Since the lackluster launch of the highly anticipated Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt RED has been doing a lot of damage control, most notably around misleading players about the state of the game on last-gen consoles. They sheepishly apologized for the issues (read: allegedly intentionally obfuscating the game’s visuals and performance on PS4 and Xbox One to maintain preorders) and promised refunds for anyone who wanted them. As it turns out, the refunds were offered without any agreements with Sony, Microsoft, or retailers, despite the developer telling players to go through them first.
In a call on December 14th to address the situation around Cyberpunk 2077’s launch, CDPR leadership fielded questions about the issues and what they are planning to do to resolve them. In response to a question about the studio offering refunds for disappointed players, CDPR co-founder Marcin Iwiński clarified that Sony and Microsoft’s independent refund policies stand, and the Cyberpunk 2077 launch situation does not warrant special treatment on any kind of agreement on those individual storefronts.
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. I want to state that clearly, as there seem to be certain misconceptions.
This last weekend has some scattered reports of players successfully getting refunds, but more commonly—particularly since CD Projekt RED offered Cyberpunk 2077 refunds, disappointed players have been denied refunds due to the platform-holder policies. This leaves going through CDPR directly as a last resort for fans who want their money back, but CD Projekt RED is only offering refunds through December 21, and it’s unclear what capacity they have to handle the amount of requests that are pouring in (or how exactly they would even go about verifying and refunding these customers anyway).
Without the implicit support of Sony and Microsoft (and most likely other retailers), the empty promise of Cyberpunk 2077 refunds seems to be mostly hot air in an effort to regain some footing and goodwill with consumers. After selling 8 million preorders—59% on PC and 41% on consoles—CDPR also isn’t sure it’s going to share refund data on how many players requested or got their money back for the game.
Meanwhile, the rest of the development team is still hard at work, not only on fixing the current version of the game on all platforms, but also on developing proper native next-gen versions for PS5 and Xbox Series X and getting DLC and multiplayer releases ready for the future.
Have you tried to get a Cyberpunk 2077 refund? Share your results with us in the comments.
