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Cyberpunk 2077 Refunds

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Re: Cyberpunk 2077 Refunds

#571

I'm playing this game on Google's Stadia and must say I'm impressed and having a blast. Besides some minor bugs this game streams flawless in 4k to my Mac (which technically isn't even a supported platform for the game, but is for Stadia). I bought the game during last weeks promotion with a free Chromecast Ultra and controller, so I would have at least had some hardware for cheap should the game itself suck, but the…

This has been my experience too. There's something futuristic about playing the game at 1080p/4K on a 32" external display connected to a 13" MacBook Air with an M1 CPU. It feels like it shouldn't be possible nor work as well as it does, and yet apparently I'm having a much better experience than people with much more capable hardware. I'm still keeping a PS2 and some old games for when I want to enjoy a local gaming…

> It feels like it shouldn't be possible nor work as well as it does, and yet apparently I'm having a much better experience than people with much more capable hardware.

I often use screen sharing to work on my laptop from my desktop. Both machines are connected to the same switch with gigabit ethernet, but it performs worse and has more noticable input lag than the Stadia games I'm playing over the internet. It must have something to do with the video encoding I guess, Google doing things in hardware and my laptop trying it's best in software.

Re: Cyberpunk 2077 Refunds

#572

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>it's an extremely fun, really well-made game There are seemingly infinite number of issues the game is having, I can't imagine calling it well-made. Here's a single compilation from the game's subreddit, where there are hundreds more examples: https://old.reddit.com/r/cyberpunkgame/comments/kewhky/i_com...

I am nearly at the end on Stadia and other than the occasional floating NPC I haven't experienced bugs. So experiences seem to vary quite a bit, they're far from universal.

Strangely, I think Stadia is one of the more stable platforms for the game. I'm in a similar position, dumb AI when driving, the odd multiple dialog lines being smashed together, but overall its not too bad. 28 hours in and I've been mostly distracted by side quests.

Re: Cyberpunk 2077 Refunds

#573

-- What was the purpose of the crunch / rushing this out the door ? -- What was to be gained from it? Holiday sales? Delivering a product not delayed again? Management bonuses? Did the developers get bonuses for delivering "on time"? -- At what cost did the crunch / delivering the product cause the team of developers? Now they need to keep working; fix the bugs; get this back in the store(s) and try to make everyone…

The short answer is that they gambled and they lost. The long answer is that releasing a high budget, triple-A title across multiple platforms isn't done in isolation. They were busy coordinating advertising campaigns, partnership deals, distribution, marketing, and other time-sensitive external processes. Many of those external contracts were likely time sensitive, perhaps with financial penalties for missing the sh…

> The short answer is that they gambled and they lost.

I think that answers my question, which was:

Has anyone said why they didnt delay just the ps4/xbone versions? I assume some kind of contracts, but would have been cheaper to break the contract than to release a broken game. Probably would have been cheaper to delay all versions(smaller stock hit + salaries) if reports of losses are true.

---

So did they see their game (that was so broken that friendly outlets went out of their way to say "DO NOT BUY") and think "we can take this gamble"?

Re: Cyberpunk 2077 Refunds

#574
post #548

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are tons of game stores, and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM provide a refund policy. Why would you whine about your game ? Just. Get. A. Refund. Uh, what? Until this announcement, SIE flat out refused people getting refunds. On Steam, you have to have played for less than 2 hours to qualify for a refund. Returns become extremely limited or downright impossible for opened physical games. https://www.polygon.com/2020…

I'm not defending CDPR. What they did as a business is not honest, viable, and does not profit to anybody. What you describe is flat out illegal in some countries.

And yet there's multiple articles about retailers either sticking to or making exceptions to their policies for the game:

https://psxextreme.com/news/gamestop-to-refuse-cyberpunk-207...

https://www.pcgamer.com/microsoft-and-best-buy-are-now-offer...

Or the fact that CDPR is going to pay for refunds out of their own pockets:

https://www.ign.com/articles/cyberpunk-2077-cdpr-says-it-wil...

Re: Cyberpunk 2077 Refunds

#575
Anyone know if GOG will process refunds? My cloud-sync has been munted from the get-go. Via Geforce Now the files have gone missing between sessions. Not to mention the numerous bugs I've encountered making certain missions unplayable (unable to advance, AI stuck behind cover etc.)

Re: Cyberpunk 2077 Refunds

#576

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, left AAA a long time ago. Way more money, work-life balance, and job opportunities available when you leave the game industry. It exploits developers who are initially passionate about the field, and then leaves them in a state where it's very difficult to leave (because it's very specific skills that don't easily transfer to other industries)

If you work on game engines, trading is a fantastic transition since you'll already have high performance C++ experience.

Can you elaborate on this?

Re: Cyberpunk 2077 Refunds

#577

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was the exact line I used to describe it to a friend. I think Deus Ex signals the same thing, we were expecting a deep story driven game, instead it's a pretty shallow RPG and not a very well done action game, so what's left?

The story seems really good to me. Better than the story for all by the original deus ex.

I mean the original Deus Ex is two decades old, so it's definitely undergone some of the "Seinfeld effect", but I feel generally even a game that old managed to achieve better depth.

Dialog and augmentations actually changed how missions played out in meaningful ways, meanwhile 2077 seemingly has dialog choices to give the illusion of choice (and it's a shoddy illusion since your character always ends up talking their way to the "titular" choice if you didn't make it yourself).

Re: Cyberpunk 2077 Refunds

#578

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tend to shy away from opinion only review type comments on HN but I have to say... > It turns out it's nothing like that, it's more like a new Deus Ex game. I expected this. It's nothing like this at all. The writing is atrocious. I do hope "Ghost Off!" becomes a mainstream piece of slang though. The voice lines are horribly inconsistent in quality (there are lines where it's clear the actor stumbled but the line w…

> so your character says something completely different than what you chose Oh gosh. This grinds my gears so bad. Wherever this trend started (and I've seen it in many games -- I think RDR2 and Witcher 3 most recently for me), it should really stop. Do developers think it's some sort of positive surprise when you get to see how they paraphrased (at best) the menu option into dialogue? Or is it just laziness/sloppines…

It's terrible. There are times where it starts to feel like a bait and switch

For example, without spoilers:

There's a point where you're speaking to a friendly character, and a mutual contact is possibly hurt.

Your options are essentially to blame your friend for what happened or to remind them that your mutual friend might be hurt (the idea being you can't afford to give up now)

By choosing to remind your friend of this mutual contact... you berate your friend! Eventually... blaming them for what happened!

I mean it's so painfully transparent that you can literally hear the switch up in intonation where your "fake choice" meets up with the real choice the game wants to go with.

Re: Cyberpunk 2077 Refunds

#579

Someone or a few at CDPR should lose their jobs over this. Why they didn't make this a PS5/XSX exclusive is absolutely beyond me. It was very, very clear this game did not run on last-gen console hardware.

No one needs to lose a job over a game, let's chock it up to a mistake, learn a lesson, and move on. Losing a job shouldn't be a threat to be perfect.

I never said a game developer should lose their job. Someone, or several people in Product and Marketing absolutely should though.

CDPR share price is down an absolutely staggering 40%+, absolutely massive hit to the company valuation, Sony has an egg on their face and has to issue refunds for this unplayable mess, and all for what, because management decided the game had to be released prior to the holiday season rather than a working product because they wanted holiday sales, which they're now losing money on via refunds?

I don't work in game development but in my industry, that is absolutely grounds for putting some heads on the chopping block.

Re: Cyberpunk 2077 Refunds

#580
post #453

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one needs to lose a job over a game, let's chock it up to a mistake, learn a lesson, and move on. Losing a job shouldn't be a threat to be perfect.

Is it chock like in “chock full” or chalk like “chalk it up” (like on a chalk board?) Sorry this isn’t adding to the conversation, but I’m genuinely curious.

It's "chalk it up" as in on a board or on the sidewalk.
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