Board 8 > So what did cd projekt do?

(+) Yeah! (+)

the way people are gobbling up the games, I didn't even know they did anything wrong

---

Released a broken buggy game on their second largest platform(PS4, Xbox One) that essentially renders the game unplayable on those consoles for the majority of people.

And their response to that and other things hasn't been the most ideal.

People have other issues with how it's marketed I guess too, but I feel like that happens with every major release that doesn't 'live up' to the hype it got.

And other things you'd likely to find 'gamers' to complain about.


---

The thing from today is they were going to release a game that had been taken off of Steam due to Chinese trolls, Devotion, but then 2 hours later they backed off because they are scared of China.

---

Oh yeah, their review protocol was pretty bad. Only allowing video that they supplied to the review among other things, so no one knew how bad the base consoles were until the game was out, which of course lead to refunds(which some people can't do because they are at the mercy of the storefront, not CDPR).

It's a mix of very legitimate complaints, mixed with usual gamer outrage.

And the GOG thing too. Devotion was released on their platform, then taken off.

---

Wow I seriously haven't heard of such things from the customers


---

The Devotion thing in particular is mindblowing. It seemed like an easy PR win to distract from the whole Cyberpunk fiasco. Yet not only did they not follow through, they explicitly stated that the reason was messages from gamers, so the Chinese trolls won again. Over a single image put in by a rogue employee that got patched out within hours. Terrible stuff.

Also, mandatory crunch after saying they wouldnt use crunch, a messed up bonus system that encouraged voluntary crunch (thankfully now scrapped), transphobic and generally questionable marketing, and going back on a lot of promises they made with the game. Perhaps a better way of putting it is what didnt CD Projekt do.

---

It's certainly quite the fall from grace, and the writing on the wall has been there for a very long time now. There's just a lot of people plugging there ears and refusing to admit anything because "I want my edgy game with the customizable dick".

---

Lightning Strikes posted...

transphobic and generally questionable marketing

Did anyone actually care about this? It seemed about as transphobic as "chicks with dicks" porn and people lap that shit up.
---

Yes, Mac.

People care about this.

---

Releasing a full-price game that's broken on PS4/Xbox One, which is how a LOT of people are going to be playing it, is inexcusable.

---

Mac Arrowny posted...

Did anyone actually care about this? It seemed about as transphobic as "chicks with dicks" porn and people lap that shit up.

so it's about as transphobic as another transphobic thing? huh

Paratroopa1 posted...

so it's about as transphobic as another transphobic thing? huh

Hmm, what makes the porn transphobic? I don't think I've heard someone explain that before. I mean, it's exploitive, but so is all porn.
---

Mac Arrowny posted...

Hmm, what makes the porn transphobic? I don't think I've heard someone explain that before. I mean, it's exploitive, but so is all porn.

To be clear, it's not that any porn featuring a trans person is transphobic by any means (believe me, I partake in quite a lot of it), but a whole lot of it goes beyond the realm of merely exploitative and into the realm of... dehumanizing isn't quite the word I want, but basically just objectifying people as freaks to be gawked at rather than just normal ass people like most porn actors. A lot of people feel that there's a very similar vibe going on with the Chromanticore girl in Cyberpunk's advertising, which I think is a feeling with a lot of merit, although I'm sorta on the fence about it for complicated reasons. They didn't do a whole lot to reassure me that it was a misunderstanding though.

In the game it's an advertisement for porn I think. There's these pleasure machines that have people on them (men, women, etc.) and she's one of them.
---

In fairness literally reducing human beings to fetishistic products is very on-point for a cyberpunk universe so I don't think I have an issue with it being in the game itself since the point is to illustrate how shitty the world is. Not entirely up to speed on what the marketing controversy side of this is though so I guess I won't speak to that.

---

The transphobia discussion was already happening before the ingame footage because of tweets from CDPR in the past and the general vibe some people got that they were pandering to the toxic gamer side of their fandom. This made people less likely to give them the benefit of the doubt, it's not like it was their first misstep on that front.

---

Mac Arrowny posted...

In the game it's an advertisement for porn I think. There's these pleasure machines that have people on them (men, women, etc.) and she's one of them.

Believe me when I say the game is filled with so many ads for so much porn with no deeper meaning beyond "exploitation...bad?" that most of it ends up coming across as unironic horniness. There are a few scenes diving into specifics of exploitation in the sex industry but the ads are not it.

Not to mention they used this ad, which they say is an example of why exploiting people's sexuality for profit is bad, to advertise their game in real life.

---

So what y'all are saying is

They should've delayed it again and made everyone hate them still but for different reasons

---

Heroic Bigpun posted...

So what y'all are saying is

They should've delayed it again and made everyone hate them still but for different reasons

unironically yes

---

Id say that poster is the least of the transphobic issues. In-game its just another cyberpunk instance of the commodification of marginalised people, which is a core theme of the genre. Thats fine. It is unsettling that it was used as marketing in real life though because then youre just doing the thing the game is criticising.

But worse than that there were various tweets posting more explicitly transphobic memes. In at least one case the person responsible was fired (and I believe went on to work for a far right site, huh) but it shows a lack of control of the marketing.

---

Devs pandering to the lowest common denominator is going to do nothing but make future games shit.

Just cut base ps4/xb shit out from now on because thats really the only platforms that are going to cause the most issues with modern games.

PS4 pro/xbx play fine at 30ish FPS and ps5/SX is 4k/60

---

UltimaterializerX posted...

Isnt more than half the play on PC?

yes, like 57% according to their numbers.


---

on cyberpunk, they gave PS4/Xbone a bad port of a PC game.
on devotion - today's news - they pulled a game China censored and said it's because "they heard gamers" on it. everyone's balking on it because no, this company proudly has stuff like Postal or Hatred on it, they just heard China.

there's some stuff in cyberpunk that pisses off a bunch of people but it fits within the universe quite well and is fine unless you're extremely sensitive on the subjects.

---

Lucavi000 posted...

Just cut base ps4/xb shit out from now on because thats really the only platforms that are going to cause the most issues with modern games.

This game was announced in 2013 before the PS4/XBO even came out.

---

honestly they should've just done marketing treating the upgraded consoles like the n3DS was to Xenoblade. "this is the only one it's really running on, not the base."

but that would probably depend on Sony and Microsoft to accept that.


---

Wanglicious posted...

honestly they should've just done marketing treating the upgraded consoles like the n3DS was to Xenoblade. "this is the only one it's really running on, not the base."

but that would probably depend on Sony and Microsoft to accept that.

There was never a chance of this if it would cause people to cancel their preorders

---

Arent they offering refunds to people unhappy with the last gen versions?

they are yeah. the refunds are pretty unprecedented and an awesome move out of 'em.

---

swordz9 posted...

Arent they offering refunds to people unhappy with the last gen versions?

They did, but apparently didn't check that offer with Sony or Microsoft, since both platform holders have been denying refunds.

---

Wanglicious posted...

they are yeah. the refunds are pretty unprecedented and an awesome move out of 'em.

How easy is it to get one though? Thats not just up to CDPR.
---

Wanglicious posted...

honestly they should've just done marketing treating the upgraded consoles like the n3DS was to Xenoblade. "this is the only one it's really running on, not the base."

Thats such a weird thing in hindsight since there was another case just like this Cyberpunk issue where they DIDNT do that, Hyrule Warriors. Near unplayable on a base 3DS but not advertised as N3DS only.
---

The refund offer has been an absolute shitshow, since they didn't clear it with the platform holders and Sony/Ms have no obligation to refund. Stores aren't obligated to refund physical copies, either.

GOG itself has a refund policy staying not to refund games for "issues that are actively being patched"

---

Jakyl25 posted...

How easy is it to get one though? Thats not just up to CDPR.

yeah "awesome" is not the word I'd use for this

awesome would be if they never released it in that sorry state in the first place. coming out and saying "yeah the ps4 and xbox one versions aren't up to our standards so we won't be releasing it on these consoles"

preying on people who wont know they can get a refund from one tweet or if the store they bought it from refuses to give them a refund, and making any profit off that piece of garbage is terrible

---

Xiahou Shake posted...

They did, but apparently didn't check that offer with Sony or Microsoft, since both platform holders have been denying refunds.

...that's really dumb.
just checked after you said that, apparently Sony's the bigger holdup than MS is. but this is pretty bad. i thought they had something going, instead it's a PR move involving refunds which is a big brain strat if i've ever seen one.

how the hell did PC games become easier to refund than console ones.

---

It's super sick that they fully knew the last gen versions were gonna be a problem yet kept promoting/marketing them as normal for the entire time and then went "OH WHOOPSIE FUCKY WUCKY" when they came out and were shit shows

---

Jakyl25 posted...

Thats such a weird thing in hindsight since there was another case just like this Cyberpunk issue where they DIDNT do that, Hyrule Warriors. Near unplayable on a base 3DS but not advertised as N3DS only.

that one's honestly just lucky it wasn't that popular.
that was during the phase Nintendo was trying to make the n3DS a mini exclusive platform and then just... made those two and nothing else really? i mean it was around that time when i got myself a n3DS anyway and didn't care. but i remember them pushing it as a sort of 'no really we're gonna make games for just that one, we mean it!'

i don't know how some other later games performed on the base model. like no way Captain Toad ran well on a base 3DS.

---

It's clear between this and all the ridiculous cut corners and shortcuts in how the game actually runs (all items despawn when you aren't looking at them, meaning sometimes people and vehicles will transform into different ones if you do a 360 circle, cops don't have any pathing and are spawned close enough to see you because all they know how to do is shoot meta commentary lol) just shows that what they had planned for the game was too much for them to handle as a studio. Nothing about this game is actually any different from a Bethesda open world RPG, they just have way less resources to work with to actually make it. They should have set their sights smaller. There's a reason Bethesda open world games don't actually look good.

---

I think the only games that are exclusive to the n3DS are Xenoblade, a version of Minecraft, Fire Emblem Warriors, and the SNES Virtual Console
---

UshiromiyaEva posted...

The refund offer has been an absolute shitshow, since they didn't clear it with the platform holders and Sony/Ms have no obligation to refund. Stores aren't obligated to refund physical copies, either.

GOG itself has a refund policy staying not to refund games for "issues that are actively being patched"

The most I could find on GOG refunds is that they seem to be swamped and the automated systems are offering store credit and no one seems to be sure what's going on. They have to escalate the problem to paypal or the credit card companies and it's just a slow mess.

For everyone else it is just up to the individual retailer to waive their typical policy

---

HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

For everyone else it is just up to the individual retailer to waive their typical policy

Of which they have no obligation to do.

Really stupid to see people trying to shift the blame to Sony/MS when it is 100% CDPR's fault.

---

Yeah, the refund shit is just another stupid move. They basically "offered" refunds to try and gain good will, but those refunds amounted to "Ask Sony/Microsoft/the store to refund you. Alright, peace."

It was for PR entirely and somehow they didn't think it'd come back to bite them.

---

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Of which they have no obligation to do.

Really stupid to see people trying to shift the blame to Sony/MS when it is 100% CDPR's fault.

Well, yes, they don't, but maybe consider how this exposes how their refund policies are bad anyways!

---