Was it the Shareholders?

[BritishStephen]

CDPR went public on 16th March 2018, half way through the 4 year development cycle.

Is this why CDPR went from "when its ready" to, "release unfinished game on as many platforms as possible"?

I'm still happy with the game (See last thread: Can't understand all the negativity (PC) ). It's not what I was expecting, and there are definitely things that need to be worked on - but I still think all the foundations are there for the game we all expected with time and updates.

I just wonder if CDPR being publicly listed is what caused this pretty bad launch? No matter how optimistic and positive I am about the game, there has doubtlessly been considerable damage to CDPR's reputation and consumer good-will in the industry. It does seem incredibly short sighted to throw all that away, and completely out of character for CDPR. CDPR are historically a company by gamers for gamers and I wonder if allowing outside influences for money has caused a shift in priorities outside of the actual developers control.

What do you think, did any of this have anything do with the IPO?

 

[Futalove]

Idk if it was shareholders or not, but something, put pressure on them, only way to explain the very large number of cut content, bugs and performance issues and the disconnect from what we were advertised mand what we got

 

[gallantchar]

We won’t ever know if that’s the case, unless CDPR outright states it.

That being said, I believe it’s the most likely of situations. I still find it odd that, for a company so vocal and interactive with their community, they haven’t actually addressed the issues the community brings forward (such as cut content and other promises not held up), and instead provided a very “standard” apology, with the promise of patches but other than the expectation of bug fixes, no actual word on what will be in them.

Regardless of who is at fault, what will actually have the damage stay will be how they handle it moving forward. They owned up to the foul-up, but only by fixing it a-la No Man’s Sky or Witcher 3 will they actually renew faith.

That being said, I personally doubt many of their consumers who pre ordered will do so in the future. I know I won’t. Regardless of how they handle this game. I’ll wait till launch, probably wait for the game to hit its full cycle and then play it.

 

[SwigginzYo]

This whole fiasco was almost assuredly a financial decision. I'd wager, especially due to the pandemic, they just flat out needed to recoup costs. They probably decided to just bite the bullet and take the hit to their reputation. We just need to see if it was because they were confident that it could be built back, or if they've begun a downward trend after losing faith during Cyberpunk's development.

 

[gallantchar]

This whole fiasco was almost assuredly a financial decision. I'd wager, especially due to the pandemic, they just flat out needed to recoup costs. They probably decided to just bite the bullet and take the hit to their reputation. We just need to see if it was because they were confident that it could be built back, or if they've begun a downward trend after losing faith during Cyberpunk's development.

I, and I am certain many others, hope it’s the former and not the latter.

It’d be an absolute punch to the gut and ruin any credibility CDPR had, if it turned out it’s the exact same (if not worse) than the AAA companies they bashed for years.

 

[trench1]

Honestly, CDPR should've just canceled the last gen-consoles. They spread their resources too thin trying to ensure that it would work on PS4 and XBone. CDPR is well aware of this, but couldn't backtrack from it, since they've advertised the last gen too much, that is capable of running the game. And yes, probably shareholder pressure as well, not to mention, the fans that are becoming more and more aggravated due to all the delays.

 

[SwigginzYo]

Honestly, CDPR should've just canceled the last gen-consoles. They spread their resources too thin trying to ensure that it would work on PS4 and XBone. CDPR is well aware of this, but couldn't backtrack from it, since they've advertised the last gen too much, that is capable of running the game. And yes, probably shareholder pressure as well, not to mention, the fans that are becoming more and more aggravated due to all the delays.

PC releases get delayed all the time. We frequently get games months or years after they come out on console. They should have just delayed previous-gen console releases or come out and admitted that they weren't going to be up to par.

 

[Futalove]

Honestly, CDPR should've just canceled the last gen-consoles. They spread their resources too thin trying to ensure that it would work on PS4 and XBone. CDPR is well aware of this, but couldn't backtrack from it, since they've advertised the last gen too much, that is capable of running the game. And yes, probably shareholder pressure as well, not to mention, the fans that are becoming more and more aggravated due to all the delays.

I myself was aggravated (and worried about delays) but would have put up with it and still most likely would have preorded or first day bought the game, because they had my faith and trust.

 

[gallantchar]

Honestly, CDPR should've just canceled the last gen-consoles. They spread their resources too thin trying to ensure that it would work on PS4 and XBone. CDPR is well aware of this, but couldn't backtrack from it, since they've advertised the last gen too much, that is capable of running the game. And yes, probably shareholder pressure as well, not to mention, the fans that are becoming more and more aggravated due to all the delays.

Or, or, OR, how about this: Don’t work on next gen compatibility until they work on the PS5 release. The game was created and worked on with last gen in mind. Games recently have released this year (such as GoT) and have been absolutely beautiful and held up to everything promised.

They even said they’d hold off on next gen until later. But no, gotta optimise it for a system few people actually have. Like it or not, most console players are playing this on last gen. This game was made for those consoles (and PC of course), you might as well move the goalpost again and say it shouldn’t have been released on console at all, and that only people who have $20k gaming rigs should be able to play it.

 

[tavellone]

This whole fiasco was almost assuredly a financial decision. I'd wager, especially due to the pandemic, they just flat out needed to recoup costs. They probably decided to just bite the bullet and take the hit to their reputation. We just need to see if it was because they were confident that it could be built back, or if they've begun a downward trend after losing faith during Cyberpunk's development.

The game already paid for itself with pre-orders alone, before the game even came out.

 

[gallantchar]

The game already paid for itself with pre-orders alone, before the game even came out.

If it is a shareholders issue, it’s most likely that they didn’t understand that regardless of holidays or no, this game would sell like gangbusters.

It’s possible that this is the case, but I want CDPR to say what happened.

 

[animalfather]

It was the tech. The bulk of the time went to creating the tech and optimising it which is still not done. But now they have the source code to create something amazing. Look forward to Cyberpunk 2.

 

[Kosciaty]

There was emergency call for investor recently. CDPR stated, that it was only the decision of managment that game should be released. They considered delaying console launch, but discarded that idea.

 

[animalfather]

There was emergency call for investor recently. CDPR stated, that it was only the decision of managment that game should be released. They considered delaying console launch, but discarded that idea.

they should have made the Ciri game first, and went nexgen only with CP77.

 

[trench1]

It was the tech. The bulk of the time went to creating the tech and optimising it which is still not done. But now they have the source code to create something amazing. Look forward to Cyberpunk 2.

I'd probably be dead by the time a second one comes out. Sadge.

 

[animalfather]

I'd probably be dead by the time a second one comes out. Sadge.

actually no. the hard part was getting the tech ready and figuring out what the game should be. now that they have the tech its very easy to make a good game.

 

[gallantchar]

It was the tech. The bulk of the time went to creating the tech and optimising it which is still not done. But now they have the source code to create something amazing. Look forward to Cyberpunk 2.

I won’t buy it if they do nothing to fix and make 2077 a good, full game. They don’t get to scam me out of $60 with half-baked promises undelivered and say “hey, remember how we didn’t do what we said we’d do? Here’s Cyberpunk 2078 with everything we cut from 2077! Pre order today!”

That would, I think, ultimately ruin their reputation wholesale.

 

[animalfather]

I won’t buy it if they do nothing to fix and make 2077 a good, full game. They don’t get to scam me out of $60 with half-baked promises undelivered and say “hey, remember how we didn’t do what we said we’d do? Here’s Cyberpunk 2078 with everything we cut from 2077! Pre order today!”

That would, I think, ultimately ruin their reputation wholesale.

they can't fix the story and the missions. we have to wait for CP2

 

[gallantchar]

actually no. the hard part was getting the tech ready and figuring out what the game should be. now that they have the tech its very easy to make a good game.

So put that effort into fixing 2077. Pull any kind of “sequel” off the table and work on what you literally just sold right now. None of this “Cyberpunk 2” nonsense, because I certainly wouldn’t buy it after this, if they did nothing to fix 2077–literally making it another Anthem.

Post automatically merged: Dec 16, 2020

they can't fix the story and the missions. we have to wait for CP2

No, they can. It just takes time and effort.

And what will you do if they do this, and CP2 comes out and it’s another 2077? Will you say “just gotta wait for CP3” and the cycle continues? That’s how we got here in today’s gaming industry, where a developer can release a half-baked game and people just defend it.

 

[Fedge_123]

Why would a company release a product if they know it has issues for some consumers?
I've been in software development for over 20 years (not gaming software but enterprise business software), this situation occurs all the time. I've worked for start-ups, public and private companies of all sizes. Product gets released with known bugs, with cut-back features and reduced scope, etc., for a number of reasons. My guess (and it is only a guess) is that this was released for the reason of revenue recognition for fiscal year 2020. Public companies have different accounting rules than privately-held companies. Despite the huge number of purchased pre-orders, CDPR can not recognize all that revenue in 2020 unless the product it's tied to is actually released and delivered into customer hands in 2020.
That's my theory.