The funny thing is this kinda the norm for a lot of media. Big blockbuster movies will usually spend double on advertisement versus how much they spend to make the movie.
@@t850terminator because they want that as many people as possible know about the game when everything is ready for shipping. thats why. its stupid, i give you that, but thats unfortunately how advertisement works. ads are supposed to gain your interest, suck you in completely and make you feel like you absolutely need the product that is being promoted.
Has been this way for years (resi6, ff14, ff15, mgs5, fallout76), though I was genuinely shocked CDPR fell victim to it. Now there is simply no such thing as a good AAA games company, they simply cannot be relied upon to deliver on what they promise. Personally I think systems like the switch are the future, either that or only release games on pc, which we know doesn't make the investors their money back, so yea its time to focus on a switch lol, buy Monster Hunter Rise and pay 20 a year to play it online, looks good, and is very fun, does what a game is meant to do without breaking any new ceilings in advancement, is good enough and that is okay.
I don't know wheather its ironic, poetic, or just sad that in the end it was corporate greed that killed a game whose commentary was "corporations are bad."
@@MugdhaMahdiShams And they proved why, too. It isn't the fault of the people at the bottom of the totem pole within the corporation, it's the fault of the overpaid few at the top.
Not exactly. That's the surface. The game is ultimately about dying, how will you be remembered, and what will you do if you could put a number to how much time you have left(and it's not very big). Will you fight till the end, leave it to someone else, or give the universe a giant 'fuck you' and choose to die when you want to die?
The fact that they predicted that the game would be ready in 2022 and it took the game 2 years after launch to reach a playable state shows that you should listen and respect your dev team.
No joke, it's going to take 3 to 4 more years to make CP2077 into what was promised, and yes, it won't happen because by 2025 everyone will have moved on, including CDPR.
That was some real character building shit for me as a kid. SO glitchy couldn't get past the first level. LITERALLY took me a whole year. When i got to the last level i felt like i found the cure to cancer. After that my tolerance went through the roof. Think the same thing is happening to me with CP2077 ROFL
@@EastsideRay yeah nah fam you're just bad sonic 06 is a bad game but if you couldnt get past wave ocean and blamed it on the glitches then you were shit
Cyberpunk: already delays itself several times with no reason other than “it needs it” Also Cyberpunk: has the valid excuse of COVID and decides NOW is the time to jump in
@@frozezone2947 Lmao bro I never said release I said DELAY. There’s no excuse to release a game in this state, playing that shit was fucking embarrassing
Wow the executives didn’t just screw over the customers, they beat down on everybody. I feel bad for the developers, they had to deal with these control freaks for years.
@@Kyrkby oh yeah, plus the fact that they spent vastly more money on advertising than they were willing to let the devs have to even finish the project, AND THEN CONSTANTLY SCRAPPING ANYTHING THEY DID HAVE DONE it’s a wonder it came out looking as good as it did. That surprise 2020 release date must have really been a sick joke to the devs.
@@ace94d It makes them look better than the truth, which is that they knew all about it but lied and manipulated the review process to deliberately mislead consumers.
They really should of put more funds and resources into development, rather than marketing. My goodness, 200mil more in marketing? Ya that was a dumb move. It would of sold lots even without all these PR stunts. :/ Blame is legit on upper management.
I'm surprised anyone puts anything into marketing besides trailers. UA-camrs could take care of it for anyone now as long as trailers get released and some details from devs.
@@donnorman6526 You're completely missing the point. It's not about marketing or programmers doing their jobs, but where the leadership comes from and what they focus on. In many gaming and tech startups they begin with a creative or engineer with an idea, for a lot of successful companies there's a point where the leadership changes from someone who cut their teeth producing some sort of valuable product to a person who focuses on promoting and selling the product rather than developing or improving the product. Another example of this is Blizz, look at how not only the company but the type of games they produced changed as the leadership became more corporate.
@@WolfA4 It's a phenomenon that basically always happens in any commercial industry that reaches a certain size. If you like a game developer and they are growing, watch for the day they get bought by a larger studio or put their own board of directors into place. This is pretty much a death knell for everything you loved about their work. It's just a natural life cycle that occurs as companies grow: struggle --> golden age (or bankruptcy) --> major market share --> corporate culture forms --> corporate psychosis sets in --> sustainable mediocrity
@@MattMcMuscles This video is what we waited since the game released...Even if it is an on going story that may or may not keep on giving,I have to say your video livwd up to its hype as it is.
I remember when my boyfriend told me he preordered Cyberpunk. He then told me a bit about the delays and I told him “you ordered that game that was delayed that many times? That’s major red flags” and he answered that the guys that made The Witcher 3 were behind it. I said “oh, that’s probably fine then.” It was not fine. Trust the red flags.
Watching this is like watching 10 episodes of “Wha Happuned” at the same time. They made SO many mistakes that when you hear them back to back it’s impressive.
Seriously, they could've toned down the marketing a bit and pulled a Persona 5 (launched a last gen port when the last gen system might as well be dead) and still have sold absolute gangbusters but without the backlash.
@@robertbernard7844 they could've just spent more money on developing the actual godamn product rather than spending all that money on advertising. Isn't this the reasonable thing?
@@CBRN-115 Money wouldn't have solved the problems with Cyberpunk given most of the problems were on a corporate and managerial level. Usually when a big studio known for quality screws up like this it is always at least one of those two. Money would have helped, but what they need was more people, time, and time to train new hires.
@@robertbernard7844 At least P5 was only on two consoles. The higher ups made the same mistake Keiji Inafune made when making Mighty Number 9: putting the game on too damn many consoles.
@@thelittleredhairedgirlfrom6527 sort of, possibly even worse than that actually. Inafune was desperate to regain credibility and never quite realized how important crowdfunding actually is and what that could do to his already damaged reputation. CDPR knew what they were doing was wrong.
It really is wild to think that simply not starting up the hype train 4 years early and actually giving the game proper development time (2022 seems fair, given the game's current state), we could have had another masterpiece instead of what we got. All of this was the result of some of the worst management I've ever seen.
@@potguyidk the current state of the game falls apart when the enemy ai can't land grenades or use natural cover for shit, and just end up being Destiny 2 bullet sponges at higher difficulties. Hacking is also largely irrelevant and feels shoe horned in despite supposedly being a big part of the demo. This game is nothing better than anything we've gotten in the past and most of the fun is what the player makes of it, which just makes it not fun. Players can make fun out of much better games than CP76
I honestly feel sorry for most of the actual development team. Cyberpunk obviously started as a passion project but then they were given unrealistic goals and timeframes and were basically told to deal with it. They also had to scrap and rework tons of features that they actually wanted in the game due to those budget and time constraints, which must've hurt considering the higher ups were willing to blow millions on marketing. They also probably had to keep their mouths shut about all of this because talking about it would've most likely gotten them fired. So yeah, a game that was partially about how companies only care about money and treat their employees like shit failed because the company behind it only cared about money and treated its employees like shit. The joke prectically writes itself.
I feel sorry for the first concept designers. Imagine having such a passion for a super cool and unique game only to have it be destroyed by some dipshit money hungry managers
@@plexyglass429 The first concept designer really had nothing to do with the video game and is only given credit because he sold the rights to CD projekt red, he already created the highly successful tabletop RPG Cyberpunk that's 2nd only to the one and only dungeons and dragons when it comes to TTRPG games. The man is fine is what I'm saying.
@@plexyglass429you also already know those managers got an MBA and don’t know jack about game design. They see everything as a way to make money and could care less about quality which is ironic because the best marketing is just making a quality fricking game.
So basically "Don't bother working hard or doing good work, because the bosses will just load you down with even more work and even more work until you break, then blame you for failing. Be mediocre at all times." Writ large.
Sadly this describes my job situation since COVID pretty good.. I’m working my ass of and my project customers are super satisfied, but my company is putting more and more pressure on us to be even more profitable and at the slightest sign of a project being a bit lower on work, they want to send you home with a hefty paycut. That this kind of behavior is extremely threatening to the employees mental health isn’t a concern to these managers it seems. Yeah sorry for the rant that probably nobody cares about, but I had to vent. When your job is under constant threat, all while your doing really good work, it really starts to wear on you..
@@DM-dk7js Amazing games don't get taken off the game store in less than a year.... Or have the only positive things about it be memes on how bad it is lol you can like a game all you want, but we don't have to agree with your delusion. 🤣
It technically isn't, since the "reveal features" were not part of the game build at any point during development. What they intend to say is that their bought and paid for PC reviews are enough and that's everything they need to have in the game.
@Green Mamba Games ahhh another one, the game was announced yeas before ps5 and xsx, and the first three release dates were before these new consoles even launched, so not it's not like the old consoles couldn't handle cyberpunk, because the game was aiming for old generation still, and rdr2, which looks better, runs in 4k 30 fps on xbox one x so its not like the consoles were too weak, no, cdpr just screwed this up
@@ehrtdaz7186 Its not only about raw looks. Red dead is mostly on a flat plain whilst cyberpunk is really vertical and thus has way more complex world chunks with a lot more AI running. Loading these in is really cpu intenstive and the PS4 pro and Xbox one X, whilst having a okay-ish gpu by todays standard, have a piss poor cpu(the one in your phone is probably a lot better). It's a lot more complex then "game A looks pretty and runs pretty good so pretty game B should also run good" I doubt they could ever make the last gen console versions great because of this.
@@Plsrateeight People suck, boo-fuckin-hoo. The point still stands - they made a game about the soullessness of corporations and yet nearly ruined that game by being a soulless corporation.
God, this game was in development so long I remember them discussing it on Totalbiscut's Gamestation Podcast! And hearing about it so many years later when the ads started coming out it took me a few days to twig on that "wait, it's THAT game?"
I don't know if I'm sad TB isn't around to riff on it like the good old days, or glad he's spared the disappointment of the most hyped game of the decade being... this.
@@Knoloaify No, what they should have done is start working on it immediately after announcement. Waiting until next-gen consoles is probably a good chunk of why it came out so bad.
@@Calvin_Coolage Or rather announce it after they started to work on it. Witcher 3 wasn't even out yet before the first Cyberpunk trailer. No way CDPR had the resources to work on both games at the same time.
A few months before the Keanu Reeves reveal at E3 2019 I remember talking with a friend about game companies that we lost respect for. He wound up going "I really hope CD Projekt Red won't fall into that category". That was a statement that aged very awkwardly...
Guys imagine a game that is revealed before production of the game has even started, and then continue to spent all of the games budget on marketing. Oh wait, you don't have to imagine.
@@yourhomie7568 it's like 2 cutscenes at the end the rest are still first person, the mirrors work like character menu not like hitman mirrors ( a little disappointing) bikes are ok though. the game doesn't have third person character animations just preprogrammed positions like sitting on bike or leaning on mirrors or those poses for screenshots, even shadows don't reflect what your character is doing properly, I don't mind the first person though I just don't understand why they insisted on it, especially if they needed to redesign their whole engine to do it while short on time, when no one asked for it in the first place, just give me premade characters like odyssey( lol ubi for a positive reference) work on everything else and let's effing go!! fuck it, gimme one V character male, female, trans, a portable plant I don't care.
@@DemetriusAniketos which is weird because the marketing for that game was "from the ORIGINAL creators of Fallout". You'd think they'd put their money where their mouths were.
@@GodlessXVIII Ever since politics have become a bigger thing on the internet, it's now normal to see comments like this one. I am just writing. I am not those douchebags who think they are based, but are actually cringe.
I remember when CDPR shows the demo in closed doors no cameras allowed i said “they are hiding something” a lot if internet warriors flame me, but now we all know why they do that 😂😂😂🤷🏼♂️🤷🏼♂️🤷🏼♂️
This makes me really excited to see the eventual What Happened on Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2. Whether that game turns out good or bad, there's a lot happening behind the scenes.
The fact that they pretty openly canned Brian Mitsoda and scrapped a lot of his story stuff is enough on its own imo. Given how long he's fought to have it made it was really just such an obvious sign of things to come in hindsight.
Best video on this game: No over saturation on memes, not dog piling insults or sucking up to the developers, giving the developers a fair shake, and overall just facts of matter. while still being very entertaining ( love the cut-out animation of your avatar).
@@CynicalAnomaly205 I like Matt's cause it's less of an opinion and more just the "Wha happun" to the game; I played it and have my own thoughts on it. Also, never got the "honest opinion" as a selling point.
Agreed! I didn't have much interest in the game because I simply loathe the style... I'm medieval gal through and through. But it's CDPR and good story is good story so I started investing what's going on with the game. I watched few longer videos but this was the first one that really gave a full picture! Except the fan hype part, I still dont know what that was about... Did they give good reviews of the games because they feared their followers and didn't wanna give a bad review? Were they biased? Did they play a better, incomplete version that didn't represent end result? Why did everything think Cyberpunk was going to be masterpiece? I've been wondering this two years now, everyone seemed SURE that it would be EPIC. Why?
@@atinity6749 The initial positive reviews were all on the PC version which runs pretty well on a solid rig, especially compared to last-gen consoles. I played the PC version myself and can sum it up as an awesome story with fun quests but the second you step outside the quests it's very mediocre. It's just a terrible sandbox game. Compared to GTA/Red Dead the worldbuilding is pretty hollow even if it is aesthetically gorgeous.
Thank God I have Risk Of Rain 2. My friends and I haven't been able to pull ourselves away from that game and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to give Cyberpunk enough of my attention when it released. Looks like I didn't have to.
I don’t think Sony “looked” at Cyberpunk and decided it wasn’t good enough to be on the platform - they did it after CDPR directed thousands of people to get a refund from Sony when Sony didn’t have a return policy.
@@threestars2164 it's like what matt said, a lot of this is to do with reputation, and cyberpunk's reputation is basically squeaky clean now that everyone's forgotten how it's launched because they really liked the anime
@@shabath like the original comment said, they had the perfect excuse to delay it, yet they still felt the need to rush it somehow. If it's not just to include the older consoles, I don't know what else it could be.
it's about $$ nothing more, if you delay it more you have to spend more $$ and you also lose the value of $$ you already spend on marketing since the more time passes the less people still hold attention.
@Cornbread i agree that the game needs to be criticized, because your right the game was not done. But another of people talk like the game is just bad on its own as a game and I can't agree with that
@Cornbread I think its more like refreshing to see the blame put on the higher ups and not the developers and testers and stuff that’s all like yeah the game was bad but it’s for a reason and it’s not because the ppl working on it didn’t want to put out s good and finished product!! Upper management ruins good stuff
"Games can't keep being made like this" Why not? This game turned a massive profit because everyone always preorders shit that doesn't exist. Marketing sells games, not polished gameplay. Call me jaded but this problem doesn't stop until consumers stop rewarding them before games even release
It probably will become more and more unsustainable, like you became jaded so did many others and they did make a profit but it was less than they expected to make.
The thing about such "strategy" is that is unstable and barely works beyond the "short" term, and if you piss off the wrong people it may bite you even harder. CD projekt may have sold millions on preorders but they are getting sued by pretty much anyone with enough lawyers and reasons, heck even several companies unrelated to the shitstorm were affected by lawsuits on the following weeks.
@@jaimeantonioolaguezchirino5805 but let's be honest. Cdpr probably has an army of lawyers and Imo i dont think the lawsuit will be anything significant, and thats if they lose the case, which is not as likely as you think
I link this video every time someone says "It's the fans fault" It's very clear there was a lot wrong WAYYY before a release date. Yet instead of holding the company accountable, just be a corporate apologist and blame the consumers. That's the motto now
It's really sad because there is alot of heart and hard work hidden under all the issues. The art, the music, the acting, it's all top notch. The executives just had to get in the way. Sad.
@@ZangetsuDDR that's ridiculous, the music was the only good thing about the game at launch and the only thing i can say that's definitively good about the game now despite how much its reputation has healed
I started to watch you almost 10 years ago with my friend back in high school. I'm real proud you turned into a channel that shows off these blemishes and abuses cause over those 10 years I've grown to boycott producers for these reasons. Keep up the good work Mr. Muscles and I hope to see more with you and T4S!
Man at this point just kill off the game. Shitty story since yknow they force you to be a street kid when you wanted nomad. Crappy designs and variety of weapons not that great combat crappy rendering on consolwa and runs ok on pc. Etc. Just there is so much and they release a hey we made the coa spawn further away. Lol it's like putting a bandage on a dead person and expect it to help
@@michelangelo1136 dude, just stop hating the game, and maybe try to enjoy it. For me it was a pretty good experience, if you just play on pc, and I didn't even have that great hardware. Everyone who played it was disappointed, but you really can't say it is a shit game, when it really isn't, infact I would even say it is a good game. They should still fix all the bugs and problems of the game, if they don't they would get sued to high hell for pushing out a completely unplayable product without even attempting to fix it. CDPR will probably eventually fix it by the end of 2021 and maybe put out some killer dlcs, I really don't think they should kill off the game after such a catastrophic launch.
@@haveproblemz545 not hating just saying that's the problems and CDPR let the hype get to them. And this new patch doesnt help consoles much anyways so again how am I suppose to enjoy a game that's clearly just wasn't made for consoles. That's why I dont play it. But i have the right to say what the game lacks and what it promised.
Wow, the employees said 2022 was a more realistic year date for the game...the SAME YEAR we get the anime and the SAME YEAR the game released enough patches that the bugs aren't as bad. So if it didn't release in 2020 (the year from hell), like the higher-ups wanted, we wouldn't have the release we got.
They literally should have just delayed it a year or so. I can't believe they didn't learn from FO76 and did the exact same thing. It's a sad day when the marketing team holds more sway and gets more money than the developers.
@@justnoob8141 Yeah. Fallout 76 was (and is) just a bugged mess... But at least It didn't overpromise on features... Cyberpunk is a hollow shell. Almost anything of what they promised isn't in the game.
I remember when F,allout 4 came out and a bunch of people said that CD pr should get the Fallout license as they would not have made such a buggy game with only 4 basic dialough options. Look how the turntabels.
@@zafranorbian757 ohhhhh, don't let me getting start on The Outer World, everyone praise it and claim that it will kill Bethesda, LITERALLLY 1 week later and I don't see The Outer World video on my feed anymore, straightup Thanos Snapped from my recommendation entirely, like months of praising just for like 5 days of glory of mediocre game that they blindly praised
Two things. One: I love the little speech you made at the end there about just how video game development, especially in the triple A space just simply cannot continue to be done this way as it's just getting self-destructive and unsustainable at this point. While I doubt many important people in the industry are watching this, it's something they all REALLY need to hear. Two: You briefly bring up Final Fantasy 14 in this episode and I think that would make for a fantastic Wha Happun? In the future. It's got engine problems, overly-ambitious ideas, broken promises, a poor beta, and a great story about how it nearly killed off Square...and then single handedly saved them and had turned into one of the best Final Fantasy games out there.
"Hey man, you sure you want to preorder Cyberpunk? You can always wait, it's digital anyways." "Yeah bro, it's CD Projekt Red! You can TRUST them!" Never trust a game company. Time and again.
@@DemetriusAniketos I did once trust a game developer name Keiji Inafune who exited Capcom to develop his own version of Megaman. And the final game 'Mighty No 9' was not even close to Megaman series. It sucks. Now I m having trust issue with any game developer not until they release their game and gets good review from the public. Only then will I purchase the game.
@@kadosho02 I remember that lady getting threats from CD project fanboys. The question is did CD project fanboys show any compassion when naughty Dog Or bioware devs also got death threats or they just rode the hate train with their *double standard mentality?*
That's just it - these companies often look at stuff like this and think that enough pressure -will- churn out diamonds, that's what they're chasing. They just don't understand that it also takes -time-.
@@arosenthal3318 no it really wasn't they just made a shit game. New vegas had only a year of development and they made one of the most content filled games ever imo.
So essentially lots of work to be done, bosses having unrealistic expectation, and incompetent PR managers making waaaayyyy too much hype. Damn that's unfortunate....
This is all so sad. My brother and a friend of mine were so hyped for this game that I, too, kinda bought into it too despite me not having any intentions to buy this game. And even when it turned out to be... pretty okay and not just pure garbage, I still felt really sad for not just my brother or friend, but for everyone else too. I wanted this game to be good because my friend just wouldn't stop talking about it.
@@MugdhaMahdiShams No it objectively isn't and getting tired of people using it as a negative. GTAV is probably the most hyped game of all time, it turned out okay despite it. Hype is subjective
@@wrequiem1727 you don't get what I'm saying. GTA 5 hyped itself up accordingly. With Cyberpunk, nearly half of what they promised in trailers were cut from the final product. There's chances that they promised stuff that was never gonna be in the game in the first place, like how involved the lifepath system was. They said that we'd need several playthroughs to get the full experience when in reality the lifepaths didn't really change much and only added flavor dialogue. Promised the most immersive character creation......doesn't even have a color slider so we're forced to pick between like 7-8 preset colors etc. It's one thing creating massive product and hyping it massively and another thing entirely when you're straight up lying through your teeth about features you only assume you can fit into the game.
Remember that despite the shitshow, the executives responsible for throwing the devs under the bus STILL got their massive bonuses for shipping an unplayable pile of shit.
@@rtmg591 Even 1-2 years often isn't enough. Recall that with Cyberpunk, it was rebooted in 2018 to feature more Johnny/Keanu. So even 2 years from release, the game still very different. At this point, The best time to show game is on release day like how Apex did.
This series really goes to show how executive meddling almost always leads to a bad result in the long run and it’s just bizarre that it’s still so frequent.
the big problem with management is that the types that get promoted most easily are hyper-extroverted, super-self-confident types ... who are incapable of accepting that they could be wrong about anything, deeply suspicious of anything they didn't initiate themselves, and unwilling to change their minds because it's "showing weakness"
I remember when that 2012 trailer first dropped, everybody was absolutely hyped for a general announcement that told you fucking nothing. Who'd have thought the end result from then would be the mess we ended up with.
We all learned a painful lesson. I won't lie, I was extremely hyped. However, I'm too poor to buy a console or a beast PC that could run this game. Guess being broke pays off ironically
Honestly, I was skeptical from the jump on that first trailer, albeit more for story/theme/tone reasons than anything else (and ended up largely right...)
They always blame the development team and not the leadership of the company. Thanks for showing light on this particular industry shortcoming and bringing humanity to the developers that worked so hard on this project. Source: I was a baker and when my boss didn't order flour I got yelled at even though I didn't do the ordering (and of course my boss did the ordering).
This was the game to finally kill pre-orders for me. It wasn’t just that it was glitchy and it wasn’t that I just didn’t like it, it was literal false advertisement. I was excited for a choice heavy immersive sim (which was what it was advertised as), and instead got a linear open-world game with basic RPG elements. What’s funny is the best part of it was the gameplay, which I expected to be its weakest point.
So in less than 10 minutes of this video I have learned that CDPR prematurely announced a project of which they had no previous experience or the creativity and resources to match it. Damn, an 8 year car crash that most of us never learned of until the day it happened.
This is more of a sad story than anything to me. Just imagine the devs as the marketing team and others kept making it out to be this huge thing with a release date that was unimaginable for the whole team working there. I can't help but relate this a bit to Anthem, I sincerely hope someday game companies will look at these stories and learn something from them.
The rich got richer, and it had very little impact on their early retirement plan. I'm not sure they're learning the right things from these situations.
@@asdkjh4370 Sure, certainly it wasnt the unrealistic deadline or hyping up the game too much. It was wokeness. Now do tell, how did the company investing by your words "Huge amount of money" And getting ""Woke" Affect the development of the game.
The saddest thing is, it was clear this was developed by passionate people. The writing is good, combat is fun, etc. Had CDPR just delayed CP2077 to 2022 and just gave up the idea of versions for the base PS4/Xbone, we'd be talking about a masterpiece.
This What Happun was incredible. The general synopsis of the company, the game, and the crescendo of the industry didn't just entertain me or even teach me, but gave me use cases to study for years to come. My big wish is that after all these Wha Happun episodes, if a thematic guide that examined those patterns you identify could be highlighted and exampled positively and negatively, you could build a real industry tool. I'd love to see the culmination of what you've identified around topics like the vertical slice, leadership, hype, engine build vs buy, to name a few would be awesome. Keep doing what your doing, it's a catelog worthy of reviewing until the end of human history.
You have to feel bad for the developers though that wanted to make the best game they could only for the executives to not listen and only care about the fucking charts they masturbate to.
@fabRic_jAck Japanese culture is different tho. You think its the companies who are crunching their workers right but from what I understand its the workers themselves who overwork because of the culture set for decades. Its weird but at some point everyone in Japan just decided that overworking themselves was the right thing to do. I mean look at Sakurai creator of smash. He has had multiple chances to stop being a developer and just retire but he's holding himself to finish smash ultimate. He first said he was done with smash after melee but for some reason keeps coming back and I don't think Nintendo is pressuring him at all especially since Sakurai has or rather had his own company.
Absolutely awesome job with this one. I can't even imagine how disheartening and frustrating this was for the people that worked on this game. I think you're right, the ambition and scope of these games can't be made within the timeframe they're asking of people. The tech just isn't there for it and human beings can only work so many hours before their work suffers. Not to mention their own mental well being. Again, really great video.
I'm just happy for Mike Pondsmith ultimately. He was just a guy making obscure pen and paper games back in the 80's, now he's suddenly someone outside of TTRPG circles know. I hope the new edition of Cyberpunk sells gangbusters.
@@emotionalsupportostrich2480 doubtfully so yeah buuuut it's not his fault. And hey maybe people will flock to the pen and paper to experience his world that way.
Are they doing it wrong, though? The game sold tens of millions of copies even though it was a trainwreck. I worry that they're going to pull a Rockstar and realize that marketing is better for their bottom line than actual game development.
@@QuintessentialWalrus in a way yes they did do it wrong. Cause a lot of people aren’t going to just blindly pre order their next game. Plus could you imagine how much money they would make if the game was good on release? But in the end they got their money and won.
One thing I would have to admit. Many of the of Indie Studio games, of various genres, that had a Cyberpunk environment, released during this time, were great quality games and solid entries on release. I would say, surprisingly, the ones riding the wave of the craze had way better releases than the one that pushed the craze, in the first place. I had a great time with them, as I wait for patches before I continue with my PC copy of CP2077.
@@laxphitta1403 it's more mismanagement. If they were actually greedy they would have added mtx and the like. All they did was release a game too early because of unrealistic expectations.
@@nextlifeonearth they put the unrealistic expectations on themselves when they promised so much where only 5% of what was said got delivered. They lied to their consumers just to earn a quick buck and now their reputation is tarnished for good...
what's funny in retrospect is that their desire to put it out on the old consoles before they became obsolete ended up not being a problem because the new ones had so many supply-chain issues (and still do, in mid-2022) that the old gen PS4/XBO have kept being viable for way longer than anyone could have expected. so delaying the release by a year or more wouldn't have affected sales of PS4/XBO versions. the avalanche of bad press and Sony shutting down digital sales of the game definitely hurt their bottom line more than delaying a year (or whatever) would have.
the best part about spending 200 Million on marketing is the whole world will know when you shit the bed
The funny thing is this kinda the norm for a lot of media. Big blockbuster movies will usually spend double on advertisement versus how much they spend to make the movie.
i hate that shit
I don’t get why they don’t do marketing after a game is released. Easier to manage expectations.
Its like they never learned from mistakes of otehr companies.
@@t850terminator because they want that as many people as possible know about the game when everything is ready for shipping. thats why. its stupid, i give you that, but thats unfortunately how advertisement works. ads are supposed to gain your interest, suck you in completely and make you feel like you absolutely need the product that is being promoted.
"Pleasing investors" is becoming the primary reason everything is going to shit everywhere.
A company going public is the primary reason.
Has been this way for years (resi6, ff14, ff15, mgs5, fallout76), though I was genuinely shocked CDPR fell victim to it.
Now there is simply no such thing as a good AAA games company, they simply cannot be relied upon to deliver on what they promise.
Personally I think systems like the switch are the future, either that or only release games on pc, which we know doesn't make the investors their money back, so yea its time to focus on a switch lol, buy Monster Hunter Rise and pay 20 a year to play it online, looks good, and is very fun, does what a game is meant to do without breaking any new ceilings in advancement, is good enough and that is okay.
Without investors there is no money, with no money there is no game
@@ULTIMATEGOOSE01 what about rockstar? They like to milk something till it die and take a long time to take out another game, but it is pure gold
@@Literallyryangosling777 Of course there is money without investors. There just isn't hundreds of millions of dollars without investors.
I literally heard "Way to fuck up, samurai"
exactly
We have a reputation to burn 😎
"We did it, Samurai! We saved the city!"
@@TheSixthDoctor "But at what cost?"
I don't know wheather its ironic, poetic, or just sad that in the end it was corporate greed that killed a game whose commentary was "corporations are bad."
Well in that case, they succeeded didn't they? They definitely proved "corporations are bad"
@@MugdhaMahdiShams And they proved why, too. It isn't the fault of the people at the bottom of the totem pole within the corporation, it's the fault of the overpaid few at the top.
I forget where but I think it was Marx who said that capitalism absorbs even its own critique
@@michaelsteiner5203 Couldn’t find the quote, but that does sound like something Marx would say
Not exactly. That's the surface. The game is ultimately about dying, how will you be remembered, and what will you do if you could put a number to how much time you have left(and it's not very big). Will you fight till the end, leave it to someone else, or give the universe a giant 'fuck you' and choose to die when you want to die?
One time my dad asked me “did you hear about Cyberpunk?” You know it’s bad when your parents hear about the situation!!
I remember my boss asked me about it, and he's not really too much in the know about modern stuff. The fact that he knew surprised me.
same here. the only other time something similar to that has happened was when my dad asked me "so, what's up with sonic the hedgehog's teeth?"
@@RosieTheRo why dint he ask about the green eyes
@@firesniperbullet2 because it doesn’t matter
Even my professor at College who hates videogames heard about the fiasco. Just to show how ultra-bad this whole situation was and still is for CDPR.
The fact that they predicted that the game would be ready in 2022 and it took the game 2 years after launch to reach a playable state shows that you should listen and respect your dev team.
*kind of* playable.
I bought it about a month ago, and have played it on my ps5, and boy are there still problems.
@@drumrocka it runs 1000% better than Gotham Knights did at launch, so yes it is playable.
@drumrocka Witcher 3 also has more bugs now than Cyberpunk, and Witcher 3 came out 8 years ago.
@@itriedtochangemynamebutitd5019 comparing a launch game to two years of patches, seems about right
@@orlandofurioso7329 Glad you agree, the standard that it's ok for games to release broken is the reason companies have the "fix it later" mentality.
I can't wait for The Snyder Cut of Cyberpunk 2077.
No joke, it's going to take 3 to 4 more years to make CP2077 into what was promised, and yes, it won't happen because by 2025 everyone will have moved on, including CDPR.
@@witlessteam901 I really hope in 3 or 4 years GTA6 finally release in a great state.
Coming out that year.
black and white version would be sweeeet!
Cybercut
Sonic 06 really was a glimpse into the future of gaming, huh? So ahead of its time...
"When will you learn your actions have consequences?!" -SammyClassicSonicFan
That was some real character building shit for me as a kid. SO glitchy couldn't get past the first level. LITERALLY took me a whole year. When i got to the last level i felt like i found the cure to cancer. After that my tolerance went through the roof. Think the same thing is happening to me with CP2077 ROFL
TRULY a next gen experience
@@EastsideRay Sonic 06 was the most disappointed I've ever been with a game.
@@EastsideRay yeah nah fam you're just bad
sonic 06 is a bad game but if you couldnt get past wave ocean and blamed it on the glitches then you were shit
Cyberpunk: already delays itself several times with no reason other than “it needs it”
Also Cyberpunk: has the valid excuse of COVID and decides NOW is the time to jump in
all about getting those last gen console sales
Valid excuse my ass
@@frozezone2947 Anything is a valid excuse. If a game isn’t ready it shouldn’t be released no matter the reason. This game should’ve been delayed more
@@frozezone2947 Lmao bro I never said release I said DELAY. There’s no excuse to release a game in this state, playing that shit was fucking embarrassing
To be fair, it did seem like it needed it. And if the game didn't need it, the people who worked on it certainly did.
Wow the executives didn’t just screw over the customers, they beat down on everybody. I feel bad for the developers, they had to deal with these control freaks for years.
Then you couple in the death threats and harassement and you're in for a very positive work enviroment. Fun for the whole family.
@@Kyrkby oh yeah, plus the fact that they spent vastly more money on advertising than they were willing to let the devs have to even finish the project, AND THEN CONSTANTLY SCRAPPING ANYTHING THEY DID HAVE DONE it’s a wonder it came out looking as good as it did. That surprise 2020 release date must have really been a sick joke to the devs.
@@Kyrkby if you get offended by some gamers giving you death threats online then I don’t know what to tell you
@@Kyrkby nah..excuse..💸💸 talks.
@@wikz8480 Death threats are unacceptable.
Don't forget all the CEO lies like how "testers didn't catch the console problems" LMAO.
That entire video was full of lies and I hated every second of it.
yeah sure they didn't, anyone else caught breaking bugs in like the first 15 minutes of gameplay... but not actual testers. very believable indeed.
Then they shouldve hired my ass. I have a whole journals worth of "what the fuck is this shit?"
@@ace94d It makes them look better than the truth, which is that they knew all about it but lied and manipulated the review process to deliberately mislead consumers.
The "CDPR can do no wrong because they hit it big with one game" got to their heads.
The company's head or fans head
Same with the 'Bioware magic' for Anthem... Guess they failed their dize role too :D
@@Priestofgoddess well anthem was more eas fault than BioWare, mass effect andromeda though? That is there fault
@@irondragon1785 Were the people who cooked up a fake trailer and sold it as the game without telling the devs EAs managers or Biowares?
@@Priestofgoddess probably Ea, because it’s you know, EA
This is what happens when a company shifts from being driven by the engineers and creatives to marketing and sales.
They really should of put more funds and resources into development, rather than marketing. My goodness, 200mil more in marketing? Ya that was a dumb move. It would of sold lots even without all these PR stunts. :/ Blame is legit on upper management.
I'm surprised anyone puts anything into marketing besides trailers. UA-camrs could take care of it for anyone now as long as trailers get released and some details from devs.
One thing does not validated another that’s non sense. Each of the people does their job separately
@@donnorman6526 You're completely missing the point. It's not about marketing or programmers doing their jobs, but where the leadership comes from and what they focus on. In many gaming and tech startups they begin with a creative or engineer with an idea, for a lot of successful companies there's a point where the leadership changes from someone who cut their teeth producing some sort of valuable product to a person who focuses on promoting and selling the product rather than developing or improving the product.
Another example of this is Blizz, look at how not only the company but the type of games they produced changed as the leadership became more corporate.
@@WolfA4 It's a phenomenon that basically always happens in any commercial industry that reaches a certain size. If you like a game developer and they are growing, watch for the day they get bought by a larger studio or put their own board of directors into place. This is pretty much a death knell for everything you loved about their work. It's just a natural life cycle that occurs as companies grow: struggle --> golden age (or bankruptcy) --> major market share --> corporate culture forms --> corporate psychosis sets in --> sustainable mediocrity
Should've delayed this video, would've been hilarious.
haha, I was thinking that, buuuut...I chickened out
Make the video unplayable except on the newest computers,
@@MattMcMuscles you mean chippin out?
Man, that would've been nova.
@@MattMcMuscles This video is what we waited since the game released...Even if it is an on going story that may or may not keep on giving,I have to say your video livwd up to its hype as it is.
I remember when my boyfriend told me he preordered Cyberpunk. He then told me a bit about the delays and I told him “you ordered that game that was delayed that many times? That’s major red flags” and he answered that the guys that made The Witcher 3 were behind it.
I said “oh, that’s probably fine then.”
It was not fine.
Trust the red flags.
It’s a good game now your a little late to complain about it it’s been mostly patched I played it on PS4 recently and it runs surprisingly well
@@AshleyWilliams-go5cb I haven’t even played the game. And my boyfriend stopped long ago.
@@AshleyWilliams-go5cb Or... It took way too long for the game to get fixed.
This applies to people too haha
@@vinccool96 I haven’t actually heard of how it launched. Just of how good it is.
Watching this is like watching 10 episodes of “Wha Happuned” at the same time. They made SO many mistakes that when you hear them back to back it’s impressive.
Seriously, they could've toned down the marketing a bit and pulled a Persona 5 (launched a last gen port when the last gen system might as well be dead) and still have sold absolute gangbusters but without the backlash.
@@robertbernard7844 they could've just spent more money on developing the actual godamn product rather than spending all that money on advertising. Isn't this the reasonable thing?
@@CBRN-115 Money wouldn't have solved the problems with Cyberpunk given most of the problems were on a corporate and managerial level. Usually when a big studio known for quality screws up like this it is always at least one of those two. Money would have helped, but what they need was more people, time, and time to train new hires.
@@robertbernard7844 At least P5 was only on two consoles. The higher ups made the same mistake Keiji Inafune made when making Mighty Number 9: putting the game on too damn many consoles.
@@thelittleredhairedgirlfrom6527 sort of, possibly even worse than that actually. Inafune was desperate to regain credibility and never quite realized how important crowdfunding actually is and what that could do to his already damaged reputation.
CDPR knew what they were doing was wrong.
I think this video does a better job of damage control and clearing confusion than their actual damage control campaign did.
The whole thing is just big mess up from management setting bar too high on everything.
Well, I imagine management wouldn't be very happy saying the fault of how Cyberpunk came out to be is theirs, so there was never a chance.
The day executives will admit their mistakes in any company is the day i'll be elected king of the world.
Is it sad that I expected a disaster after their delay announcement?
No sh*t, the video is almost 30 min long....
"Stress and overwork is a sign of an inefficient business model."
sorry i ruined the like number, was at 76.
Holy cow, mad props to whoever animated your character for this video, it looks great! If it was the video's editor, then good job to Guarascia!
The production value on this video is through the roof. Matt is a top tier content creator.
Maybe not top tier, but quite high up
@@heavenly2k Absolutely. Jesse absolutely killed it with his editing here. It's a very collaborative effort.
@@MattMcMuscles *chefs kiss for the whole team
The whole Watchdogs 2 ransom message made me choke on my samosa
Team McMuscles knows not to squander money on marketing
The line "a delayed game is eventually good" assumes you're dealing with competent upper management.
So true. Duke Nukem Forever makes your point
"Fuck the up shut" - Arnoldo Teraffer
@Samuel Boucher bruh melee was made in a year
@@CheeseBlaster Melee was also saved from a game breaking bug thanks to the help from legendary programmer Satoru Iwata. RIP
@@CheeseBlaster so was Majora's mask, actually.
It's funny that when they talk about Keanu Reeves and cyberpunk worlds, hardly anyone brings up Johnny Mnemonic.
There's many reasons why no one brings up Johnny Mnemonic.
@@MattMcMuscles I want room service!!!
Might you say Johnny Mnemonic went unremembered? I'll leave.
My first reaction to my husband describing the plot of this was, "Oh, so it's Johnny Mnemonic," so I guess I'm in the minority there? XD
I saw that film in the theater as a teen (yeah, I'm old). When the dolphin appeared on screen I considered walking out.
It really is wild to think that simply not starting up the hype train 4 years early and actually giving the game proper development time (2022 seems fair, given the game's current state), we could have had another masterpiece instead of what we got. All of this was the result of some of the worst management I've ever seen.
@@potguyidk the current state of the game falls apart when the enemy ai can't land grenades or use natural cover for shit, and just end up being Destiny 2 bullet sponges at higher difficulties. Hacking is also largely irrelevant and feels shoe horned in despite supposedly being a big part of the demo. This game is nothing better than anything we've gotten in the past and most of the fun is what the player makes of it, which just makes it not fun. Players can make fun out of much better games than CP76
@@potguyidk LMAO
I honestly feel sorry for most of the actual development team. Cyberpunk obviously started as a passion project but then they were given unrealistic goals and timeframes and were basically told to deal with it. They also had to scrap and rework tons of features that they actually wanted in the game due to those budget and time constraints, which must've hurt considering the higher ups were willing to blow millions on marketing. They also probably had to keep their mouths shut about all of this because talking about it would've most likely gotten them fired.
So yeah, a game that was partially about how companies only care about money and treat their employees like shit failed because the company behind it only cared about money and treated its employees like shit. The joke prectically writes itself.
I feel sorry for the first concept designers. Imagine having such a passion for a super cool and unique game only to have it be destroyed by some dipshit money hungry managers
Greed is killing the gaming industry
@@plexyglass429 The first concept designer really had nothing to do with the video game and is only given credit because he sold the rights to CD projekt red, he already created the highly successful tabletop RPG Cyberpunk that's 2nd only to the one and only dungeons and dragons when it comes to TTRPG games.
The man is fine is what I'm saying.
@@mysticalpineapple7263 *society
@@plexyglass429you also already know those managers got an MBA and don’t know jack about game design. They see everything as a way to make money and could care less about quality which is ironic because the best marketing is just making a quality fricking game.
So basically
"Don't bother working hard or doing good work, because the bosses will just load you down with even more work and even more work until you break, then blame you for failing. Be mediocre at all times."
Writ large.
you just perfectly described how most corporate environments are :D
'Tis a proverb that the reward for a job well done is more work.
Sadly this describes my job situation since COVID pretty good..
I’m working my ass of and my project customers are super satisfied, but my company is putting more and more pressure on us to be even more profitable and at the slightest sign of a project being a bit lower on work, they want to send you home with a hefty paycut.
That this kind of behavior is extremely threatening to the employees mental health isn’t a concern to these managers it seems.
Yeah sorry for the rant that probably nobody cares about, but I had to vent.
When your job is under constant threat, all while your doing really good work, it really starts to wear on you..
@@cvpik2469 Yes but with the quality of Witcher 2 and 3 it REALLY becomes apparent here.
@@rolux4853 Time to get an actual useful job then instead of working on some project of a company that literally gives you nothing.
"Bulding a bridge as you're crossing it"
Minecraft fans : "I don't get it"
*Proceeds to build a nerd poll to the sun*
It's like those Looney Toons skit
the management team made the devs fucking speedbridge this shit
Now I just imagine that Spongebob gag where that happened. XD
you actually have to build every bridge while crossing it
I love how Cyberpunk glitch montages became its own genre after the game’s release
I'm not even mad about how Cyberpunk 2077 turned out. I'm just sad
so many wanted it to fail before release and it's a damn shame cdpr granted their wish
Maybe if they spent more time on game mechanics instead of putting dildo art around every corner it could've been better...
This^^ I played it expecting nothing and felt just bummed playing it. I could see the good but everything bad was just way to big.
It’s an amazing game tho....nothing to be sad about.
@@DM-dk7js Amazing games don't get taken off the game store in less than a year.... Or have the only positive things about it be memes on how bad it is lol you can like a game all you want, but we don't have to agree with your delusion. 🤣
“The game was content complete”
Wha? WTF it’s missing 70% of the original concept!
It technically isn't, since the "reveal features" were not part of the game build at any point during development.
What they intend to say is that their bought and paid for PC reviews are enough and that's everything they need to have in the game.
well, these "missing features" were all lies for hype and marketing
@Green Mamba Games ahhh another one, the game was announced yeas before ps5 and xsx, and the first three release dates were before these new consoles even launched, so not it's not like the old consoles couldn't handle cyberpunk, because the game was aiming for old generation still, and rdr2, which looks better, runs in 4k 30 fps on xbox one x so its not like the consoles were too weak, no, cdpr just screwed this up
@@ehrtdaz7186 Its not only about raw looks. Red dead is mostly on a flat plain whilst cyberpunk is really vertical and thus has way more complex world chunks with a lot more AI running. Loading these in is really cpu intenstive and the PS4 pro and Xbox one X, whilst having a okay-ish gpu by todays standard, have a piss poor cpu(the one in your phone is probably a lot better). It's a lot more complex then "game A looks pretty and runs pretty good so pretty game B should also run good"
I doubt they could ever make the last gen console versions great because of this.
@Green Mamba Games 300 hours?? I finished everything in the game in 60. Witcher had 300 fs
Imagine making a game that presents a future ruled by soulless corporations and then you realize you are literally paving the way for that future
Imagine trying to be edgy and cool and not realizing that people literally sent death threats to a company over a game.
@@Plsrateeight
ua-cam.com/video/QJD2MrcTT4M/v-deo.html
@@Plsrateeight I'm not sure I understand who your attacking here or why.
Beyond idiots who send death threats to companies.
@@Plsrateeight People suck, boo-fuckin-hoo. The point still stands - they made a game about the soullessness of corporations and yet nearly ruined that game by being a soulless corporation.
God, this game was in development so long I remember them discussing it on Totalbiscut's Gamestation Podcast! And hearing about it so many years later when the ads started coming out it took me a few days to twig on that "wait, it's THAT game?"
I don't know if I'm sad TB isn't around to riff on it like the good old days, or glad he's spared the disappointment of the most hyped game of the decade being... this.
The funny thing is that it probably wasn't even in development yet then since the game got 4+ years. They really shouldn't have announced it so early.
@@Knoloaify No, what they should have done is start working on it immediately after announcement. Waiting until next-gen consoles is probably a good chunk of why it came out so bad.
@@Calvin_Coolage Or rather announce it after they started to work on it.
Witcher 3 wasn't even out yet before the first Cyberpunk trailer. No way CDPR had the resources to work on both games at the same time.
They should have announced it after Blood & Wine DLC in 2016.
Wasn't their original release date, "When it's done"? or something like that? Sounds like they should've kept that.
Yup.
The dark god of irony just stood behind them for 8 years, grinning and loading his shotgun.
Indeed.
Same as Duke Nukem Forever, which given the state of the game at launch, seems more fitting than ever.
@@SuperWiggler both got hyped, delayed for years and both got ruined by incompetent management
“This game doesn’t need a patch list, it needs a constitutional amendment.”
- Whitelight
Oof.
Link?
For real, we need the bill of game development rights
@@narc440 This unironically.
Wrong game, but still valid.
A few months before the Keanu Reeves reveal at E3 2019 I remember talking with a friend about game companies that we lost respect for. He wound up going "I really hope CD Projekt Red won't fall into that category". That was a statement that aged very awkwardly...
Guys imagine a game that is revealed before production of the game has even started, and then continue to spent all of the games budget on marketing. Oh wait, you don't have to imagine.
RAID
SHADOW LEGENDS
The thing is, after making that much profit, I doubt anyone will be learning any lessons here that is gonna be beneficial for the consumer.
imagine being able to customize your character and not being able to see them because the game is in first person
Well technically you can see your character on a bike, in cutscenes, using the camera, or in mirrors, but I get what your saying
@@yourhomie7568 it's like 2 cutscenes at the end the rest are still first person, the mirrors work like character menu not like hitman mirrors ( a little disappointing) bikes are ok though. the game doesn't have third person character animations just preprogrammed positions like sitting on bike or leaning on mirrors or those poses for screenshots, even shadows don't reflect what your character is doing properly, I don't mind the first person though I just don't understand why they insisted on it, especially if they needed to redesign their whole engine to do it while short on time, when no one asked for it in the first place, just give me premade characters like odyssey( lol ubi for a positive reference) work on everything else and let's effing go!! fuck it, gimme one V character male, female, trans, a portable plant I don't care.
@@EYEZACISTRYify fuck yeah Portable Plant
@@DemetriusAniketos which is weird because the marketing for that game was "from the ORIGINAL creators of Fallout". You'd think they'd put their money where their mouths were.
that's the least of CP2077's problems
Also, the irony of a game centered on the critique of capitalist excess which it's itself an example of capitalist excess.
Modern Western Commies can easily be manipulated with it.
Say that you support BLM and LGBTQ+ and you will be worshipped by half of them.
@@marko-gj1uj hope you'll get better :/
@@GodlessXVIII Ever since politics have become a bigger thing on the internet, it's now normal to see comments like this one.
I am just writing. I am not those douchebags who think they are based, but are actually cringe.
@@panasane Syphilis.
@@marko-gj1uj based
I remember when CDPR shows the demo in closed doors no cameras allowed i said “they are hiding something” a lot if internet warriors flame me, but now we all know why they do that 😂😂😂🤷🏼♂️🤷🏼♂️🤷🏼♂️
This makes me really excited to see the eventual What Happened on Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2. Whether that game turns out good or bad, there's a lot happening behind the scenes.
The fact that they pretty openly canned Brian Mitsoda and scrapped a lot of his story stuff is enough on its own imo. Given how long he's fought to have it made it was really just such an obvious sign of things to come in hindsight.
@@jimbob1862 dont forget that hardsuit labs has been canned too. In its entirety
Yeah but everyone is pretty much expecting it to be a complete shit show now. So even if it's half decent we'll be pleasantly surprised.
It's gotta be fucking wild, I hope someday the full story makes it out.
That game is already DOA
Best video on this game: No over saturation on memes, not dog piling insults or sucking up to the developers, giving the developers a fair shake, and overall just facts of matter. while still being very entertaining ( love the cut-out animation of your avatar).
But .... but.... the Memes are the BEST about Cyberpunk 2077 :(
Watch Strat-Edgy’s video on it, he gives his honest opinion of the game.
@@CynicalAnomaly205 I like Matt's cause it's less of an opinion and more just the "Wha happun" to the game; I played it and have my own thoughts on it. Also, never got the "honest opinion" as a selling point.
Agreed! I didn't have much interest in the game because I simply loathe the style... I'm medieval gal through and through. But it's CDPR and good story is good story so I started investing what's going on with the game.
I watched few longer videos but this was the first one that really gave a full picture! Except the fan hype part, I still dont know what that was about... Did they give good reviews of the games because they feared their followers and didn't wanna give a bad review? Were they biased? Did they play a better, incomplete version that didn't represent end result? Why did everything think Cyberpunk was going to be masterpiece? I've been wondering this two years now, everyone seemed SURE that it would be EPIC. Why?
@@atinity6749 The initial positive reviews were all on the PC version which runs pretty well on a solid rig, especially compared to last-gen consoles. I played the PC version myself and can sum it up as an awesome story with fun quests but the second you step outside the quests it's very mediocre. It's just a terrible sandbox game. Compared to GTA/Red Dead the worldbuilding is pretty hollow even if it is aesthetically gorgeous.
Here after the release of Phantom Liberty and I gotta say, MAN. WHAT A COMEBACK
lmao!! Scampunk 2077 is decades old by comparison with the red dead series!
I can't help but just feel sad and disappointed whenever I hear about Cyberpunk 2077 now, it's a tragedy. It had so much potential.
Thank God I have Risk Of Rain 2. My friends and I haven't been able to pull ourselves away from that game and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to give Cyberpunk enough of my attention when it released. Looks like I didn't have to.
@@Largentina. For me, it's been the ultra-dark-horse-unexpected-gem by the name of Genshin Impact. Who knew??
Anthem players: First time?
I feel like they should just sell the game to a new Dev team and move on I don't think cd is right state to even attempt to fix the game
Show that you should never buy a game from a company, but only from good indies
I don’t think Sony “looked” at Cyberpunk and decided it wasn’t good enough to be on the platform - they did it after CDPR directed thousands of people to get a refund from Sony when Sony didn’t have a return policy.
At this point I'd go full spite mode and (since the game's page is still on PSN) add a banner that says "Coming: when it's ready".
Expectations: "The most believable city in an open-world game to date."
Reality: "THIS SHRIMP FRESH?"
What Happened for Marvel's Avengers would be nice.
Can you make it pls?
Let's See how far devs will go with Avengers.
Who knows, maybe we witness comeback after all despite the game didn't sold well.
It's still happening though..
Square enix happened. The end. _roll credits_
Yes
This was the most inevitable episode of anything in all of history
I'm not addicted to UA-cam. I'm addicted to the comments section.
@@Wolfman7870 for videos like this, I always jump on to the comment sections to see what people say
With Phantom Liberty coming out, and the discourse around the game now, I am interested in a part 2 video.
How would some trash dlc fix the terrible outdated main game?
@@threestars2164 it's like what matt said, a lot of this is to do with reputation, and cyberpunk's reputation is basically squeaky clean now that everyone's forgotten how it's launched because they really liked the anime
Wake up samurai its time to Cyber Crunch
"We've got a workforce to burn."
Samurai: I've been awake for 32 hours.
@@FerociousPaul Execs: gotta pump those numbers up
They had the perfect excuse to delay the game for years and they didn't use it.
They could've totally overdone it and people would have still been okay with it when the resulting game was at least as good as W3.
It's because the higher ups wanted to include last-gen consoles while they are still relevant.
@@shabath like the original comment said, they had the perfect excuse to delay it, yet they still felt the need to rush it somehow. If it's not just to include the older consoles, I don't know what else it could be.
it's about $$ nothing more, if you delay it more you have to spend more $$ and you also lose the value of $$ you already spend on marketing since the more time passes the less people still hold attention.
I feel so sorry for the people who had to work through this game. It shouldn't have been pushed out the way it was.
Its nice to here someone not just shit on the game and actually talk about why the game has struggled
@Cornbread of course, but the change of focus with this video is no less welcome for it
@Cornbread i agree that the game needs to be criticized, because your right the game was not done. But another of people talk like the game is just bad on its own as a game and I can't agree with that
@Cornbread I think its more like refreshing to see the blame put on the higher ups and not the developers and testers and stuff that’s all like yeah the game was bad but it’s for a reason and it’s not because the ppl working on it didn’t want to put out s good and finished product!! Upper management ruins good stuff
@@playerjin the game is real bad
@@fernando_alfradique without the bugs and some minor tweaks to character creation I would argue the game itself isn't good
The uncanny movement of Matt’s avatar is so great I love it
Fully agree
It's satisfyingly smooth
It's unironically good IMO.
As a QA tester in the industry, thanks for acknowledging us. Subscribed!
I love how Matt’s avatar is becoming more animated.
Saaaame. So much personality.
You can tell he keeps improving with every video, so glad he’s doing this series
Yes it’s so cool 😎
@@MattMcMuscles yo how many animators do you feed to Chernabog to make it happen?
More animated than a Cyberpunk NPC!
"Games can't keep being made like this"
Why not? This game turned a massive profit because everyone always preorders shit that doesn't exist. Marketing sells games, not polished gameplay.
Call me jaded but this problem doesn't stop until consumers stop rewarding them before games even release
It probably will become more and more unsustainable, like you became jaded so did many others and they did make a profit but it was less than they expected to make.
The thing about such "strategy" is that is unstable and barely works beyond the "short" term, and if you piss off the wrong people it may bite you even harder.
CD projekt may have sold millions on preorders but they are getting sued by pretty much anyone with enough lawyers and reasons, heck even several companies unrelated to the shitstorm were affected by lawsuits on the following weeks.
@@jaimeantonioolaguezchirino5805 but let's be honest. Cdpr probably has an army of lawyers and Imo i dont think the lawsuit will be anything significant, and thats if they lose the case, which is not as likely as you think
We will have to wait and see, anything can happen now.
Amen. Too bad modern humans are little more than sheep to these people and act accordingly.
I link this video every time someone says "It's the fans fault"
It's very clear there was a lot wrong WAYYY before a release date. Yet instead of holding the company accountable, just be a corporate apologist and blame the consumers. That's the motto now
It's really sad because there is alot of heart and hard work hidden under all the issues. The art, the music, the acting, it's all top notch. The executives just had to get in the way. Sad.
Yeah most of the radio songs suck but there are few radio songs that are good and the gameplay/combat ost is amazing
@@panasane lol you sound dumb
All of the music in the game is ass. But the voice acting is top tier.
@@ZangetsuDDR that's ridiculous, the music was the only good thing about the game at launch and the only thing i can say that's definitively good about the game now despite how much its reputation has healed
I've spent more time watching videos on Cyberpunk than I have actually playing the game.
LOOK, THE EAST IS BURNING RED
Hey me too lol
Same Domon, same.
Well, it's also more entertaining to watch this stuff than playing the game lol
Yup same thing
I started to watch you almost 10 years ago with my friend back in high school. I'm real proud you turned into a channel that shows off these blemishes and abuses cause over those 10 years I've grown to boycott producers for these reasons. Keep up the good work Mr. Muscles and I hope to see more with you and T4S!
"Putting the game out on as many formats as technically possible."
Gee doesn't that sound a tad familiar?
*cough cough Mighty Number 9 cough cough*
“Don’t worry guys, we have a road map and plan to fix this game and make it even better!”
*looks at Anthem’s loose dirt grave*.....uh huh....
Man at this point just kill off the game. Shitty story since yknow they force you to be a street kid when you wanted nomad. Crappy designs and variety of weapons not that great combat crappy rendering on consolwa and runs ok on pc. Etc. Just there is so much and they release a hey we made the coa spawn further away. Lol it's like putting a bandage on a dead person and expect it to help
@@michelangelo1136 dude, just stop hating the game, and maybe try to enjoy it. For me it was a pretty good experience, if you just play on pc, and I didn't even have that great hardware. Everyone who played it was disappointed, but you really can't say it is a shit game, when it really isn't, infact I would even say it is a good game. They should still fix all the bugs and problems of the game, if they don't they would get sued to high hell for pushing out a completely unplayable product without even attempting to fix it. CDPR will probably eventually fix it by the end of 2021 and maybe put out some killer dlcs, I really don't think they should kill off the game after such a catastrophic launch.
@@haveproblemz545 not hating just saying that's the problems and CDPR let the hype get to them. And this new patch doesnt help consoles much anyways so again how am I suppose to enjoy a game that's clearly just wasn't made for consoles. That's why I dont play it. But i have the right to say what the game lacks and what it promised.
michelangelo 11 I thought u just said ur playing on pc? 😂
@@ThatNoFbody-ch9ky nah not enough money 😅 but yea pc is playable still not a great game but an ok game on pc but console it's a mess.
Wow, the employees said 2022 was a more realistic year date for the game...the SAME YEAR we get the anime and the SAME YEAR the game released enough patches that the bugs aren't as bad.
So if it didn't release in 2020 (the year from hell), like the higher-ups wanted, we wouldn't have the release we got.
They literally should have just delayed it a year or so. I can't believe they didn't learn from FO76 and did the exact same thing. It's a sad day when the marketing team holds more sway and gets more money than the developers.
Funnily enough, Fallout 76 did technically give all they promise when the game drop
@@justnoob8141 Yeah. Fallout 76 was (and is) just a bugged mess... But at least It didn't overpromise on features... Cyberpunk is a hollow shell. Almost anything of what they promised isn't in the game.
I remember when F,allout 4 came out and a bunch of people said that CD pr should get the Fallout license as they would not have made such a buggy game with only 4 basic dialough options. Look how the turntabels.
@@zafranorbian757 ohhhhh, don't let me getting start on The Outer World, everyone praise it and claim that it will kill Bethesda, LITERALLLY 1 week later and I don't see The Outer World video on my feed anymore, straightup Thanos Snapped from my recommendation entirely, like months of praising just for like 5 days of glory of mediocre game that they blindly praised
@@justnoob8141 aye, I remember that too.
You kmow you're in for a wild ride when the What Happen episode is nearly half an hour long.
They made their money but they payed more with their reputation and trust.
Two things.
One: I love the little speech you made at the end there about just how video game development, especially in the triple A space just simply cannot continue to be done this way as it's just getting self-destructive and unsustainable at this point. While I doubt many important people in the industry are watching this, it's something they all REALLY need to hear.
Two: You briefly bring up Final Fantasy 14 in this episode and I think that would make for a fantastic Wha Happun? In the future. It's got engine problems, overly-ambitious ideas, broken promises, a poor beta, and a great story about how it nearly killed off Square...and then single handedly saved them and had turned into one of the best Final Fantasy games out there.
"Hey man, you sure you want to preorder Cyberpunk? You can always wait, it's digital anyways."
"Yeah bro, it's CD Projekt Red! You can TRUST them!"
Never trust a game company. Time and again.
Preach!
@@DemetriusAniketos I did once trust a game developer name Keiji Inafune who exited Capcom to develop his own version of Megaman. And the final game 'Mighty No 9' was not even close to Megaman series. It sucks. Now I m having trust issue with any game developer not until they release their game and gets good review from the public. Only then will I purchase the game.
Rockstar: Am I a joke to you??
@@UltraEgoMc they're one bad launch away from being a joke.
People believe a logo to be a friend, literal insanity
That is disgraceful - marketing budget is DOUBLE the development budget? WTF?
19:06 When CD red doesn't let reviewer to show there own gameplay
And also bought some UA-camrs to talk good about the game.
@@kadosho02 I remember that lady getting threats from CD project fanboys.
The question is did CD project fanboys show any compassion when naughty Dog Or bioware devs also got death threats or they just rode the hate train with their *double standard mentality?*
Ah, crunch culture. When will they learn the only time pressure ever leads to a better product is if you're making diamonds.
That's just it - these companies often look at stuff like this and think that enough pressure -will- churn out diamonds, that's what they're chasing. They just don't understand that it also takes -time-.
Dude they had 8 years....
@@hankhill8344 It would’ve taken 12 to make the game they promised. The concept was too big from the get go.
@@arosenthal3318 no it really wasn't they just made a shit game. New vegas had only a year of development and they made one of the most content filled games ever imo.
@@hankhill8344 They most likely had a preexisting engine for that game though. That makes a huge difference.
Coming back to watch this after playing the game for the first time on patch 2.0 and absolutely loving it
So essentially lots of work to be done, bosses having unrealistic expectation, and incompetent PR managers making waaaayyyy too much hype.
Damn that's unfortunate....
This is all so sad. My brother and a friend of mine were so hyped for this game that I, too, kinda bought into it too despite me not having any intentions to buy this game. And even when it turned out to be... pretty okay and not just pure garbage, I still felt really sad for not just my brother or friend, but for everyone else too. I wanted this game to be good because my friend just wouldn't stop talking about it.
Hype isn't the problem, it's lack of development time considering the amount of ports and the scope of the title.
@@sujimayne hype IS the problem. Why hype so much when you're not even sure you can deliver a fraction of it?
@@MugdhaMahdiShams No it objectively isn't and getting tired of people using it as a negative. GTAV is probably the most hyped game of all time, it turned out okay despite it. Hype is subjective
@@wrequiem1727 you don't get what I'm saying. GTA 5 hyped itself up accordingly. With Cyberpunk, nearly half of what they promised in trailers were cut from the final product. There's chances that they promised stuff that was never gonna be in the game in the first place, like how involved the lifepath system was. They said that we'd need several playthroughs to get the full experience when in reality the lifepaths didn't really change much and only added flavor dialogue. Promised the most immersive character creation......doesn't even have a color slider so we're forced to pick between like 7-8 preset colors etc. It's one thing creating massive product and hyping it massively and another thing entirely when you're straight up lying through your teeth about features you only assume you can fit into the game.
I suspect this is going to be like Fallout 76, and you were a little optimistic not calling this Part 1.
Oh it likely will. Seeing that CDPR is the gift that keeps on giving with the updates and patching.
Remember that despite the shitshow, the executives responsible for throwing the devs under the bus STILL got their massive bonuses for shipping an unplayable pile of shit.
When the "What Happened?" is so big my boomer dad hears about the game bugs on ESPN
I thought this game would save 2020 not be apart of 2020.
You supposed to be destroy them. Not join them!
-Jesus.
@@anonymousstill9276 *destroy the Sith. Atleast get it right, my guy
As if Mulan 2020 wasn't torture enough.
This is why you never reveal you’re making a game at all until it’s ready.
Well said.
Yh I rather have a game shown 1-2 years before launch because you know that majority of it is complete
I want everyone who ever complains that Rockstar hasn't talked about GTA 6 to hear that
@@rtmg591 Even 1-2 years often isn't enough. Recall that with Cyberpunk, it was rebooted in 2018 to feature more Johnny/Keanu. So even 2 years from release, the game still very different.
At this point, The best time to show game is on release day like how Apex did.
Like apex
This series really goes to show how executive meddling almost always leads to a bad result in the long run and it’s just bizarre that it’s still so frequent.
Rich people don't think with what we on earth call logic. They think about one thing only and nothing else.
the sad thing is thinking of the few times games have ended up the same for the opposite reason.
*glances at other m*
the big problem with management is that the types that get promoted most easily are hyper-extroverted, super-self-confident types ... who are incapable of accepting that they could be wrong about anything, deeply suspicious of anything they didn't initiate themselves, and unwilling to change their minds because it's "showing weakness"
I remember when that 2012 trailer first dropped, everybody was absolutely hyped for a general announcement that told you fucking nothing. Who'd have thought the end result from then would be the mess we ended up with.
2013*
We all learned a painful lesson. I won't lie, I was extremely hyped. However, I'm too poor to buy a console or a beast PC that could run this game.
Guess being broke pays off ironically
Honestly, I was skeptical from the jump on that first trailer, albeit more for story/theme/tone reasons than anything else (and ended up largely right...)
@@gregorysteffensen3279 right? Every piece of marketing highlighted style over substance. In spite of the bugs, I hear the story is average at best.
YO! Loved the story telling here. AND I have to call out the animation here! Looks so good
Thanks man!
They always blame the development team and not the leadership of the company. Thanks for showing light on this particular industry shortcoming and bringing humanity to the developers that worked so hard on this project. Source: I was a baker and when my boss didn't order flour I got yelled at even though I didn't do the ordering (and of course my boss did the ordering).
Yeah Gamers are mostly idiots.
This was the game to finally kill pre-orders for me. It wasn’t just that it was glitchy and it wasn’t that I just didn’t like it, it was literal false advertisement. I was excited for a choice heavy immersive sim (which was what it was advertised as), and instead got a linear open-world game with basic RPG elements. What’s funny is the best part of it was the gameplay, which I expected to be its weakest point.
I literally thought they said every choice you make has consequences, which may be true but literally did fucking 0 for end game.
So in less than 10 minutes of this video I have learned that CDPR prematurely announced a project of which they had no previous experience or the creativity and resources to match it. Damn, an 8 year car crash that most of us never learned of until the day it happened.
This is more of a sad story than anything to me. Just imagine the devs as the marketing team and others kept making it out to be this huge thing with a release date that was unimaginable for the whole team working there. I can't help but relate this a bit to Anthem, I sincerely hope someday game companies will look at these stories and learn something from them.
The rich got richer, and it had very little impact on their early retirement plan. I'm not sure they're learning the right things from these situations.
@@Mazra42 let's hope the business side of cdpr shuts down, everyone deserves it too, but not the devs.
@@asdkjh4370
Sure, certainly it wasnt the unrealistic deadline or hyping up the game too much.
It was wokeness.
Now do tell, how did the company investing by your words
"Huge amount of money"
And getting
""Woke"
Affect the development of the game.
@@MrAapasuo he can't
The saddest thing is, it was clear this was developed by passionate people. The writing is good, combat is fun, etc. Had CDPR just delayed CP2077 to 2022 and just gave up the idea of versions for the base PS4/Xbone, we'd be talking about a masterpiece.
They even put a place called "Crunch Plaza" they were exploited, and is sad.
Wonder if that was put in after the crunch was called....
This What Happun was incredible. The general synopsis of the company, the game, and the crescendo of the industry didn't just entertain me or even teach me, but gave me use cases to study for years to come. My big wish is that after all these Wha Happun episodes, if a thematic guide that examined those patterns you identify could be highlighted and exampled positively and negatively, you could build a real industry tool. I'd love to see the culmination of what you've identified around topics like the vertical slice, leadership, hype, engine build vs buy, to name a few would be awesome. Keep doing what your doing, it's a catelog worthy of reviewing until the end of human history.
Keanu Reeves is to Cyberpunk as Ja Rule was to the Fyre Festival.
ooooh mr. Rule have I an idea to you. Ja Rule " Ah youwhatisdowhoo Iplayathrulejuwooo" - Ja rule speak." lol
@@yuzuichikawa I see you watch Internet Historian. Lol
Shots fucking fired.
Nah Keanu was more like a Bartender on the Titanic
@@yuzuichikawa "Ja rule, which I believe from german translates to 'Yes Rule'"
Just finished watching "old" interviews from 2018-2019 about this game. So many false promises... so many lies...
What did they lie about? Just asking
You have to feel bad for the developers though that wanted to make the best game they could only for the executives to not listen and only care about the fucking charts they masturbate to.
I know for years they said it was an RPG, then on release changed it’s description to action-adventure.
t e l l m e l i e s
t e l l m e s w e e t l i t t l e l i e s ~
And they were not the "sweet little lies" variety of lies (as popularized by Todd).
I was smart enough to avoid joining the game designing world.
This can happen in any industry. It looks like a management/strategy problem, not a problem endemic to game design
@fabRic_jAck Japanese culture is different tho. You think its the companies who are crunching their workers right but from what I understand its the workers themselves who overwork because of the culture set for decades. Its weird but at some point everyone in Japan just decided that overworking themselves was the right thing to do. I mean look at Sakurai creator of smash. He has had multiple chances to stop being a developer and just retire but he's holding himself to finish smash ultimate. He first said he was done with smash after melee but for some reason keeps coming back and I don't think Nintendo is pressuring him at all especially since Sakurai has or rather had his own company.
Yeah. Very happy I decided to be a data scientist instead
Absolutely awesome job with this one. I can't even imagine how disheartening and frustrating this was for the people that worked on this game. I think you're right, the ambition and scope of these games can't be made within the timeframe they're asking of people. The tech just isn't there for it and human beings can only work so many hours before their work suffers. Not to mention their own mental well being. Again, really great video.
Moment of silence for my fellow last gen fans
hopefully im not dead before i own a ps5
@@Jrock3891 same
Thanks friend, it was a painful journey... but I beated cyberpunk with my xbox one fat
I beat the game on a base Xbox One and though I liked it, wish I had waited till I get an Xbox Series X.
Press F to pay respects.
This shows that marketing is more important than quality.
No it doesn't
I'm just happy for Mike Pondsmith ultimately. He was just a guy making obscure pen and paper games back in the 80's, now he's suddenly someone outside of TTRPG circles know. I hope the new edition of Cyberpunk sells gangbusters.
The new edition is amazing.
I mean you're not wrong. If there's one positive thing to be gleamed from this it's that.
Not sure if he’s thrilled that his creation is now an iconic gaming failure.
@@emotionalsupportostrich2480 Probably not, but at least he isn't to blame for the game not fucking working.
@@emotionalsupportostrich2480 doubtfully so yeah buuuut it's not his fault.
And hey maybe people will flock to the pen and paper to experience his world that way.
When you spend almost double on marketing than you do on actual development, you know you’re doing it wrong
Are they doing it wrong, though? The game sold tens of millions of copies even though it was a trainwreck. I worry that they're going to pull a Rockstar and realize that marketing is better for their bottom line than actual game development.
@@QuintessentialWalrus in a way yes they did do it wrong. Cause a lot of people aren’t going to just blindly pre order their next game. Plus could you imagine how much money they would make if the game was good on release? But in the end they got their money and won.
@@brandoa1131 I certainly HOPE they're wrong (and you're right), but I'm just too cynical to see it that way right now 😔
One thing I would have to admit. Many of the of Indie Studio games, of various genres, that had a Cyberpunk environment, released during this time, were great quality games and solid entries on release. I would say, surprisingly, the ones riding the wave of the craze had way better releases than the one that pushed the craze, in the first place. I had a great time with them, as I wait for patches before I continue with my PC copy of CP2077.
I like how as you watch the what happened series the animation of his character get better
All the budget went to pay Keanu Reeves participation 😆😆😆
Honestly my boy earned his paycheck... But yeah you can't sell a video game especially only on marketing.
Money wasn't the problem. Time was.
@@nextlifeonearth time wasnt the problem. Greed was.
@@laxphitta1403 it's more mismanagement. If they were actually greedy they would have added mtx and the like. All they did was release a game too early because of unrealistic expectations.
@@nextlifeonearth they put the unrealistic expectations on themselves when they promised so much where only 5% of what was said got delivered. They lied to their consumers just to earn a quick buck and now their reputation is tarnished for good...
what's funny in retrospect is that their desire to put it out on the old consoles before they became obsolete ended up not being a problem because the new ones had so many supply-chain issues (and still do, in mid-2022) that the old gen PS4/XBO have kept being viable for way longer than anyone could have expected.
so delaying the release by a year or more wouldn't have affected sales of PS4/XBO versions. the avalanche of bad press and Sony shutting down digital sales of the game definitely hurt their bottom line more than delaying a year (or whatever) would have.
As a certain boxing team captain once said:
“IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS”
*DID YOU SEE THAT, SHINJI?!*
@@heresy8384 I'LL TAKE IT DOWN BEFORE YOU SHINJI!
My god
The comment above this one right now!
XD