Get # From Disastrous Launch to Redeemed Masterpiece: The Evolution of Cyberpunk 2077

When Cyberpunk 2077 came out on consoles in December 2020, it was (barely) one of the most disastrous releases in the history of the video game industry. More than three years later, the story is far more serious and far stranger, and a redemption arc for the game and the studio that created it, CD Projekt Red, is underway, with fans and critics finally starting to see it in a new way.

The Rough Road to Redemption

On the day of its release, Cyberpunk 2077 was ‘broken’ – a ‘disastrous’ and ‘unplayable’ mess for some who’d been waiting for it. To genre fans and its critics, it represented ‘the commercial, critical nadir of one of the most interesting narratives in game history.’ In response to the backlash, the studio CD Projekt Red announced they’d do everything possible to make it a great game, making a massive commitment of time and resources to fixing the game, and finally reaching a milestone: not a single developer at the studio will be working on Cyberpunk 2077 post the release of its only expansion, Phantom Liberty, in September 2023.

CD PROJEKT RED'S Unwavering Commitment

The extent of that commitment is probably unique in the games industry; according to the details listed in its latest financial results, the CD Projekt Red studios logged exactly how many people worked on which project – 17 employees on Cyberpunk 2077 at its peak, now down to zero as of 29 February 2024. And the end of an era.

Transformative Updates and Expansion

Redemption arrived in the form of a series of epic updates and an expansion that breathed new life into the game. Update 2.0 completely revamped the game with a new perk system and improved AI, followed by a series of smaller but equally important enhancements. The Phantom Liberty expansion gives Cyberpunk 2077 a satisfying ending to its development cycle.

Cyberpunk 2077 Now: A Revamped Experience

The result of that dedication is that Cyberpunk 2077 today is a testament to the CD Projekt Red staff’s craft, as relentless bugfixes and balance patch after balance patch rehabilitate the game to a point where it is a world unto itself. Cyberpunk 2077 drops players into a beautiful, dense metropolis, and affords them the freedom to engage with this remade universe in as many different ways as they like, as IGN notes in its 9/10 review.

Looking Forward: The Future of CD PROJEKT RED

With Cyberpunk 2077 now firmly behind them, the studio is looking to the future. The sequel to Cyberpunk 2077, codenamed Orion, is on the horizon as is more than one game in The Witcher universe. CD Projekt RED is truly coming into its own.

The Studio Behind the Scenes

Adjacent to this moment of transition is CD Projekt Red, the studio behind The Witcher 3, another remarkable creation, and its most recent, and probably most ambitious, game, Cyberpunk 2077. When these games are judged on their own merits and not compared to one another, it serves to emphasise how stubbornly resistant to color the industry still is, and how consequential the studio’s decision was to fix Cyberpunk 2077’s bugs so that players could receive the experience they were promised from the outset.

A Testament to Resilience

Cyberpunk 2077’s pivot from being one of the most embarrassing launches in recent memory to being a mere blip on a long and unbroken road to eventual redemption is a testament to the power of sheer determination. Confronted with the task of finding their way out of the mess – if only to reclaim some of the goodwill they’d lost with players and media alike – the CD Projekt Red studio poured themselves into it. The game is now vastly improved, and its developer’s reputation is, to some extent at least, restored.

Conclusion: A Studio's Journey From Disarray to Triumph

The story of the Cyberpunk 2077 saga is about far more than one game’s redemption arc. It’s a story about a studio’s fortitude, dedication to its community, and unwavering commitment to iterative excellence. Way back in 2012, when CDPR first announced Cyberpunk 2077, they were already laying the groundwork for their future. And as such, despite the game’s now-checked list of extant issues, its legacy is assured.

About the Studio

Such is the stature of CD Projekt Red, the studio behind Cyberpunk 2077, that with its release the company has laid out its case for being its own most powerful studio, arguably the gaming world’s own powerhouse. Indeed, if Cyberpunk 2077’s transformative reinvention has removed all doubts about its prospects for success, then it has also set new precedents, too, for game development and redemption. Its massive open world, like that of The Witcher 3 before it, is still unparalleled in gaming. Its games, more so than ever, rewrite the rulebook; they are still as complicated as they are progressively liberal, as experimental as they are essentially involving, and as genre-bending as they are defiantly unique. With its hugely ambitious pledge of an Orion cloud-based gaming service, and the promises of a wider expansion of The Witcher universe, CD Projekt Red stands as a powerhouse in the gaming world, a truly innovative industry ‘genius loci’, a company that points to a new, greater future for gaming.