Just a few weeks before its planned Nov. 19 launch, developer CD Projekt Red has again pushed back its highly anticipated “Cyberpunk 2077” 21 days to Dec. 10.
In an announcement on the “Cyberpunk 2077” Twitter page, director Adam Badowski and CD Projekt co-founder and joint CEO Marcin Iwinski cited the struggles of preparing the game for current-generation consoles and next gen as the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X both launch next month.
“The biggest challenge for us right now is shipping the game on current-gen, next-gen and PC at the same time, which requires us to prepare and test 9 versions of it… while working from home,” the statement says. “Since ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ evolved towards almost being a next-gen title somewhere along the way, we need to make sure everything works well and every version runs smoothly.
“We’re aware it might seem unrealistic when someone says 21 days can make any difference in such a massive and complex game, but they really do.”
This marks the third time the next big tentpole from “The Witcher III: Wild Hunt” developer has been delayed. Originally, as announced at E3 2019, it was set for April 2020, then later pushed back to September 2020, then again delayed to Nov. 19.
The news also comes as CD Projekt garnered backlash after Bloomberg published a report that said the Polish developer was mandating six-day work weeks for its employees in the weeks leading up to its previously scheduled launch, reneging on a former promise to not force overtime on its staff. Many fans, in fact, called for the studio to delay the game instead of turning to mandatory overtime, an issue that has received increasing attention in the game development industry.
Read the full statement below.
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— Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) October 27, 2020