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PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan was busy recently with a boatload of new PlayStation announcements from an interview with GQ, and in it he tossed a bit of shade at CD Projekt RED and the messy Cyberpunk 2077 launch.
When talking about launch dates for PS5 games and how the Covid pandemic has created a lot of uncertainty and difficulty, Ryan made a reference that appears to call out CD Projekt RED launching Cyberpunk 2077 well before it was ready. While Ryan himself avoids naming any studios or titles in the quote, GQ thought it was an obvious enough reference to hyperlink their own Cyberpunk 2077 review to.
“You know, there are two approaches to this: you can either hold the date and put out the game irrespective of quality or you can ship it when it’s right,” Ryan said. “We have always taken the latter approach. There have been some fairly high-profile instances of publishers trying the former approach.” Cyberpunk 2077 may not be the only game that’s been released well before it was ready to, but it certainly counts as one of the most high-profile in recent memory. Ryan’s focus here is saying that first-party PlayStation games aren’t going to release until the developer and publisher feel the game is truly ready to be in players’ hands, but he can’t help but point out that’s not always how it’s done at other developers.
In fact, Sony’s relationship with the Cyberpunk 2077 launch is a tenuous one. After misleading players about the state of the game on last-gen consoles, CDPR mishandled the wave of refund requests by directing them to PlayStation Support, who was unprepared for the deluge of angry customers. This resulted in Sony pulling Cyberpunk 2077 off of the PlayStation Store entirely. It’s still not available to purchase for PlayStation players more than two months later, and CDPR doesn’t seem to have any idea when it will be back. The recent delay of Patch 1.2 to the back half of March doesn’t seem to bode well for its return anytime soon.
PlayStation fans can at least feel confident that Sony’s own games will get the time, attention, and polish they deserve before they release, even if that means shifting release dates so that developers can better meet and exceed player expectations. Recently Gran Turismo 7 was delayed into 2022, and it’s questionable if we’ll see the God of War sequel this year, however, Ryan specifically said the team is feeling pretty confident about games like Returnal, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and Horizon Forbidden West, which are all on track to release at various points throughout the year.
[Source: GQ]