[UPDATE: In an emergency December 14 board meeting, publisher CD Projekt clarified the specifics of the Cyberpunk 2077 refund situation for console players, stating:
"One has to understand: Microsoft and Sony have refund policies for every product that is released digitally on their storefronts. Despite several articles I’ve seen that things are being set up just for us, it’s actually not true – these policies are in place and have always been in place; they’re not offered specifically for us. Anyone who has purchased any title on the PlayStation network or the Microsoft storefront can ask for a refund, and if it’s made within certain boundaries, usually related to time, usage and so on, can ask for that refund. Our procedure here with Microsoft and Sony is not different than with any other title released on any of those storefronts."
The original story continues below.]
Reports say that Sony might not be honoring refunds of drop in the company's stock price.
The game's launch has only added to the controversy. While there are certainly parts that have been generally well-received, the game is littered with bugs and performance issues, particularly on the last-gen systems, while others find the game's cyberpunk tone superficial. Patches can fix glitches overtime, but for gamers who don't want to wait, or feel that the game's issues go beyond the graphical issues, CD Projekt Red apologized and offered refunds to the systems hit hardest, the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Now, it seems that the developer might not have cleared the offer of those refunds with Sony.
According to Xbox One have not been as problematic.
Sony's definition of "faulty" likely refers to a game that simply doesn't work when ed, although the likelihood of such a game even making it onto the PlayStation Store is questionable. The examples of denied refunds shown on Fanbyte are all using Sony's chat-based customer service; the successful refunds reportedly talked to a customer service agents on the phone. The weight of CD Projekt Red's refund offer isn't currently known, but it is possible that the final decision rests with Sony rather than the Polish studio. If so, the odds of a PS4 refund seem to low. This would be a blow to those who haven't yet made the Sony's new console, which is extremely hard to get hold of, as they cannot reap the benefits of the PC modding community, which is already at work on fan patches for the game.
It seems that every highly-anticipated AAA release these days bring a debate about developer crunch with them, and perhaps none have been as controversial and disastrous as Cyberpunk 2077. It is hopefully the final nail in the coffin for the practice of crunch as a whole, where the grueling overtime was not even effective in the end, while smaller titles such as Hades received universal critical and commercial success. If PlayStation 4 s are unable to get the refunds promised to them, it would only add to the controversy of what has been a truly dystopian launch for Cyberpunk 2077.
Cyberpunk 2077 is available now on PS4, Xbox One, Stadia, and PC, with a PS5 and Xbox Series X/S upgrade coming in 2021.
Source: Fanbyte
