Pawel Sasko Admitted That CD Projekt Red May Never Regain Trust of Fans Disappointed With Cyberpunk 2077
Pawel Sasko has commented on the lost trust of gamers in the studio after the release of Cyberpunk 2077. However, one of CD Projekt RED's CEOs assures that they have learned their lesson.
The premiere of Cyberpunk 2077 disappointed many people due to the game's poor technical condition or its lesser degree of refinement compared to what some people imagined. One of the creators revealed the reason for such a large number of bugs in the title, and the lead quest designer, Pawel Sasko, admitted that this situation may have made some people turn away from CD Projekt RED forever.
Lost player trust
One of the company's presidents, Michal Nowakowski, in an interview with Eurogamer stated that "a certain perception of the company will never return." It's undeniable that the studio has chipped on the trust of a large portion of fans with the premiere of Cyberpunk, but it must also be admitted that some were won over again thanks to update 2.0 and the excellent Phantom Liberty expansion. The studio has learned from its mistakes, but as Sasko admits, some people may never trust it.
Unfortunately, this is the price we have to pay for what happened. But I hope that through our work, through the things that we're showing, we can win some of those people back - and when they hear someone talking about the amazing experiences they can have in, say, Phantom Liberty, or the next Witcher, or Cyberpunk, or Hadar, the moment they see that the game has incredible value, they'll go grab it, play it and enjoy it.
In this situation, a lot will depend on the release of the studio's next game, The Witcher 4. If this turns out to be a success on par with The Wild Hunt, then the fans should look at CD Projekt RED more favorably. However, it cannot be denied that a certain bad aftertaste from Cyberpunk will remain in the mouths for a long time.
Devs draw conclusions
Nowakowski also admitted that working on Cyberpunk turned out to be very exhausting for many employees. After the game's release, some people showed no engagement because they were simply burned out. Some of them decided to leave the studio, but contrary to what it may seem, the actual turnover was not that high. Thanks to this situation, CD Projekt RED understood its mistakes.
We have to face this and draw conclusions. If we hadn't done this, I don't think we would have our place as a company in the future.
Certainly, one of such conclusions is the limitation of crunch in the company. Nowakowski mentioned that while creating Phantom Liberty it was only "a bit of overtime", but its scale was negligible compared to what happened with the base game or The Witcher 3. It is worth recalling that in April Sasko also spoke about methods of avoiding crunch.
