But a lot of the cut content that is now so complained of had already been said to be out by devs.
And a lot of it wasn't. Lifepaths were propped on a pedestal and utterly failed to come anywhere close to what was implied. I don't think it's fair to immediately jump to the conclusion this was a deliberate lie. Particularly because there are a lot of ways to interpret what was said about them. As we all know, the WIP disclaimer also makes it hard to come to the, "They lied.", conclusion. I do think it's fair to be critical of it.
This is one example. There are plenty more. Console performance is probably the worst offender, as mentioned (this one I think is deserving of getting raked over the coals for, tbh). I don't think I need to throw out every little example where expectations were set and the delivery fell well short (unless someone wants to challenge this claim, then I would be fully willing to defend it). No, I don't mean expectations players reached on their own. I mean expectations implied via quotes from senior/lead developers, features or mechanics in trailers, etc.
They said wall running was no longer in several months prior to release -
https://www.ign.com/articles/cyberpunk-2077-wall-running-mantis-blades-cut. People just don't follow development, come back at release, then some youtuber leaves out all context of "btw CDPR confirmed this was out months before release", and everyone goes, "YEAH, WHY DIDN'T THEY JUST SAY THAT!" But they did say it was out already.
Yeah, people do this. Complaining because you weren't paying attention is very different from doing it because you were and recognize the implementation was a shadow of what was implied though.
No matter what things are going to be complained about. The point was if a game development company wants to be transparent or tease features they should go all in with it. Say what you're trying to accomplish, say when you've decided to change direction, tell people when features won't make the cut. If they're unwilling to do so then, yeah, remaining silent is better then someone trying to get cute with marketing and hype and conveniently letting that marketing hang there instead of issuing proper communication. <-- This is why people default to, "They lied to us.". And frankly, the studio set themselves up for it (as most AAA studios do...).
Hell, if anything this is the biggest difference with games nowadays compared to in the past. Back in the day it would appear development studios were concerned with providing quality content and letting it speak for itself. They'd go the extra mile to make a game as good as it could be and pull in sales because it was good (pretty much what indie developers do because they can't afford the absurd marketing budgets). Not because they hid behind hype, misdirection and smoke and mirrors.
