CD Projekt RED’s behavior towards the PS4 and Xbox One versions of Cyberpunk 2077 continues to generate negative reactions from all corners of the video game world. This time it was the turn of one of the main note aggregators to express his anger. And he doesn’t crush his words.
Also read: Cyberpunk 2077 is counting its players and distributing pre-orders
The serious joke of the day comes from OpenCritic, a website that rounds up press reviews for video games. And especially from Matthew Enthover, one of the website’s co-founders. in the an article Matthew Enthover, posted on the OpenCritic website, is reviewing the publication of the Cyberpunk 2077 and details of what led him to believe that CD Projekt RED acted deliberately to mislead the press, consumers and rating aggregators.
The co-creator of Metacritic’s main competitor first recalls that Cyberpunk 2077’s tests initially ranked the game among the best of 2020 in terms of ratings. He explains that bugs have been reported in the games, but they didn’t affect the quality of the overall experience.
He goes on to explain that what the players did not know at the time and that the press could only confirm too late is that CD Projekt RED was apparently trying to give the wrong impression of what the majority of players were entitled to (Statistics released by the studio show that more console gamers pre-ordered the game than PC gamers).
The studio made sure that the editors who wanted to test the game had powerful PCs (for information, iGamesNews was asked to configure the PC that was to be used to test the game) and did not leave this to different media to Test the game on PS4 or Xbox One before the game is released.
The reasons for the anger
According to Matthew Enthover, CD Projekt RED made this choice because it had long known (and it makes sense) that Cyberpunk 2077 was suffering major problems on PS4 and Xbox One, platforms on which the game was originally announced, however. These issues would have been fixed in the tests and would have been important enough to call pre-orders into question.
According to the head of OpenCritic, The Polish studio also knew very well that it would be difficult for many websites to test the game a second time on consoles, as from a technical point of view it is not really good to offer two tests for the same game (SEO, Google keywords, Apple -Rankings and Google News etc), as the impact of a test on the readership after the game is released is significantly less, as Metacritic does not accept changing reviews due to the differences in the platforms usually not that important, and because it is for one It is always difficult for consumers to get a refund for a game that is used
Unfair Practices
In short, he criticizes CD Projekt RED for “did what they did knowing it was wrong. It was deceptive, selfish, and abusive. And they did it anyway. “ Very personally, Matthew Enthover regrets that the “One Score per Game” system used by Opencritic has harmed the users of the website in the Cyberpunk 2077 case. So the website has decided to post a warning on their RPG page:
Please note that this game suffers from huge differences in performance, user experience, and ratings between PC, next-gen console, Xbox One, and PS4 versions.
The OpenCritic team and several reviewers suspect that the game’s developer, CD Projekt RED, deliberately tried to hide the actual status of the game on Xbox One and PS4, for example only allowing clips from the game. Game pre-calculated in tests and no test copies on PS4 and Xbox One.
This notification will be removed in February 2021. OpenCritic speaks of February 2021, as CD Projekt RED will then release the second of the two big patches that are supposed to earn the name of the PS4 and Xbox One versions of Cyberpunk 2077. If these patches are late or unsatisfactory, one may wonder whether this text will be kept on the page dedicated to the game.
In any case, this situation seems to have shaped the co-founder of OpenCritic strongly. And he doesn’t hesitate to post the reasons for his anger on CD Projekt RED (anger shared by many members of the video game press). By dealing with Cyberpunk 2077, the console versions of which should be delayed by several months, CD Projekt RED has created the trust that many gamers and professionals have placed in them. It remains to be seen whether his actions over the next few years will allow him to win them back.
What do you think of these statements from the head of OpenCritic? Do you share his anger? Do you think CD Projekt RED has damaged its reputation in the long term? Give us your thoughts in the comments below.