2020 was a very anticipated year for the video game industry. There was the hype of the next-generation video game platforms that were slated to launch in 2020 along with several video game titles that also had releases scattered throughout the calendar year. Unfortunately, none of us could have anticipated that 2020 would have been quite an eventful year. None of us will forget the coronavirus health pandemic outbreak. It’s the cause for so many changes in our daily lives.
With the impact of the pandemic hitting everyone worldwide, it was met with several video game development studios closing their offices and transitioning their employees to work remotely. As you could have guessed, several video game titles got delayed out of 2020 and are now slated for a launch in 2021. However, there was still the successful release of both the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X/S into the marketplace. This was also met with one of the more anticipated video game titles slated for a 2020 launch.
CD Projekt Red is a well-known video game development studio. These are the folks behind the iconic RPG trilogy, The Witcher. Likewise, the studio was hyping up their latest video game release, Cyberpunk 2077 for several years. It was eventually delayed several times throughout 2020, but the studio was confident that the launch would happen before 2021.
While the game did see a release into the marketplace on December 10, 2020, it wasn’t met with the warmest reception. For those on next-generation platforms, PC, and even the last-generation consoles such as the PlayStation 4 Pro or the Xbox One X, there wasn’t much to complain about. That’s of course in terms of playability. All platforms suffer from bugs, but the base console for the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One was essentially unplayable. With poor FPS drops and bugs that made the game look drastically different compared to what was advertised, this launch fiasco is still being picked apart. We saw refunds for both physical and digital copies along with threats of lawsuits being issued due to investors losing out on money after the rocky launch.
It looks like an individual investor had filed a lawsuit against CD Projekt Red over the losses and it seems that CD Projekt Red is ready to fight back. This is probably just the start of lawsuits against the studio which CD Projekt Red will have to fight off. According to a report from Bloomberg, CD Projekt Red stated that they will defend itself vigorously against any such claims.