Report: Cyberpunk 2077’s Development Didn’t Fully Begin until 2016, E3 2018 Demo Was “Almost Entirely Fake”

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Image: CD PROJEKT RED

CD PROJEKT co-founder and joint CEO Marcin Iwiński publicly apologized for the shortcomings of Cyberpunk 2077 earlier this week, but that hasn’t stopped gaming journalists from digging up additional dirt to add to the sci-fi RPG’s ongoing controversies. The latest comes from Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, who shared a report today with some interesting claims such as the notion that CD PROJEKT RED didn’t really begin developing the game until 2016. That’s rather shocking, being that Cyberpunk 2077 was originally announced all the way back in 2012.

“Part of the fans’ disappointment is proportional to the amount of time they spent waiting for the game,” Schreier wrote. “Although Cyberpunk was announced in 2012, the company was then still mainly focused on its last title and full development didn’t start until late 2016, employees said. That was when CD Projekt essentially hit the reset button, according to people familiar with the project.”

“Studio head Adam Badowski took over as director, demanding overhauls to Cyberpunk’s gameplay and story. For the next year, everything was changing, including fundamental elements like the game-play perspective. Top staff who had worked on The Witcher 3 had strong opinions on how Cyberpunk should be made, which clashed with Badowski and lead to the eventual departure of several top developers.”

The report goes on to allege that Cyberpunk 2077’s first gameplay demo, which CD PROJEKT RED shared behind closed doors during E3 2018, was “almost entirely fake.” This is an interesting claim because the demo doesn’t look too far off from the final product.

“Fans and journalists were wowed by Cyberpunk 2077’s ambition and scale,” noted Schreier. “What they didn’t know was that the demo was almost entirely fake. CD Projekt hadn’t yet finalized and coded the underlying gameplay systems, which is why so many features, such as car ambushes, were missing from the final product. Developers said they felt like the demo was a waste of months that should have gone toward making the game.”

CD PROJEKT RED’s studio head Adam Badowski has posted some of his thoughts regarding the report, which you can check out in the tweet below. Badowski denied that the demo was fake, insisting that the final game looks and plays way better than what he showed at E3 2018. He also pointed out that the report stems from only 20 staff members, practically all of whom were anonymous.

Tsing Mui
News poster at The FPS Review.

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