Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced they will remove Cyberpunk 2077 from the PlayStation Store, and offering refunds.
While the tweet only discussed the refunds, the full statement on the SIE website reveals that they will be removing the game from the PlayStation Store. Users merely need to log-in to their PlayStation account while on the website to submit a request.
“SIE strives to ensure a high level of customer satisfaction, therefore we will begin to offer a full refund for all gamers who have purchased Cyberpunk 2077 via PlayStation Store. SIE will also be removing Cyberpunk 2077 from PlayStation Store until further notice.
Once we have confirmed that you purchased Cyberpunk 2077 via PlayStation Store, we will begin processing your refund. Please note that completion of the refund may vary based on your payment method and financial institution.”
The move is so surprising that at this time of writing, Fallout 76 is trending on Twitter for some. This is due to users comparing to how that game also suffered a litany of issues (arguably more so than Cyberpunk 2077), yet was never removed from sale.
As previously reported, the game’s numerous delays and leaked footage were not the end of the woes for CD Projekt Red. One reviewer suffered a major epileptic seizure, and accused the developer on basing the Braindance headset off a medical device designed to intentionally induce seizures.
Despite high praise from initial reviews, the Metacritic user score was far less. Currently the Metascore for the PC version of the game is 87, with a user score of 7.0 (out of 10). Meanwhile, the game’s PlayStation 4 and Xbox One user scores are 3.1 and 4.2 respectively (with Metascores of 54 and 55).
It should be noted that those who have not played the game may also be submitting user reviews, as Metacritic does not verify if a user has completed or played a game. In February for example a user of Reset Era orchestrated the review bombing of AI: The Somnium Files.
Metacritic placed a 36 hour grace period on user reviews for video games in July of this year. Metacritic would later insist this decision was not motivated by reactions to any particular game. That year also say low user review scores for Warcraft III: Reforged, and The Last of Us Part II.
Users complained of Cyberpunk 2077‘s numerous glitches and bugs, along with poor optimization and the console version having inferior graphics. Even critic reviews that praised the game also discussed those issues. Since then a hotfix has been released, but CD Projekt Red stock value dropped by 29% in a week.
CD Projekt Red later apologized for not showing Cyberpunk 2077 running on last-gen consoles (though they did show the game running on PlayStation 4 Pro), and for the unstable launch of the game.
As such they offered refunds, though there have been some claims that PlayStation and Microsoft were not offering refunds in some cases, even after the announcement. At least one Reddit user had managed to get a refund for the game on PlayStation 4 prior to CD Projekt Red’s announcement, despite playing the game for over 10 hours.
A Q&A investor call reportedly had CD Projekt Red denying they had any special agreements for refunds for Cyberpunk 2077 on consoles, and that they were working on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the game “until the very last minute.” A Reddit user also discovered a PC config file for the game was improperly programmed, and has provided a fix.
Image: Previously released press release.
