Cyberpunk 2077 — A developer’s perspective about the mess
Tags: Cd Projekt Red, Rockstar Games, Cyberpunk 2077, Red Dead Redemption 2, Rpg

image from gog.com

This is my 3rd post on Cyberpunk in less than a week. I think, I am just upset that I am not able to play this game, despite

a) having the money to buy the game.

b) having a gaming PC that is good enough to run RDR2 @ 2K resolution

c) Owning an Xbox and PS4

This year has been bad. Only recently have I started rebuilding my life, after the initial shock of 2020’s pandemic. Gaming has helped me maintain calm over the last half year or so. Every now and then, you get excited for a game. For me, 2018 was all about RDR2. 2019 was Witcher 3 (I did not have a PC or a console when Witcher was released).

2020 was all about Cyberpunk 2077. Entire internet is writing about these issues. One only needs to look at the store page of the game. GOG.com is a small shop and it has a very loyal fan base, including myself.

Developer’s Perspective

image from gog.com

Witcher 3 has a rating of 4.9 out of 5 on GOG.COM. Cyberpunk 2077 has a rating of 3.8 out of 5 on GOG.COM.

I am convinced, every Witcher 3 reviewer is also a Cyber punk reviewer on the store page, and majority of them equipped with ‘verified purchase’ badge. That is just bad. Scrolling through the reviews, most of the issues seem to be about bugs, performance, and lack of optimization.

I work as a full time freelance software developer. I do not code in the gaming industry, but I understand crunch time. I understand working late nights. I understand the pressure before delivery. Every time I see a game pushed out in bad shape, rather than getting angry, I sympathize with the developer company.

Running out of time and money

I have seen many projects come to a halt because the owner of the project is about to run out of money. Or has already run out of money and is now in deep debt, with no product to sell. I feel like, perhaps, CD Projekt ran out of money. It is not like they became bankrupt. Rather, as a publicly traded company, they cannot keep dumping money to a game for a really long time.

Unlike EA or Ubisoft, companies like Projekt, build one game at a time. I feel that, similar to movies, games make most of their money in the first few weeks of the release. After that, the price is reduced, and people who buy later, usually but it at a sale price or discounts.

Public companies must deliver money every quarter or they will lose investors, who will take their money and go. This week, CD Projekt stock tanked like crazy. A lower valuation makes it difficult to raise funds, maintain its independence and keep up their reputation.

The company (and its investors) have waited 8 years (I think, the game has been in development since 2012) and their patience was running. A major investor may have gotten aggressive.

image from gog.com

Remote Work and reduced productivity

Working remotely goes both ways. I have been working remotely for 8 years now, and I am doing okay. My earnings have increased, and my lifestyle has vastly improved since going full remote.

Still, it’s not for everybody. I feel, game development is a creative industry. It is also a work that requires powerful hardware, high speed broadband and incredibly high-end infrastructure. Thanks to the pandemic, I was forced to relocate from a big city to small village so I can be with my wife and kids. I spent weeks trying to adjust to the low internet speeds and lack of desk space at the small home at the village, which is current residence.

I am sure, I have lost at least 10 to 20 % of my productivity due to the reduced infrastructure quality. Perhaps, the same thing happened to the team at CD Projekt. The sudden change of working from home, and only interacting remotely may have made it difficult for the good folks at Projekt from working at their peak levels.

Ambition that exceeds Ability

I mentioned above Witcher 3 was my game for 2019 and RDR2 was for 2018. One cannot help but make comparisons between these master pieces. RDR2 is clearly on another level. Witcher 3 is amazing, but RDR2 has such a bigger and larger presentation. The visuals, music, story writing, direction…everything is on another level. Rockstar is simply a bigger company with a larger headcount and more money.

Money, Rockstar spent, optimizing it like crazy so its runs butter smooth on PS4 and Xbox One, the base models of last gen. I can count, may be 3 crashes in my entire experience with RDR2, and I bought it on launch week.

image from rockstar website

I think, Projekt, they bit more than they can handle. They focused so much on making the game look grander and futuristic, they forgot about the ‘computing cost’ for its customers. This year, they have gone overboard with their marketing, and every video, screenshot shows amazing visuals.

Perhaps they assumed that every player in the world is going to be rocking an SSD computer with RTX 3080 or something. The marketing team was convinced that every gamer in the world will instantly upgrade to an Xbox Series X. In my country, 3080 costs 1800 dollars, and that is the retail price on amazon.in! Xbox Series X and PS5 is not even sold, yet. In the rich world countries, these things are so backlogged, scalpers continue to sell them in the black market at insane prices.

Final Note

image from gog.com

It hard to express, how bad I felt cancelling the pre-order a few weeks ago. Yes, I was getting impatient like the rest of the world. We are all gamers here. We are used to waiting. I doubt any gamer has ever not played a game, simply because it is delayed.

Projekt could have just taken another year to work on this. In one year, I would have at least upgraded to a RTX 3060. I would have a Xbox Series X. Like me, millions would have done the upgrade in a year’s time.

It is just this year, 2020. It is just how it is. Cyberpunk 2077 is simply another one of its victims.