Cyberpunk 2077 - CDPR'S New Slogan after the delay |
- CDPR'S New Slogan after the delay
- I know I'm probably alone on this...
- Just one more delay, Arthur!
- Gameinformers CDPR story
- Highlights from CD Projekt's conference call held after the announced delay
- The date is April 16th, 2020, 12:01am
- The reviews for this game are going to a mess
- Cyberpunk 2077 will no longer be eligible for The Game Awards 2020 as they will fail to release before the cut off date. The TGAs will be hosted on the same date as the game's current release date, December 10.
- If the game ever releases (or even if it doesn't), a documentary showing what really is happening at CDProject would be super interesting.
- A developer litterally told us the reasons for the delay are we are still trying to find out why
- Looked up Cyberpunk release date...
- The biggest loss with these delays may not be monetary but the respect & trust for the company.
- Proof that Stadia had absolutely NOTHING to do with the delay.
- Adam Kiciński (CEO of CDP) about delay at evening teleconference (in Polish)
- Mathematical Proof of Final Cyberpunk 2077 Release Date
- Key Information from the shareholders meeting regarding further delays
- Cdpr posted the recording and pdf of teleconference on cyberpunk 2077’s release date postponement on their website
- I'm sorry, it's my fault the game was delayed again.
- CDPROJECTRED’s Adam Kiciński Q&A Transcript.
- "my hype is literally dead and im canceling my pre-order"
- Looks like CDPR isn't too comfortable with the new release date of December 10th. From Pcgamer article.
| CDPR'S New Slogan after the delay Posted: 28 Oct 2020 05:09 PM PDT In 2020 they voted my company the worst place to work in Poland. Main issues? Sky-high rate of delays, and more developers working overtime than anywhere else. Can't deny it, it's all true, but everybody still wants to work here. This company's always got a release date for you...Might be a lie, an illusion, but it's there, just around the corner. And it keeps you crunching. It's a company of dreams. And I'm a big dreamer... [link] [comments] |
| I know I'm probably alone on this... Posted: 28 Oct 2020 06:13 AM PDT But does anyone else actually feel awful for the dev team? They've been putting in so much work for so many years to just get constantly shit on for things out of their grasp. We have a valid reason to be upset, however, we don't have the right to shit on people who only have the best interest of this game as a whole at heart. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 28 Oct 2020 01:31 AM PDT CDPR has turned into Dutch from RDR2: Arthur, trust me. Just one more delay. Just. One. More. Delay. The last one, the big one, the one to finally take us home and make this the best video game ever released. We can do this. We just need one more delay! Have some goddamn faith, Arthur! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 28 Oct 2020 06:13 PM PDT Not sure if their story has been posted on her yet or not. But here you go Just Incase! Yesterday, Cyberpunk 2077 was delayed until December (despite already going gold) to ensure that current-gen versions of the game come closer to the high standard that the team has for the PS5 and Xbox Series X iterations. Shortly after the news, an official tweet surfaced from the day before, supposedly confirming no more delays. This mixed messaging set the internet in a frenzy. How could something so important be confirmed one day, and then incorrect the next? The answer is: When that initial response went live a day before, it was true at the time. The wider team at CD Projekt Red didn't find out about the delay until the day it was announced. When the news broke, I spoke with several CD Projekt Red developers who confirmed they didn't know about the delay until they received an internal email shortly before the announcement went live on Twitter. When that knowledge became public, the online backlash was almost instantaneous, sparking criticism of the studio's internal communication practices and how messages are conveyed to the community. Since then, I've spoken to several more CD Projekt Red developers on both the Polish and U.S. sides; according to them, the news was shocking, but not for the reasons people are assuming. According to three developers, the decision to delay was a swift one after looking at the quality differences between the current-gen and next-gen versions. CD Projekt Red has said that it wants the launch of Cyberpunk 2077 to be perfect, so any perceived flaws are addressed quickly. According to the team, the decision to delay was not even discussed until Monday (October 26), with a decision being reached on Tuesday (October 27). According to Polish labor laws, leadership was not legally allowed to tell the whole team, due to its size of over 1,000 employees, without each individual signing a non-disclosure agreement. To do so would be considered, in terms of relation to stock equity and insider trading, as "leaked insider information." One developer (who wishes to remain anonymous) told me – and I later confirmed – that "about 90 percent of the studio didn't know about this," and that there was laughter and tears from the team because they are excited for people to play their game that has been years in the making, and the delay came out of nowhere and pushes back that experience for all. The laughter and excitement for launch is palpable throughout the studio, but the team knew how the news of the delay would be received. There's a deeper conversation here regarding what that means in terms of workload, which we are still actively working on. Speaking with a representative from CD Projekt Red, they confirmed to Game Informer that the Polish law is the reason behind the team at large not knowing about the delay until the day of, in addition to that being a decision just recently made. While this is a standard for many studios outside of the U.S., usually U.S.-based studios have more of a notice regarding events such as a delay. There was also an investor call immediately following the delay reveal in which the following statement, provided to us from the same CDPR rep, was presented: As CD PROJEKT is a publicly listed company on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) our communication has to be transparent to employees, gamers, and investors, as well as in line with the regulations of Polish Financial Authorities & European Parliament, and the Council & Commission Directives. Information of such business magnitude i.e. the delay of the release of the biggest project under development, is, until it is made publicly available, considered price-sensitive and confidential because it could easily influence the potential decisions of investors. In a nutshell, early, the unplanned release of this information could have potentially led to market abuse and manipulation of CD PROJEKT's stock price on the WSE. Therefore, due to the aforementioned regulations, the information on postponement of Cyberpunk 2077's release date couldn't have been shared with all of the Group's employees before the current report was filed and made public. "Going gold" is a term many equate with the game is finished, and that's true with a small detail usually missed. Going gold is less so for gamers and more for investors so that they know when their investment is ready to ship. Between the announcement of gold and launch day, there are still development processes to follow, including quality issues that are usually reflected in a day zero and/or day one patches. While this game is gold and, as confirmed by the devs, smoothly running on next-gen platforms and PC, the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions still need a little polishing. The reaction to the delay and communication pipeline was heavily fueled by the talk of crunch, which has been a self-admitted issue from the studio for several years now. 2019 and 2020 have been a time of significant internal change within the company to improve work/life balance and to protect the health of the developers. Following a promise to alleviate crunch, CD Projekt Red did initiate a six-day workweek to launch with additional compensation, but this shift did reignite the important conversation as to what crunch is and how prevalent it is industry-wide and not just one standalone studio. Story developing ... 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| Highlights from CD Projekt's conference call held after the announced delay Posted: 28 Oct 2020 01:56 AM PDT Following are highlights from video games developer CD Projekt's conference call held yesterday after the company announced another delay of the premiere of its much-awaited Cyberpunk 2077 release, to December 10. The teleconference was hosted by CEO Adam Kicinski, board member and CFO Piotr Nielubowicz and board member, SVP Business Development Michal Nowakowski. NEW RELEASE DATE: "We are firm." - CEO Kicinski. "Realizing on November 19 is possible and was possible" but "having these three more weeks gives us a chance to fix this and that." "The decision was not easy but we know there is just one release and the first impression is crucial" so in the long-run the decision is beneficial. "Better initial reaction to the game always works in favor of more sales. That is why we are delaying, we don't have to but having this extra time gives us more certainty that everything will be in the game when we release." ABOUT THE DELAY: "This situation is different" compared to previous changes to the deadline - the game for PC is ready and plays well on next-gen consoles and the company is finalizing the process concerning current gen consoles. GAME ITSELF: "We are really sure we have something amazing in our hands" and once the game is released, "everyone will understand" why it was so difficult. "Don't get us wrong, we are kind of internally stressed on the one hand, but on the other we feel very strong about the game." and "We are super happy with what we will deliver." 2020 RECEIPTS: "The time for the game on the market [this year] is shorter, we will have smaller revenues but still comparable," Nielubowicz said, underlining that in the case of 'The Witcher 3" 90% of sales in the premiere quarter came in the first four weeks. "Pre-holiday period should also support sales on the market." PRE-ORDERS: The ratio for pre-orders between 'The Witcher 3' and 'Cyberpunk 2077' at the same stage before the premiere "is continuously very satisfying." CD Projekt expects no major cancellations of pre-orders because of the delay. AVERAGE SELLING PRICE: "We believe we are a premium title, we don't have to give any extra incentives." (NO) CONTRACTUAL FINES: "there are no penalties we would be facing from any of our partners." MARKETING COSTS: "We will have to reschedule the marketing campaign and such a rescheduling will most likely entail higher spending," Nielubowicz said, adding it's too soon to offer any exact cost. "There is gonna be some extra supporting budget for sure to account for the change," one of the officials also said. FEEDBACK: Feedback "gives us a lot of confidence." Those who completed the game say they have never played a game like this before." - board member Nowakowski IMPACT OF DELAY ON EXTENSIONS: "We expect no impact on extensions." FUTURE PROJECT (IMPACT OF THE DELAY): CD Projekt plans some "organizational changes" in technical departments. "Too many things were put together at late stages." - CEO Kicinski Edit: Source: http://biznes.pap.pl/en/news/all/info/2997307,highlights:-cd-projekt-video-games-on-cyberpunk-2077-delay [link] [comments] |
| The date is April 16th, 2020, 12:01am Posted: 28 Oct 2020 12:08 PM PDT You lean back in your pewdiepie gaming chair and grasp a mouthful of mountain dew™️ flavoured dorito chips, shoving them into your greasy lips. Turning to your third 42" inch monitor, you let out a large sigh as you stare at the cyberpunk 2077 page on steam, the play button still grey. You turn back to to the first monitor to finish watching night city wire #5 for the 20th time, pausing and taking screenshots on every little detail to use to farm karma on reddit later that day. Then it happens, at exactly 00:03am, as if god's hand had reached down from the heavens and deliverd unto you his golden nector of deliciousness himself, you see it, out the corner of your red-veined eyes, Cyberpunk 2077 is ready to play You almost choke on your G-Fuel, leaping up from your chair in a split second, knocking your two johnny silverhand funko pops™️ onto the floor as you rapidly stand. You have no time to pick them back up, you have a city to burn. You leap backwards onto your bed, quickly sliding a pair of underwear on as you pant like an excited puppy. You must be prepared. You sprint into the bathroom, grabbing the nearest piss-bucket you can find, then to the fridge, scooping up as much food as you can, before running back to your gamer room. This is it, you think. You launch the game, putting your face close to the monitor, almost burning out your retinas as you take in every pixel, every sound, every colour of this masterpiece. A single tear slides down your face as you stay glued to the screen. You click new game, slowly, with precision and intent. This is it. The moment you've been waiting for. Eight years. Select your penis size You look down at your now shrivled, tangled underwear, letting out a large sigh. "Maybe I'll add a few inches more..." [link] [comments] |
| The reviews for this game are going to a mess Posted: 28 Oct 2020 01:08 PM PDT Vent post warning With every game, even ones that i am super hyped for, i always wait for it to come out and reviews to be made just to be sure that i wont be disappointed and waste money. For cyberpunk though, i doubt I'll even watch the reviews at all and just grab it day 1 I mean even before the delays there was so much drama going on with the game, so much hype, so many people trying to pick out all the reasons it could be the worst game ever because having an unpopular opinion is what the cool kids do, I predicted a lot of reviews would go along the lines of "well yes it is a good game but I expected the second coming and since all i got was a video game I'm giving it a 6/10 >:(". But yeesh, after seeing the entire community go up in flames my biggest fear right now is that the reviews for the game are going to be super biased and include a lot more discussion about the delays and hype train than the actual GAME. I fear that even if cyberpunk 2077 is a fantastic game it is going to get a lot of slander and the general view of the game is going to be VERY hurt because of delays that I'm not even sure if CD projekt red has control over. I just wanted a badass RPG where you can explore and traverse a cyberpunk city in first person with hopefully a good story to boot but i fear that this game might end up like undertale in 2016 where even mentioning the games name will be a headache-inducing controversy starter. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 28 Oct 2020 03:43 AM PDT Say goodbye to your bets of CP77 winning Game of the Year 2020. Guess GOTY nominations comes down to Ghost of Tsushima, The Last of Us II, Doom Eternal, Animal Crossing, any ONE of the major Ubisoft releases. Anything else? Edit: other games mentioned in the comments as contenders include: Half Life Alyx, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Hades, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, FF7 Remake. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 28 Oct 2020 04:24 AM PDT |
| A developer litterally told us the reasons for the delay are we are still trying to find out why Posted: 28 Oct 2020 08:20 AM PDT "Day 1 patch is most likely going to be quite massive, the game was rushed and the announcement of "gold" came as a surprise for most of the team. It is unlikely the game will be 100% done and polished even including the day 1 patch. The game would easily need at least 4-5 more months of work - counting crunch The technology behind the game is not bad actually the rendering and engine lighting teams did a great job and the visual quality is quite high, although the RedEngine is a bit mangled the game is not terrible - technically speaking - but it could have used more time to be properly shipped." that's litterally the comment of a developer ( confirmed by jason schreir) the game is far from being polished, nothing to do with the consoled, it's just a buggy mess who would need another 4/5 months of development, we had this information for 16 days and now we are surprised that the game is getting delayed? this comment can be found here [link] [comments] |
| Looked up Cyberpunk release date... Posted: 28 Oct 2020 02:23 PM PDT |
| The biggest loss with these delays may not be monetary but the respect & trust for the company. Posted: 27 Oct 2020 10:21 PM PDT I didn't pre-order the game since my rig isn't solid enough. That has played out well. ;) I've always considered that cdpr is the only one which deserves the respect of a pre-order due to their stellar witcher series and the consumer friendly approach. Personally the first delay was acceptable but the subsequent ones have clearly indicated that the management side of the company has some serious issues which can easily affect the game quality significantly. It doesn't feel right that you give a word and go back multiple times. That's not fine imo. Though it can be cool for others. Fair point, our opinions can differ. Henceforth, even for the next witcher game or this cp2077, I'd just wait till its release, see the reviews and get it only after verifying it is worthy of my money. No more blind trust simply because it is done by cdpr. period. Edit 1: I'm not saying the the game shouldn't be delayed. It is not about just 21 days more or a month more etc. But as a fellow commenter said [link] [comments] |
| Proof that Stadia had absolutely NOTHING to do with the delay. Posted: 28 Oct 2020 09:12 PM PDT For all the pitchforks and tin foil hats that were let loose yesterday and who took a nice warm shit on Stadia.. 90% of that group either have no idea what Stadia is or never used the service. It took one wild ass allegation with no factual basis for those people to blindly hate and shit on a community and platform. I believe that's called bigotry. Downvote me to hell. IDGAF. [link] [comments] |
| Adam Kiciński (CEO of CDP) about delay at evening teleconference (in Polish) Posted: 28 Oct 2020 02:16 AM PDT https://www.parkiet.com/Technologie/201029932-CD-Projekt-znow-przeklada-Cyberpunka.html - He's sorry for the delay (obviously) - Said pandemic is making latest development stage quite difficult - He said FLAT OUT that they have game READY for PC and that it plays great at next gen consoles, but it seems that current gen version is the one behind. - He also states that they could release game 19th Nov, but "having more time will help us" - Marketing budget of CP will increase. - Cyberpunk 2077's testers around the world say the game is "very good" (No idea who those people are, no idea if they're indepedent of CDPR even, this is almost word for word what they stated). Testers also say "They've never played a game like that". Make of this what you will. [link] [comments] |
| Mathematical Proof of Final Cyberpunk 2077 Release Date Posted: 27 Oct 2020 09:28 PM PDT Now that Cyberpunk 2077, potentially the most hyped video game in Human history, has been delayed for a third time, our faith in CD Projekt Red has sunk to an all-time low. Very few of us remaining faithful are keeping that the fourth proclaimed release date, December 10th, will be the final release date. What follows is the mathematically determined, true, honest, and genuine release date of Cyberpunk 2077. My motivation to do this exercise was drawn from the relationship between the magnitude of the delays and the amount of days elapsed since the initial Cyberpunk 2077 release date (16th April 2020), namely, that the magnitude of the delays decreased as the days elapsed since the 16th of April increased. This is not unlike the exponential decay function f(x)=A*e^(B*x) where A is some positive, nonzero real number and B is some negative real number. It is this exponential decay function that governs several natural phenomena such as the radioactive decay of an atomic nuclei (A phenomena that shares its name with a similarly elusive video game), the temperature of a cup of coffee over time, and, now, the release of Cyberpunk 2077. Some of you may be wondering "Well, hang on, doesn't an exponential decay function never actually reach 0. Doesn't it only approach 0 as x approaches Infinity? Does this mean that Cyberpunk 2077 will never be released? Not necessarily. Many real-world applications of the exponential decay function, such as in Control Theory, a subdiscipline of some Engineering disciplines, often utilise 2% of the first "peak" as being equivalent to zero, when a system has fully 'settled' and this is what we will be doing in this exercise. Basically, when the magnitude of the release date delay reaches 2% or 0.02 of the original release date delay magnitude (The number of days between April 16th and 17th September (154 days)), we will say that this is equivalent to the release date delay being equal to zero A.K.A. the date of the actual release of Cyberpunk 2077. How is this all calculated? First, we have three data points, three (x, y) coordinates where x represents the time elapsed since the original release date of April 16th (x_1 is equal to 0, for example) and y represents the magnitude of the delay announced on its corresponding x value (y_1 is equal to the delay magnitude announced on x_1 or April 16th, which is 154 days, for example). X Y Comment 0 154 The first delay to September 154 63 The second delay to November 217 21 The most recent delay to December Using these three data points, one must use an exponential regression function to use these data points to determine the coefficients A, B of the exponential decay function f(x)=A*e^(B*x) (You can do this by hand, but it's far faster and more reliable to use one of the many exponential regression calculators available online). Using one of these exponential regression calculators, my determined values were A = 169.4 and B = -8.549e-3, making my particular solution f(x)=(169.4)*e^(-8.549e-3*x). Now, we are left with the simple matter of determining the value of x where f(x) is equal to 2% of the first "peak" or 154 days. 154*0.02 = 3.08 days. This means that, when the delay magnitude reaches 3.08 days, it can be considered to be equal to 0 and Cyberpunk 2077 will have been released. We will say that f(x) = 3.08 and solve using simple algebra. 3.08 = 169.4*e^(-8.459e-3*x) 3.08/169.4 = e^(-8.459e-3*x) Ln(3.08/169.4) = -8.459e-3*x x = Ln(3.08/169.4)/(-8.459e-3) x = 468.7 rounded up to 469 Days (Always remember to add units at the end or risk losing that half-mark) Now we can say that the 'true' release date of Cyberpunk 2077 will be approximately 469 days after the original release date of April 16th, making the bona fide release date of Cyberpunk 2077 the 29th of July 2021 or somewhere thereabouts. I will see you guys then and also on r/badmathematics. Q.E.D. [link] [comments] |
| Key Information from the shareholders meeting regarding further delays Posted: 28 Oct 2020 06:54 PM PDT On discussion of cash flow, CDPR said this: There will be a couple of sources of cash inflowing into the company. First, instalments due to us upon the release of the game. The release will still occur this year, so such instalments should land in our bank accounts before the end of December. Why is this crucial? well at the moment we know the game isn't going to release when planned, but this shows us that they are due payment on release of the game and they have planned to have this cashflow this year. That means that even if there are future delays, we should still see a release within the year, and not in 2021. They then go on to say this: Yes the time for the game to exist on the market this year will be shortened by 3 weeks, but we also performed an analysis of sales of The Witcher 3 post-release, and this exercise revealed to us that the vast majority of sales, approximately 90%, happened within the first four weeks following the release, the vast majority of the sales for TW3 in the quarter of release. All key events and circumstances stimulating sales will still occur this year – I'm referring to the release of the game and also the pre-holiday season which should also support sales. This means that the company is banking on receiving the bulk of the funds from basic sales this year. Again, proof that they do not plan to extend that deadline over to next year. However, it is still possible there MAY be further delays past the December date. When asked directly this is what they said: Q10: Okay, so – basically – we can be comfortable now that the game is definitely coming out on December 10, is that what you're saying? MN: That's more or less what I'm saying, I guess – yes. Obviously at this point they are not confident - and therefore we can't be either. However, based on the transcripts it would seem that their intent is still to release in 2020, and they don't have plans to release in 2021. The cost of pushing the release date to later in 2020 is low, but the cost to push to 2021 would be much higher, due to the above mentioned points. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 28 Oct 2020 01:58 PM PDT |
| I'm sorry, it's my fault the game was delayed again. Posted: 27 Oct 2020 10:29 PM PDT I bought a new custom PC and prayed it would be at my place in time for the release of Cyberpunk 2077. The PC was delayed but I kept my hopes up. I was told by customer service it probably wouldn't be ready in time, but now it will be, at the misfortune of others. It's like that old wives tale about how it always rains when you wash your car or water your lawn. So, I'm very sorry for the delay, everyone. My bad. [link] [comments] |
| CDPROJECTRED’s Adam Kiciński Q&A Transcript. Posted: 28 Oct 2020 08:53 PM PDT I believe a link was posted earlier on this sub by a gentleman but here it's is again with text. https://www.cdprojekt.com/en/wp-content/uploads-en/2020/10/trancript_en.pdf Adam Kiciński (AK): Greetings, I'm Adam Kiciński, Joint CEO of CD PROJEKT. Thank you for joining today's call which concerns the postponement of the Cyberpunk 2077 release date by 3 weeks - until December 10. We would like to briefly explain the reasons behind today's decision and also answer any questions you may have. First and foremost, on behalf of the whole Board, I would like to offer an apology for breaking our promise and failing your trust. We underestimated the time required for the very final processes. The game is ready for the PC and runs great on the next-gen consoles, and could be shipped on the scheduled date on those platforms. However, even though the game has been certified on the current gens by both Sony and Microsoft, some very final optimization processes for such a massive and complex game require a bit of additional time. Moreover, while we are releasing on the PC and two console brands, we are, in fact, preparing and testing nine distinct versions of the game, for the following platforms: PC Xbox One Xbox One X PS4 PS4 Pro compatible releases on Xbox Series S and Series X PS5 compatible release ...and Stadia. And last but not least, despite all the effort taken to limit the impact of Covid-19 on our work, the current epidemiological situation at this final stage of the project is not making things any easier. We are fully aware of the consequences of this decision, but at the same time, we feel we have an amazing game on our hands and believe that the decision is the right one to take, and will be borne out in the long run. With that, I think we can go ahead with the Q&A session. I am at your full disposal, as are Piotr Nielubowicz, our CFO, and Michał Nowakowski -Member of the Board responsible for our publishing policy. Q1: Good evening. I've got 3 questions. My first one – going back to what you said in the middle of June when you last delayed the game – I think you specifically ruled out delaying it again beyond November 19. My question is – why is it different this time; why you're confident that you can get this game out on December 10. Secondly, you mentioned in your comments that "we have an amazing game on our hands". Could you provide some feedback that you've been getting from testing on how the game plays and we can get comfortable – when we actually get the game out – that it will be an amazing game and the quality will be as high as you expect it to be; some color on that would be very helpful. And thirdly – longer term, you've had some issues with getting this game out in the timeframe that you had set; you cited the complexity a number of times. But obviously you've got a very big project to come over the next couple of years, to get the multiplayer out – so, how confident are you that that you are going to be able to handle getting mutiplayer out in 2 years? Has your experience with single-player games increased your confidence or decreased it? Thank you very much. AK: Thank you for your questions. Starting with the first one – we are in a very different situation now; as I've said, we have the game ready on the PC and it plays great on both next-gen consoles. We're finalizing the process on the current gen. To be honest, releasing on the 19th was possible as well, but we believe that having these extra three weeks will enable us to get more things ready to our satisfaction. But we're talking only about technical things at the very final stage. Our confidence now is even greater than before – we have the game and can play it. I don't know how best to explain it, but the confidence is there – we're glad to have more time and believe this is the right move. I know three weeks doesn't seem like a long period, but it actually doubles our available time starting from the moment the decision was made; this can greatly help us with those technical matters regarding current-gen. I'll pass the second question to Michał because he has recently been playing the game quite heavily, so perhaps he can share his own opinion too. Michał Nowakowski (MN): This is Michał Nowakowski – I'll actually not share my own judgment; I'm not impartial, of course, but when it comes to feedback from testing, we have quite a bit of that by now. The feedback is actually quite lengthy and it would take us way too much time to pass it; a lot of it is very technical, we break it down into very minute answers on some points, but one thing has been recurring in all of the test we've done. We've had people complete the game – for example, just yesterday night we had people complete the game in Japan, and we heard from them – and we keep hearing that it's unlike anything they had played before. And that comes from the mouths of people who are actually fans of videogames, and I can assume have seen quite a lot. So, that gives us a lot of confidence in the quality of the content we have prepared. It's of the highest standard and we're super happy with what we're about to deliver. AK: And the third question, about future projects – it's a hard lesson and we know that we have to make certain organizational changes on the technical side of the company, but we believe that we have resources, and – frankly – such a harsh lesson makes us better prepared for future challenges. We take this lesson seriously and we believe that future projects, on the technical side, will be carried out properly. Q1: Could you elaborate a bit about what you mean by "technical issues"? AK: I think we should have had the game playable at earlier stages. With such a big game, too many things may have been put together at a late stage. We should have had more playable builds earlier. Well, what can I add? We're particularly focused on the content and on delivering the greatest games, but at the same time we believe we can organize the technical side by putting together playable versions earlier than before. Regarding multiplayer – it's a different project; we actually have initial prototypes and will keep them running throughout the whole course of production. And of course there is one more thing: targeting future releases – probably – just for next-gen will help a lot. We are releasing a game which is, to be honest, a next-gen game, and we're preparing it for fairly old machines, which poses certain unique challenges that won't occur in future projects – at least in the next one. Q2: Hi everybody. Still looking forward to visiting Night City. I've three questions. One question is to take the opposite tack and ask for assurance from you that you're confident that this is enough time – because one could worry that – let's suppose – you needed 7 weeks, which would have implied the game comes out in early January, which, commercially, is not a good time, and it's the next financial year, so – are you confident this is enough time? Secondly, I'm sure you'll receive some criticism for the extended crunch – will this relieve any pressure? And does this therefore mean that cash receipts will fall into the next financial year? And finally, have any refunds been requested because of the delay and do you think this could provoke requests for refunds? Thank you. AK: We feel firm. As I said, the game is releasable on the 19th and having those 3 more weeks just gives us more changes to fix this and that – so we feel secure. Of course the decision was not easy, but we also know that the release only happens once. The first impression is crucial, and in the long run having a few things done which wouldn't have been done in time for the 19th will work in our favor. We feel – maybe not comfortable [chuckle], but confident and will are releasing on the 10th. Regarding crunch; actually, it's not that bad – and never was. Of course it's a story that has been picked up by the media, and some people have been crunching heavily, but a large part of the team is not crunching at all since they have finished their work; it's mostly about Q&A and engineers, programmers – but it's not that heavy; of course, it will be extended a bit, but we have feedback from the team; they're happy about the extra three weeks, so we don't see any threats regarding crunch. MN: I think the third question was whether the majority of revenues and cash collection would be moved to the next year – they're actually separate things. When it comes to revenues, I wouldn't go as far as saying that the majority of revenues would move – but of course we're going to have less time during the current year, so a significant portion will move. For the cash I'm gonna allow Piotr to speak in a second; I'm just going to talk about refunds (Q2: I mean for people who have decided that December 10 is too long and they can't stand to wait another three weeks. You can tell I'm not convinced it's a big problem, but tell me.) – Well, we don't think it is, to be perfectly honest; we think people will wait for the game. We see people are excited; I can't imagine huge masses of people cancelling their preorders and collecting their money back. Whether someone's gonna do it? Well, of course, whenever there is an event like that there's always someone who's frustrated and cancels their preorder. Sometimes these people do come back; sometimes they don't. Of course we're going to do everything we can by coming up with materials, previews and so on to convince these people to come back if this is the case – but we don't see that as a mass problem. When it comes to cash, I will hand it over to Piotr. Piotr Nielubowicz (PN): Hello. There will be a couple of sources of cash inflowing into the company. First, installments due to us upon the release of the game. The release will still occur this year, so such installments should land in our bank accounts before the end of December. Next, with physical distribution reporting occurs in quarterly cycles, so regardless of the release date, whether in November or in December, reports will be delivered to us at the beginning of the next year, as will the corresponding payments. In the case of digital distribution, especially on PC, reports are delivered on a monthly basis, so this year we should collect payments for all the preorders generated in November; however December sales will be reported and paid for at the beginning of the next year, so we assume that release sales will shift from the November to the December window. In this case, the revenues will also move to the beginning of the next year. The net result is that the cash flow for the company may be delayed by 1 month, or, in cases where we generate sales via GOG – by 21 days, so it's not a significant delay in terms of the time that is to be considered. Q3: Thanks and good evening. You mentioned that – not a majority of revenues, but a significant portion – would move to next year. Could you tell us roughly how significant that move is in your view? The second question concerns expenses: how will this impact expenses for the company; particularly marketing, but also any other expenses which are impacted – is there any impact on how you pay your physical distribution partners? And then – I didn't quite catch the explanations on the different platforms that you just gave regarding revenues in cash moving into January for some of those platforms – could you go over that again please? PN: First of all, I referred to the question of the cash being postponed, not the revenues being postponed until next year. As far as cash is concerned and whether it will be partially postponed until next year in physical distribution, the situation will not change – in both scenarios (November and December release) the situation is that payments of our royalties will happen at the beginning of the next year. In the case of digital distributions, all royalties for PC preorders placed in November should be reported and paid to the company this year, while royalties associated with December sales will be reported and paid at the beginning of the next year. So, this does not change the whole system; however, release window sales will occur – in the case of digital distribution – in December and not in November; only preorders on the PC will be paid for by the end of the current year – so this is the change I referred to. Secondly, you asked about revenues being moved to 2021. Yes; definitely, the time for the game to exist on the market this year will be shortened by 3 weeks, but we also performed an analysis of sales of The Witcher 3 post-release, and this exercise revealed to us that the vast majority of sales, approximately 90%, happened within the first four weeks following the release, the vast majority of the sales for TW3 in the quarter of release. All key events and circumstances stimulating sales will still occur this year – I'm referring to the release of the game and also the pre-holiday season which should also support sales. Thus, we believe that even though this year's time window for the game is shorter, revenues may be slightly lower but will still be very much comparable to our initial plan. And what's even more important – we are not developing the game with the idea of generating only single-quarter revenues. The entire project is designed to result in a game that will continue to sell and generate revenues for years, as in the case of The Witcher 3, The Witcher 2 and even The Witcher 1, which still continues to sell at levels comparable to its release window and provides high value. The same is true for Cyberpunk; obviously the current year is somewhat affected, but the decision to focus on quality should support long-term sales of the game. The second question was about expenses, so – definitely, we'll need to rethink the marketing campaign and reschedule it a bit to cover the release window in December. Such rescheduling will most probably involve an increase in marketing expenses, but it's too early to show exactly how the marketing budget will increase. The decision is really fresh and we are working on rescheduling the marketing campaign as we go. Q3: Could I just clarify two things – what happens to the cash flow from the digital console sales; when does that come in? And could I just double-check – you said that for The Witcher 3 90% of the sales came in when you released it, in the first four weeks? PN: We released The Witcher 3 in the middle of the quarter and it enjoyed exactly six weeks of sales before the end of the release quarter. Out of these six weeks, the first four weeks accounted for approximately 90% of total first-quarter sales – that's what I wanted to say. As far as cash from digital console sales is concerned, it should arrive in our bank accounts at the beginning of the next year. Q4: Thank you and good evening everyone. My first question is: can you disclose anything in terms of the level of preorders for the game, either on PC or somewhere else? Does the delay change anything in terms of your unit expectations? My second question is: given your comments regarding the quality of the game, I'm curious what sort of Metacritic score would you be disappointed with. And my third question: in order to boost sales in December, would you consider offering a bit more aggressive discounts? Is there a risk that the average selling price is a bit lower than what people would imagine? Thank you. AK: I'll take the first one. We can't say too much about preorders, but what we can share is that the ratio between preorders of The Witcher 3 at the same stage and preorders of Cyberpunk continues to strongly satisfy. We're happy with preorders and we're looking forward to the final stage. The majority of preorders always occurs at the very final stage. Regarding Metacritic expectations – perhaps Michał can cover this, and as for sales – we believe that the 21 day shift shouldn't change anything; it just moves sales and we really focus on the long-term perspective in terms of sales. This is secured by quality and nothing else matters, so – having better quality and a better initial reaction to the game always works in favor of sales; that's why we are delaying. As I've said – we don't have to, but we believe that having this extra time gives us a better assurance that everything is as it should be with the game which is coming on the 10th. MN: So, when it comes to Metacritic, we continuously aim at a 90+ game, so nothing has changed here; this remains the goal and, as Adam mentioned, this is actually the main reason for postponing the release. We want to give the game an extra polish; we'd rather be slightly ashamed right now in front of you than be ashamed in front of the players once the game releases. In terms of average selling price, whether it's going to be somewhat more aggressive – the answer is no. This was not the plan when we were planning to launch on November 19, and it's still not the plan for the December 10 launch. We believe we have a premium title that's coveted by the players and we don't need to offer any extra incentives – I think everybody who is going to be working on selling this game, in retail and on digital platforms, is going to be happy with what the game can make once it starts selling. Q5: If I could just ask one follow-up: are you going to spend a bit more around advertising and marketing to perhaps cover for the "negative PR" caused by delays or will the marketing budget remain unchanged? MN: There is going to be some extra support in terms of budget, that's for sure, to account for the changed date; yes. Q6: Good evening; couple of questions. It's quite rare to get a delay after the gold certification for a game. With a lot of copies sold digitally, does this cause any logistical issues or is it just a question of having a bigger Day 1 patch? And the other question I had was on the changed release schedule for the Stadia version. I understand it has recently been pushed ahead to coincide with the launch on all the other platforms. You mentioned the challenge of launching 9 versions at the same time – so could you explain that decision in light of this delay? Thank you. MN: Just to be sure I understand the first question correctly – is it about whether the delay after gold have something to do with logistical issues? (Q6: No – whether it brings any logistical issues with it). OK, I understand. Yes, it brings certain issues because of course we're not releasing the stock into retail as was planned, on November 19, but it's not really a huge challenge – it's more of a warehousing issue rather than anything else; no transports have been moved from the warehouses and so on. So, there is nothing complex going on in the background – such as making crazy calls, trying to do something about that – it's really just about keeping the stock in the warehouses. So it is kind of an issue per se, but nothing really complicated or challenging. About the release on Stadia – could you rephrase? You broke up a little bit – I heard up until the point you said that we had moved it to occur on the same date as the regular launch, but I didn't hear the actual question. Q6: Yes, in the context of what you said about the challenge of launching on 9 platforms at the same time, could you explain the decision to proceed with the Stadia launch a bit earlier? Why not postpone it until after the launch of the other versions to alleviate the strain on Q&A and engineering teams? MN: I understand. Stadia doesn't really affect the complexity of the issues. The things we're fixing in terms of performance are on a higher layer than Stadia. Stadia is kind of a PC build which, as Adam mentioned at the very beginning, is pretty much ready; so – it really doesn't pile up. This is why we've been able to move it to coincide with the PC release, but the polish is needed to fix all the bugs and quality issues that we're still facing, and we see that we can't fix them by the 19th – that's the only reason we're moving the date to December 10. Q7: Good evening and thank you for taking my question. You said that the game is "kind of" ready for the next-gen consoles and the PC, and the issue concerns the current generation. Can you say whether you had considered splitting the launch into next-gen/current-gen? And the other question is: can you confirm whether it's just about optimizing the game so that it runs efficiently on the current generation – or are there also glitches that need to be taken care of during the last three weeks before the launch? MN: I'll start with the release date: we have not considered splitting the release; we're big believers in serving everything at the same time. It's much more reasonable from the perspective of how the team operates and it's also convenient from the marketing perspective. So the answer here is no. You also mentioned that the game is prepared for next-gen. I would instead say that it's ready to be played on next-gen – that's an important distinction because our true next-gen version is going to come later. But yes; the game can be played and I just wanted to make sure that's not misunderstood. Now, about optimization and so on – games of such complexity and magnitude always have some bugs upon release. This is understood; it's commonplace – anybody who has played any game out there, like GTA, RDR, The Witcher 3 – any of the big games – knows there are bound to be some bugs. It's more about the scale and the quantity of these bugs, and it's really the only issue we're facing – so of course we're going to continue improving and working on the game once it launches, as was the case with The Witcher 3 – as everybody knows – but when it comes to the launch moment, we want people to not be pestered by something that is going to be truly problematic for them; we want them to avoid those kinds of situations; we want them to enjoy their arrival in Night City – so, coming back to your question, yes, it's basically optimization and all the challenges related to that. There's no other "hidden story" here. Q8: Good afternoon. I just want to ask three questions. Do you have to pay any contractual fees due to delaying so close to launch – to distributors or marketing partners? The second question is about preorders: I wonder what happens to preorders in case of a delay. Are they automatically cancelled in some stores; are you aware of any channels that cancel preorders due to a delay? And the third question: you said that the ratio between preorders for Cyberpunk and The Witcher 3 is very satisfactory; I wonder if this justifies the threefold increase in the marketing campaign which you said was the case with Cyberpunk. MN: OK, I can take the first two. Regarding contractual fees – there's no penalty in our contracts that we would be facing from any of our partners. The delay is really not that big; it's three weeks – of course it's going to impact the amount of time we'll have to actively sell the game during this calendar year; that's pretty obvious, but it really doesn't change expectations towards the game – it's still out there to be played, so, no. Not only are there no contractual penalties, but no one is demanding any kind of penalties. In terms of preorders being cancelled – this is highly specific to every channel; it depends on the channel's policy. We don't really control particular retailers or their policies; however, I know for a fact that there's no retailer that would cancel all preorders automatically. Some retailers may offer the ability to cancel preorders until the moment of launch, but, frankly speaking, this is something you can typically do with a preorder even in the absence of a delay – if you wanted to cancel a preorder of our game on Amazon yesterday, before we released the news, you could have done it without any hassle whatsoever. So, this is something of a typical practice; you can cancel preorders at any moment in time before the game actually launches and ships. Nothing has changed in regard to that. Yes, there may be some people who would actually cancel preorders right now, because they're tired, but I still think we can win those people back. I'll hand over the third question to Adam. AK: The simple answer is – yes. All the data we have, both internal and external, justifies the scope of the marketing campaign, and perhaps we don't sound very happy today, because – you know – it's a tough decision, but on the other hand, we're sure we have something really amazing on our hands and we truly believe that once the game is released, everyone will understand how difficult it was and how great the game is, and then all those bitter pills we had to swallow on the way will seem like a small thing compared to the satisfaction that we'll enjoy. So – don't get us wrong, we of course a little stressed internally; we would have preferred to release on the 19th, but on the other hand we feel very strongly about the game. Q9: Good evening everyone. My question relates to the momentum of console sales that may play a bigger role this time around. Do you think that the recent deterioration in economic outlook due to the pandemic may have affected potential sales – with people perhaps less incentivized to buy as early as November, and maybe moving the date closer to Christmas would optimize potential sales? PN: It's hard to reliably estimate the influence of the pandemic upon sales. We know from our experience in March and April that it offered something of a tailwind for the videogame industry – videogames were among the limited number of entertainment forms that people could enjoy at home, and this particularly boosted digital sales. So, if the situation repeats at the end of the current year, it might offer some support for the game, but I don't think it hinges upon whether the release takes place in November or December. In any case, the course of the pandemic is not where we look for sales support in the case of Cyberpunk. Q10: Hi, just one question: some people would have thought three weeks before release is quite late for a delay, but as we work towards the new December 10 date – when do you really need to make a final decision that everything would be ready for that date? When do you believe it's physically too late to delay a game further? Is it two weeks before, one week before...? When can we get comfortable that the game is definitely coming out? MN: We're not really analyzing it this way because, to be honest, we don't see such a thing happening. I do realize you've actually heard this from us before, but this is pretty close to the launch and – as we've mentioned several times – the game is ready; it's there; you can actually walk through the whole game and a number of people around the world who were given access to the game, have done it. We need to be sure about the performance and that the glitches are gone, so – there is no such analysis at all; we just haven't thought about that. Q10: Okay, so – basically – we can be comfortable now that the game is definitely coming out on December 10, is that what you're saying? MN: That's more or less what I'm saying, I guess – yes. Q11: Hello again. A couple of questions. One was just to clear up the next-gen point. As I understand it, the game will come out on the 10th, playable on, say, PS5, but the actual optimized next-gen version is still scheduled for the first quarter of the next year for both Xbox and PS5. The second question is: does this have a knock-on effect on DLCs? I guess large parts of the studio can be working on those, but still – the engineering and the Q&A guys will be very busy, and for longer than you had ever expected – so does this potentially affect the timing of DLCs, of which we can expect at least three – correct me on that. Thank you. AK: So, with next-gen: what we are releasing now is the current-gen version, which can be played on next-gen consoles thanks to backward compatibility, but without next-gen-specific features. Being strong machines, next-gen consoles are comparable to very strong PCs – they have more memory, much faster hard drive access and so on and so forth. So – the console version played on next-gen looks great; instantly. Next year we will be releasing a full-blown next-gen version – perhaps not optimized for next-gen, but with next-gen features implemented. It won't be – like the current version – merely an emulation of the current gen. Regarding expansions – we expect no impact. Fortunately, those who are finishing the game and are now involved in those final processes, are not required at this stage of development of the expansions. We don't expect that this will influence our further schedules. Q12: Hello. You mentioned that the problem was with the current-gen consoles. Is the problem different for Xbox and PS4, the latter of which is perhaps a bit stronger – or is it very similar for both consoles? MN: Hi; Michał Nowakowski again. I wouldn't say there is a "problem" because there's nothing wrong with Xbox or PS4 versions – there is optimization to be handled, also because of how we were approaching things from the get-go in terms of development; so – there is no problem with Xbox or PlayStation 4, to be honest. Now, in terms of issues – I don't think there's much point in going there. Yes, there are some issues that are similar – I'm not going to go through a full bug report here; that's probably pointless – but let's put it like this: there are some issues which are common to both platforms and some issues which are slightly different; it's a mixed bag, really. It's something that can be handled, can be done and something that we're currently working on. It's a huge game, so there are a lot of things to be tackled – which is the underlying reason behind the conversation we're having tonight. Q12: My question was related to the rumors form one year ago, I believe, which said that there were some problems with optimization for Xbox, but as I understand – this is not related? MN: This was a total hoax; a fake rumor. That I can say; otherwise – there's just regular work to be done on both platforms. AK: And I'd like to add one more thing: having the game certified means it's optimized and it works, but it's a big game and what we're going to do in those next couple of weeks is to make it as good as it can be on the current generation – so we're trying to bump everything as much as possible. Moderator: Thank you; this concludes today's Q&A session. Mr. Kiciński, I will hand it over to you for any closing remarks. AK: Thank you everybody; tomorrow we are available to take any follow-up questions you may have. Please contact our IR team directly via e-mail or phone. Thank you very much and tune in to our Q3 results. Bye bye! [link] [comments] |
| "my hype is literally dead and im canceling my pre-order" Posted: 28 Oct 2020 02:26 AM PDT https://imgur.com/gallery/EJFrcGO EDIT: alright some people think I'm being serious. I just wanna say that declaring your hate for CDPR/decision to refund your pre-order like you're announcing you're going to nuke a country is egregious and you're going to flip on that as soon as you pay for it on release week [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 28 Oct 2020 10:09 PM PDT "As for the new release date of December 10, it's "firm," if not quite rock-hard: "We feel—maybe not comfortable, but confident" in the new release date, Kiciński said. Nowakowski seemed similarly not-quite-comfortable with fully committing to it. When asked if Cyberpunk 2077 would definitely be out on December 10, he replied, "That's more or less what I'm saying, I guess—yes." What are the chances of this happening? [link] [comments] |
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