ShinichiroY
Self-Requested Ban
That was, quite ironically, the first "release date" announced for this game seven years ago.
Last edited:
Cyberpunk 2077: Rockerboy Keanu Silverhand
- Thread starter inukai44
- Start date
- Megathread
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I mean, I've actually seen lowering of graphics specs help sales and help bring games into the hands of those who might not be able to afford it?
So I'd actually question this "statistical evaluation" because, like, what percentage of everyone actually has money for that... and doesn't already meet the minimums?
So I'd actually question this "statistical evaluation" because, like, what percentage of everyone actually has money for that... and doesn't already meet the minimums?
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him/They/Them
I have to admit, when I hear "when it's done" in relation to game releases, it's not Blizzard I'm thinking about
Though I've no idea how they treated their employees while creating that monstrosity.
Honestly, as much as I can criticize Bethesda for "recent" decisions, I really like how they deal with their release announcements. It's never "We've just started working on it and it will release on this specific date!", it's "yeah, we're working on it, but release is way off" followed later by "We release in 2-3 months." And at that point, that release is guaranteed since they're about done anyway. They usually could've used another week or two of QA, true, but FO4 at least was reasonably stable and bug free on release.
On topic, I really don't understand CDPR here. One of their main selling points is that they are "one of the good ones", something they've leaned into with their promise of no mandatory crunch. And now they do their best to throw that reputation away while breaking their promise for what? 6 additional work days? I just can't see how that's better than saying: "We're really sorry, especially since we've already delayed it twice, but we still need about a week more work to deliver the best experience that we can. Because of that and to prevent our employees from having to crunch, we're delaying the game for 2 weeks. New release is December 3rd."
Van Ropen
Angry, angry about elves.
Because "good ones" never really meant not ratfucking their employees, that was just window dressing. Their rep was basically set from W3's DLC policy and overall quality. At the end of the day they don't give a shit, and frankly they aren't gonna suffer any significant losses from doing so.
Ah, right. Didn't think of that, but it makes sense.
In which case they fucked up by not having a bigger team from the start, or expanding once the delays first started piling up and it was clear they were in fact running on a skeleton crew compared to their needs, which comes back to the original point of them having fucked up. It's not the end of the world especially compared to the horrific industry standard crunch, no, but they deserve whatever flak they get for it.
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him/They/Them
I mean, yes, obviously. But they did lean into that rep and promised not to ratfuck their employees. So I do think that doing so will tarnish their reputation a bit. Which will be quickly forgotten if CP is great and they don't start milking their customers via DLC. So to me, the situation is they either take a small hit to their reputation while not losing any real amount of money, or they strengthen their reputation, also while not losing any real amount of money.
And I'm not sure if I buy that they are forced to that by Sony/Microsoft. The Series X/S releases on the 10th, PS5 on the 12th and Cyberpunk on 19th, so if it's okay to release (over) a week after the consoles, releasing 3 weeks after shouldn't really be worse either. Especially since it's still a release before Christmas.
- Location
- France
- Pronouns
- She/They
I have to admit, when I hear "when it's done" in relation to game releases, it's not Blizzard I'm thinking about
Though I've no idea how they treated their employees while creating that monstrosity.
Honestly, as much as I can criticize Bethesda for "recent" decisions, I really like how they deal with their release announcements. It's never "We've just started working on it and it will release on this specific date!", it's "yeah, we're working on it, but release is way off" followed later by "We release in 2-3 months." And at that point, that release is guaranteed since they're about done anyway. They usually could've used another week or two of QA, true, but FO4 at least was reasonably stable and bug free on release.
On topic, I really don't understand CDPR here. One of their main selling points is that they are "one of the good ones", something they've leaned into with their promise of no mandatory crunch. And now they do their best to throw that reputation away while breaking their promise for what? 6 additional work days? I just can't see how that's better than saying: "We're really sorry, especially since we've already delayed it twice, but we still need about a week more work to deliver the best experience that we can. Because of that and to prevent our employees from having to crunch, we're delaying the game for 2 weeks. New release is December 3rd."
I brought up blizzard because it's the main company that made me feel "oh yeah, I'll take that delay, the game will probably be better off for it". Though they blew up most of that goodwill with Diablo III (oh my god it's been 8 years I'm old...). And there's so many games around right now I have something to play anyway.
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him/They/Them
I honestly didn't know before that that was Blizzards release strategy. I'm not into Diabolo or Star Craft, so the last releases I was interested in were Warcraft 3 Reforged, which did get a delay and I was okay with it (though I was less okay with the delivered quality. I had to fiddle with the sound quality options just to get it to start...), and before that, Warcraft 3 The Frozen Throne and I have no idea how the release was handled back then. When the PC Games magazine I subscribed to had a test I knew that a release was near, but I didn't really look before then.
Speaking of being old, a number of my favourite games from my early teens are now old enough to drive...
ShinichiroY
Self-Requested Ban
Unfortunately, that data isn't publicly available, as it's a legally protected part of an internal dispute between corporate entities, of which I know due to my involvement in the industry. But I may give you my word that it's absolutely, unequivocally a thing that gets discussed at almost every studio. There is, however, an opportunity for an open research. I personally don't support graphical downgrades in any form whatsoever.
Last edited:
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I mean, there's ways to do it, and changing the minimum system requirements to as low as can sensibly be gotten, through whatever means is in fact a good thing. Whatever in that specific case it involves, it's better to have a wider range than a narrower one.
People increasingly just don't have that much money, anyways. If CK3 (to use an example where I'm incredibly borderline) was too much for my computer to handle, my only option would be to return it and never play it again, because the idea of getting a better computer to play a video game involves expenses I literally cannot afford.
Last edited:
ShinichiroY
Self-Requested Ban
There exists such thing as performance optimization. However, what can be seen in this case is in not an attempt to optimize the game, but rather, as time constraints and general trend show, an obvious last minute downgrade. It's a business decision made to earn more at the cost of a ruined product.
Last edited:
Reveen
Castro-Trudeauist
I mean they could have done that in the first place by pulling back a little on the push for hardware intensive graphics and leaning more into art direction to make the game look good.
As it stands they're just making the game look worse in a way that might just make it look worse on low settings than it would otherwise. And Im unsure how much of a different it will make because its already a fuckhuge game, and for all we know all the hype and corners cut to get the game out instead of just delaying it more might end in horrible, crippling performance problems.
Vyslanté
The self is a prison
- Location
- European Union
Or you can do a Nintendo and simply be "oh btw, that exists. And it's out in a week"
Last edited:
Blizzard has been gutted by Activision, it's definitely no longer a "When It's Done" company.
Update. Not even 24 hours later, Blizzard delays Shadowlands. Making me a liar.
- Location
- The Void
VolantRedX
Official Conscience of Worm Fanfiction!
Doesn't gold just mean it sold a bunch of copies? Or is that just in music?
Álli Méra
Sometimes I forget my name
Yep. It's just a raw sales thing.
Its not out yet...anyways, no. Going gold means that the release version of the game is finished; originally, this meant that you could start producing copies to send to retailers.
Its not.
Last edited:
Van Ropen
Angry, angry about elves.
Nah. Gold in software terms means the final product. In the days of CDs, it meant the build that would actually be on the disc.
- Location
- Sydney
Not that you're not right about what Gold means in this context but pre-order sales are such a big market these days that a game can easily 'go gold' in sales terms before it releases.
I am pretty sure that if we go by sale figures quite a few people do in fact care if you move your product launch out of the x-mas season (and likely the launch of the new consoles). I mean i agree that mandatory OT is a shitty move and unlikely to be beneficial but it it just as stupid to act like a company hasn't got a legitimate reason to want to get the game out during the most important time for consumer products.
- Location
- DFW
going gold in terms of game dev means that the master copy has been approved to be sent out to produce the physical disc. Nothing in terms of sale, that's the music industry.
10ebbor10
DON'T PANIC
- Location
- Present
It means that the release data is pretty much locked in. Crunch will probably intensify because delay is no longer an option.
- Location
- Pittsburgh PA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
So it looks like the reports of crunch are actually overblown according to Game Informer.
r/cyberpunkgame - People from Game Informer reported citing CDPR sourcers that the Cyberpunk2077 "crunch" story was blown out of proportion & CDPR did consider delaying again but mass majority of devs supported extra day for 6 weeks.
r/cyberpunkgame - People from Game Informer reported citing CDPR sourcers that the Cyberpunk2077 "crunch" story was blown out of proportion & CDPR did consider delaying again but mass majority of devs supported extra day for 6 weeks.