They screwed the game, yes. But not the store (yet).
The store brings them 30% off every purchase, so... yeah.
It's not like EA or Ubi that keep re-releasing the same shitty games with a new skin and keep on doing anti-consumer practices.
Let's be completely honest here: Cyberpunk is really just a Far Cry game set in the city. So a comparison with Ubi is apt, but not for the reasons you probably thought.
And you know, releasing a broken goddamn mess with an IOU "we'll totally fix it up later, you guys" is quite anti-consumer. Outrageously anti-consumer, I'd say.
With every witcher game they released, they were really messy at launch, specially witcher 2.
I played the Witcher games. I remember how Witcher 1 was pre-patches. None of them were as bad as Cyberpunk.
they fixed the issues over time
You know, one would expect that with eight years of development on their fourth game, with a gigantic budget, gigantic staff and no publishers breathing down their necks, that there would be no need to "fix issues over time" after the game's already on the store shelves.
gave free updates that other companies would consider DLCs
Free updates are not free. There's always something to gain here. If they aren't getting your money with them, then they are getting your good will and loyalty. And those Witcher 3 "sixteen free DLCs"? Yeah, they were just content cut from the main game.
What they also did with The Witcher 3:
- Lied about the graphics not being downgraded from the E3 showings; were caught red handed.
- Messed up the Russian localization (about 40% of the voice lines play back either too quick or too slow and thus end up being distorted); promised to fix it; "fixed" very few select cases via cutting words out of sentences to fit the timings; said "there, we did it"; never actually fixed it, almost half of the voice lines remain garbled to this very day.
- Didn't release mod tools until the players made their own.
- Promised they'd never sell DLC; later shifted the narrative to "we'd never sell DLC... only EXPANSION PACKS" (as if there's any difference between the two).
Witcher 3 was just that good so that what I brought up above didn't completely spoil the experience, but I was neutral on them. To me they weren't the "good guys" they were worshipped as. They were just another corporation being a corporation.
Right now I'm not that pissed off over CP2077, but if they truly changed and don't fix the game and its many flaws, well... I'm not buying another CDPR game.
Even then I would still keep using the store thanks to its strong points, unless that changes too...
I'm not buying any more of their games even if they do fix it, because just fixing it is not enough to make up for the outrageous lies they have spouted. Just fixing it is a bare goddamn minimum; it's something that's a no-brainer, OF COURSE they should fix it. It's like if someone gets drunk and takes a dump on the floor during your grandma's birthday party. OF COURSE they should clean it up afterwards, but just because they cleaned it up doesn't mean you forgive them doing that in the first place. Same principle applies here. Of course they should fix it, but it won't regain my trust. Frankly, I don't think they can regain my trust.
Even then I would still keep using the store thanks to its strong points, unless that changes too...
An easy decision for me, since GOG already did turn for the worse over the years, what's with less good old games and digital extras and initiatives that are highly publicized and then quickly abandoned (GOG Connect; adding unofficial Russian localizations). And, you know, being a part of CD Projekt. That's also a red flag right there.
