CD Projekt Red, the company behind the world-conquering Witcher games, recently made an announcement that had many gamers up in arms.
You see, the Polish studio recently said that it would be delaying its eagerly anticipated game Cyberpunk 2077 by three weeks, leaving many gamers who were eager to get hold of the game in November this year in a state of shock.
It’s not a long wait, though, and CD Projekt did explain its reasons in a recent tweet (via Forbes), giving the game a new release date (December 10).
“We’re aware it might seem unrealistic when someone says that 21 days can make any difference in such a massive and complex game, but they really do”, said CD Projekt in its tweet. “We feel we have an amazing game on our hands and are willing to make every decision, even the hardest ones, if it ultimately leads to you getting a video game you’ll fall in love with”, added the Polish video game company.
In its tweet, CD Projekt also points out to the challenge of working from home, which many game developers have been forced to do due to the COVID-19 crisis. But it seems this delay really is about fine-tuning the game’s different versions. This is because aside from shipping on PS4, Xbox One and PC, Cyberpunk 2077 will also be released on the upcoming next-gen consoles. And aside from launching on the Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and the PS5, it’s also coming to Google’s cloud platform Stadia.
We have important news to share with you pic.twitter.com/qZUaD6IwmM
— Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) October 27, 2020
That’s a lot of versions to test, then, so it’s not surprising that CD Projekt choose to delay the game again (it was originally planned to launch in April this year), to make sure all these versions work well at launch.
There’s been a rumor doing the rounds, though, that says CD Projekt is encountering difficulties with the current-gen versions of the game. Actually, all we’ve seen of the game to date has been running on a high-end PC, showing us the best-looking version of the game possible.
So there’s no clue how well the game will run and look on the PS4 and Xbox One, which are now seven years old. These consoles’ hardware is seriously dated when compared to the upcoming PS5 and Xbox Series X, so getting a massive game like Cyberpunk 2077 running well and looking great on current-gen systems will surely be a challenge.
This is especially true of the Xbox One version, as this is the least powerful system that Cyberpunk 2077 will be released on this December.
This is because while an Xbox Series X has 12 teraflops of graphical power, the Xbox One can only process things at 1 teraflop, so the power gap is immense. The standard PS4 (non-pro) is more powerful, though, but is still way behind a PS5 or high-end gaming PC.
Will Cyberpunk 2077 live up to the hype?
So there’s a possibility that the PS4 and Xbox One versions of Cyberpunk 2077 might be a disappointment, with these having greatly reduced graphical fidelity, poor frame rates and long load times.
An online rumor even says that Cyberpunk 2077 failed certification, that either Microsoft or Sony refused to certify the game for their consoles (very likely their current-gen consoles) because the game wasn’t up to scratch. This is likely nonsense, as CD Projekt already announced that the game had gone gold (and it equates this with passing certification in its recent tweet).
But the truth is that games like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Dragon Age: Inquisition were released in a less than optimized state during the last generation, and it’s a possibility the same will happen to Cyberpunk 2077 this fall.
That would certainly lead to a poor experience in what’s supposed to be a massive, sci-fi role-playing game with numerous missions, storylines and places to explore, and one of the best RPGs ever.
Here’s hoping then, that CD Projekt makes the most of this extra time and can truly get the game in shape, so that gamers can truly get the RPG they’ve been waiting for all these years when December 10 arrives.
Read more: 5 reasons why Cyberpunk 2077 could be the best role-playing game ever