is, alongside the trailers made by CDPR about TW3 (as I see it) and Final Fantasy XV, the masterpieces of the gaming industry:

 
I hope you are only speaking for yourself and not for anyone else. I think a lot of the "outrage" is an overreaction your post included. I also think a lot of the players "demands" for this "injustice" is beyond even being close to reasonable.

Although it does happen in north America to a certain extent It seems that in the Non North America side of the world some people like to champion the "Karen" aspect of "consumer rights" to a absurd extreme.

As you see below in no way do I think this game did not have its flaws but also don't think it deserves the amout of rage it is getting from some people.

8 million presales + player meticritic rating (pc)

User Score
7.1 Mixed or average reviews based on 21233 Ratings

Shows the game was not the "disastrous embarrassment hat will kill CDPR reputation" that some on the forum make it out to be. Personally I would give it a

6.5 myself just average major flaws and disappointments but overall satisficed and feel got my moneys worth . It nothing that will enter the hall of fame but really its not worth all rage It is what it is and honestly just need to move open and wait for the "next big thing" W3 was a remarkable game ( rating of 9 in my books) but I don't think its reasonable to expect that level of success every time when there dev teams are not consistent with the team that made W3 I also think focusing on old technology is one of the reasons that caused this down fall.
 
CD can and should control what it says, but it cannot control the expectations of others. It is and it was simple.

If you willingly create these expectations, yes, they can control them.

I'll bring back an argument you keep dismissing but when the CEO of CDPR says the game runs surprisingly well on last-gen merely days before the game's release, people are completely right to expect that it runs surprisingly well on last-gen.

This is not the press. This is literally the CEO's own words, coming out of his word words with absolutely no external interpretation.

Whether you like it or not, CDPR has a responsibility in creating expectations.
 
This is a false equivalence, you are comparing a cinematic to gameplay footage.

Not in my view, im illustrating something what appear in this forum yestarday. Many expectations about the game was subjective, are - to be fair... all of then, including the ones I read in your topic.
 
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