The Harder They Fall

Cyberpunk 2077’s disastrous launch asks questions of the blockbuster business model

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Now that the launch dust has settled, it feels like a reasonable moment to pause and reflect on the Cyberpunk 2077 story – not only because it may help in identifying danger signs in the future. There are two big things to note before digging into the disasters around its development and release, though. First, the game has already made a lot of money, albeit significantly less than expected. Shifting 13 million copies in its first ten days, the game briefly made CD Projekt the most valuable company in Poland, before news of catastrophic bugs kicked the stock price into reverse. At the time of writing it’s the biggest game launch ever in terms of digital sales, grossing $609 million via those channels as of December 31.

From the perspective of CD Projekt’s management, the worst is arguably in the past now. Given enough patching and expressions of regret, Cyberpunk 2077 may eventually even be deemed a success, a late-flowering Early Access title in all but name, similar to Fallout 76 and No Man’s Sky. As things stand today, it remains a game with many strengths, and CD Projekt has money to burn fixing up its weaknesses. The danger is that the story of its redemption will eventually eclipse the lessons of its failures.

The second factor to keep in mind is that while