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Cyberpunk 2077’s controversial launch has led to a loss of $1 billion (£734 million) for CD Projekt Red’s four founders.
Marcin Iwinski, Adam Kicinski, Piotr Nielubowicz, and Michal Kicinski founded the studio and currently own a combined 34 per cent of its stock. According to Bloomberg, the aftermath of Cyberpunk 2077’s launch has caused their stock value to drop from $4 billion (£2.9 billion) to $3 billion (£2.2 billion).
Cyberpunk 2077 was released on December 10, and the game has been marred by a series of controversies. Prior to release, one reviewer suffered an epileptic shock due to flashing lights in an unskippable story sequence. CD Projekt Red subsequently apologised and patched the section.
While the game runs well on high-end PCs, players with base PS4s and Xbox Ones have encountered numerous crashes and bugs. CD Projekt Red released a hotfix, but this only targeted a handful of specific bugs, not the crashes.
The developers then asked for patience while two new patches, set to arrive in January and February, were put together. In this apology, they suggested unsatisfied players use the existing console refund systems.
However, it has since emerged that CD Projekt Red had made no special agreement with Sony or Microsoft regarding these reviews, meaning many refund attempts are being rejected.
Prior to release, reviewers and streamers were only given access to PC codes, meaning nobody besides CD Projekt Red knew how it would look on consoles. The hype around the game led to a highly successful launch day, breaking launch records for PC and Steam, with over eight million pre orders for the game across all platforms.
CD Projekt Red has since admitted it “did not spend enough time” on last-gen consoles, leading to OpenCritic warning players against playing on PS4 or Xbox One until the issues are fixed.
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