Cyberpunk 2077

[Cepp]

Its probably not sustainable outside of a subscription model. The drop off in clicks / ad revenue is huge if you're not part if that initial wave of sites reviewing a game.

Would anyone here pay a monthly fee to a website that did that?

[Digfox]

The review system is very similar to influencers on YouTube. I must have watched a load of videos about LG Nanocell TVs in the past month whilst TV shopping, hearing about how great they are for gaming when the reality is they're average at best and the person reviewing has simply been given the TV for free and gets to keep it...

I think there are some similarities although there are definitely reviewers on YouTube who are fair, independent and critical, even with the publisher providing review code. In many ways their reviews are of a higher quality than the traditional media.

For me the rise or shift in videogames is more towards streamers which fits with the controlling 'unknown' factors prior to release. Shroud and numerous others (nearly a million viewers at one point) were lined up on Twitch before release to play the game and because they are sponsored their is much more control over the message being delivered. I do think with companies like Digital Extremes putting huge emphasis on their own streaming teams this is a shift that will happen in streaming/influencing, i.e. more in-house or professional level streamers.

Ultimately if that review isn't out on the launch date then the views (and therefore money) being earnt drops off exponentially. Linus (Linus Tech Tips) confirmed that this week with the whole Nvidia public shaming for no-longer supplying a YouTube channel.

[Neon Ignition]

Trouble is though it's less about the reviews themselves for most sites and more about the risk of losing access to the years and years of pre-release previews, interviews etc which will be by far the bigger audience draw. Within three high profile weak reviews you could easily see yourself blacklisted by EA, Rockstar and Activision blocking you from coverage of half the market thereby effectively shutting you down in a market where most sites and magazines are on the brink of collapse to begin with

[Golgo]

I think the best we can hope for is that reviews need to be done across platforms (i.e. at least review on PC, Next Gen and Last Gen even if not on every single console available)... Developers need to show footage/material from every platform as well. The worst thing CDPR have done here is keeping the last gen versions hidden so that the consumer is buying unaware of just how crap it actually is on that platform.

This is what we need, chaps! Adverts like from the good old days with the different versions shown!

[nonny]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfpoTjUz1BY

IGN have released a separate review of the last gen versions...

[nonny]

I think there are some similarities although there are definitely reviewers on YouTube who are fair, independent and critical, even with the publisher providing review code. In many ways their reviews are of a higher quality than the traditional media.

Yes there are definitely reviewers out there who are impartial and also state whether or not they've paid for the product themselves, but in a sea of simultaneous day one reviews it's easy to miss the ones who are setup like that, unless you're already savvy enough to know.

Right now if you were playing on PC or Next Gen I think I would argue that the game is just about fit enough for release. At least in comparison to similar games in terms of scale and complexity... buggy yes, but certainly it is playable and improved from patch 1.04.

On last gen though, its an utter mess and should never have released in this state. What is a problem for CDPR though is that the next gen title and last gen title are one and the same, given that the game is running backwards compatible on PS5/Series X/S... So if they were going to halt release they would have needed to have done so across all console platforms.

Perhaps that would have actually been the right decision but the horse has now bolted and they've now only got one option and that's to fix the thing in the wild.

[wakka]

Remember how much everyone used to like CDPR, and how they were the good guys of gaming?

Amazing how quickly you can burn up so much good will.

[Digfox]

Yep. Now the 'refund wall' is catching up with them. As it appears CDPR didn't do anything with regards to the refund process and agreeing anything on any of these platforms (which was fairly obvious).

Embedded Tweet

[wakka]

Honestly working at that company must be a bloody nightmare. **** has probably been hitting the fan on a non-stop basis since about summer 2019, and now it's gone into overdrive with the public pressure to fix the game.

I've been watching quite a few videos and, at least as someone who hasn't played it, there look like telltale signs that they either bit off far more than they could chew, or that the project wasn't managed well. Or, more likely, both.

Case in point, the fact that you can't use the monorail. That would seem to be a relatively straightforward area to implement, but it's been replaced by ye olde teleportation fast travel. That smacks of a project that had spun way out of control.

[nonny]

Honestly working at that company must be a bloody nightmare. **** has probably been hitting the fan on a non-stop basis since about summer 2019, and now it's gone into overdrive with the public pressure to fix the game.

I've been watching quite a few videos and, at least as someone who hasn't played it, there look like telltale signs that they either bit off far more than they could chew, or that the project wasn't managed well. Or, more likely, both.

Case in point, the fact that you can't use the monorail. That would seem to be a relatively straightforward area to implement, but it's been replaced by ye olde teleportation fast travel. That smacks of a project that had spun way out of control.

Yeah I think it is fair to say this is never, ever going to run that well on last gen consoles. Even the PS4 Pro and One X are struggling which means there is very little hope the lower end machines are going ever manage what is acceptable.

If there is one thing though that this game does highlight it's that the Series S outshines the One X by some margin on this. It's running it at a constant 30fps at a decent resolution unwavering... for £249 thats the lowest point of entry to play this right now.

With all things considered CDPR should never have released it for last gen consoles, but then all that wonderful revenue would have gone to waste... at least until the refunds start cashing in.

CDPR - Crunch Development Public Relations - nightmare.

[wakka]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/kde2jj/cd_projekt_red_emergency_board_call/

This is quite interesting.

[Dogg Thang]

Aside from all the details in this case (I have no stake in the game and won't be getting it any time soon, if ever), this is yet another obvious result of games now being released as a work in progress. Even that ability is a problem. Because if you think about when they had to go to manufacturing, that's previously when a game had to be finished. Now, day one patches are standard so a company will take a risk, go to manufacturing and then hope that they'll get to fix the game in the remaining time. And maybe many do. But some won't. Some won't make it. And of course they won't. This game seems to be massive, from what I'm hearing. It sounds like a nightmare to make even on a basic level, before even factoring in all the different versions. Pushing the button on release was always going to be a risk.

And as long as we live in a world of patches, which isn't going away any time soon, I think we're just going to see more of this. Games are now a work in progress even after they've been sold and delivered to you.

[Digfox]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comme...cy_board_call/

This is quite interesting.

You beat me to it! Just saw someone post this on 'Era.

A few telling bits for me.

B: Have you seen influx of refund after twitter statment?

CDPR: We're not encouraging players to refund the game. We hope they will trust us. We already released one fix and another one is coming in 7 days. If that's not possible we provide help. We just started. Gamers waited so long for the game so we humbely hope they can wait.

F: Will Microsoft and Sony financially participate in your refund campaignor it's just you?

CDPR: They have their own policies so it's up to them to handle. There's nothing special done here. It's handled like any other refund.

Again suggests they didn't agree anything. PSN don't have a refund policy, so this just makes CDPR look inept. Also a stretch to say they aren't encouraging refunds.

The deadline is so tight on their refunds help, that it's looking like being a tick box exercise.

D: How you deploy your staff now? Who works on mobile/next witcher/DLCs? Did staff allocation changed? Will this delay Witcher 4?

CDPR: Mobile team is working on mobile(I believe this is different developer all together that got rights to develop their game), Gwent team is hard locked on gwent. Cyberpunk will continue to work on patches. We are still working on future projects. At least until february people will be working on patching the game.

So barely any time to improve performance then.

Based on financial market reaction, the move towards MTX-driven multiplayer Cyberpunk Online I think CDPR will just start making GaaS games from now on.

[Golgo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfpoTjUz1BY

IGN have released a separate review of the last gen versions...

4 out of 10. Nice. Check 0:43 where the character kicks the car tire, it is priceless! Perfect metaphor of AAA gaming, I luvs it...

[Dogg Thang]

That review makes it look like a total train wreck. What would it have been like without all those delays? Sounds like it needed another 6 months or just should have skipped current gen consoles.