Gaming "We are people, just like you" says Cyberpunk 2077 dev in response to death threats after delay announcement

[tom_mai78101]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1321201463545204737

Cyberpunk 2077 was delayed once again yesterday, and although the game's release was only pushed back by 21 days, it seems that was enough to stir up some nasty corners of the internet. Senior game designer Andrzej Zawadzki took to Twitter to report that members of the dev team have received death threats in response to the news, and reminded angry fans this was not acceptable behaviour.

"I understand you're feeling angry, disappointed and want to voice your opinion about it," Zawadzki said last night. "However, sending death threats to the developers is absolutely unacceptable and just wrong. We are people, just like you."

The backlash is not only related to the delay itself, but from a perception CD Projekt Red "lied" about staying on schedule, with many pointing to a specific tweet from the Cyberpunk 2077 account on 26th October promising no further delays. CD Projekt Red staff member Fabian Mario Döhla addressed this in the replies to Zawadzki's tweet, explaining that the social media manager would not have known about the delay (seemingly confirming a report CD Projekt Red staff heard the news at the same time as everyone else).

"Thing is: we are a public traded company and it's almost impossible to tell every employee beforehand, mainly because of legal reasons," Döhla said. "I'm aware of this (and used to it) but it can be super confusing for external people. Long story short: CP Twitter (and therefore our studio - as it's an official channel) did not lie on purpose."

"We are people, just like you" says Cyberpunk 2077 dev in response to death threats

Cyberpunk 2077 was delayed once again yesterday, and although the game's release was only pushed back by 21 days, it se…

www.eurogamer.net

 

[Ghan]

However, sending death threats to the developers is absolutely unacceptable and just wrong.

Yes. (Really? Death threats over a video game? Please stop.)
But at the same time, this is still some huge incompetence on their part. How many times has it been delayed at this point? I think at least 3? And this is on top of breaking the promise that they would never do "crunch time" at their studio. They are clearly scrambling to get the game out by Christmas despite that being an unrealistic goal. I think the community has shown over the years that they value companies whose priority is making the game the best it can be because they want to make great games, not companies who just want to meet deadlines. This is one of the things that used to contribute to Blizzard being so successful - their "when it's ready" strategy toward game development certainly created some memes "Blizzard Soon(tm)" but that is really a term of endearment because everyone knew that when the game was actually released, it would be amazing.
Not so much these days with Blizzard, but that's for other reasons.