Cyberpunk 2077 has been delayed. Again. Its release date moves from November 19 to December 10.
According to developer CD Projekt Red, the reason for the delay has to do with quality assurance. Currently, as many as nine internal builds of Cyberpunk 2077 require testing for compatibility and optimisation. This is a lot of work, especially considering the PS5 and Xbox Series S/X versions are a free, courtesy upgrade. All this QA must be conducted from home, because its 2020. This has caused the pace of development to slow, and blown past the launch window by 21 days, despite the project only going gold a few weeks ago.
CDPR announced the delay via its socials along with their rationale. You can read its statement in full below:
We have important news to share with you pic.twitter.com/qZUaD6IwmM
— Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) October 27, 2020
The statement:
Hey everyone,
Today we’ve decided to move the release date of Cyberpunk 2077 by 21 days. The new release date is December 10th.
Most likely, there are many emotions and questions in your heads, so, first and foremost, please accept our humble apologies.
The biggest challenge for us right now is shipping the game on current-gen, next-gen, and PC at the same time, which requires us to prepare and test 9 versions of it (Xbox One/X, compatibility on Xbox Series S|X, PS4/Pro, compatibility on PS5, PC, Stadia)… while working from home. Since Cyberpunk 2077 evolved towards almost being a next-gen title somewhere along the way, we need to make sure everything works well and every version runs smoothly. We’re aware it might seem unrealistic when someone says that 21 days can make a difference in such a massive and complex game, but they really do.
Some of you might also be wondering what these words mean in light of us saying we achieved gold master some time ago. Passing certification, or ‘going gold’, means the game is ready, can be completed, and has all content in it. But it doesn’t mean we stop working on it or raising the quality bar. On the contrary, this is the time where many improvements are being made which will then be distributed by a Day 0 patch. This is the time period we undercalculated.
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.
Yours,
Adam Badowski & Marcin Iwiński
Thoughts?
As we’ve said in previous pieces that reported on Cyberpunk‘s ongoing delays, this is entirely in character for CDPR. The perfectionist streak that saw The Witcher 3 delayed multiple times appears to have returned.
Will we get to play Cyberpunk 2077 before 2020 is out? At this point, your guess is as good as ours. We wish the folks at CDPR all the best on this (hopefully final) home stretch.
Cyberpunk 2077 now launches December 10, 2020 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows PC. PS5 and Xbox Series S/X owners who purchase last-gen copies of the game will recieve a free upgrade.
