In an interview with Axios, PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan made an official comment for the first time ever about Cyberpunk 2077’s removal from the PlayStation Store. He effectively confirmed that the decision to remove the game was made by Sony, and that it was a “touch decision.” However, he declined to comment on the criteria required to see Cyberpunk 2077 return to the PlayStation Store.
Back in December 2020, just one week after Cyberpunk 2077 launched, the game was removed from the PlayStation Store after poor performance and complaints about the game’s general bugginess on last-gen consoles caused a swell of refund requests directed at Sony. Developer CD Projekt RED later revealed that it was a Sony decision as to when the game would return to the digital storefront, which had led to the assumption that it was also Sony’s decision to pull the game in the first place. Sony, however, hadn’t officially commented on the matter, and much of the messaging from CDPR danced around the subject.
Now, Ryan has finally offered what appears to be confirmation that it’s removal was indeed a Sony decision. “This was a tough decision for us to make, but ultimately, we had to act in the interests of the PlayStation Community, and not knowingly sell a game that might result in a bad experience for them.” The move was arguably a first for PlayStation; certainly the most high-profile example of a game being removed from sale because of its poor quality, though there’s some speculation that it was also due to CDPR throwing Sony under the bus on refund requests and not entirely about the quality of the game. After all, there are plenty of low quality broken games that are still on sale on the PlayStation Store right now.
Further, when pressed about what it would take to get the game back on the PlayStation Store, Ryan declined to offer an additional details. This again perhaps hints at Sony reasons for removal being less about the general quality of the game and more in line with how CD Projekt RED handled the botched launch at the expense of the platform holder. CD Projekt RED also hasn’t stated what it will take to get the game back on the PlayStation Store, just that the ball is in Sony’s court and they have “certain metrics” to see it go back up for sale.
CD Projekt RED’s profits have taken quite a hit, not meeting long term sales of Cyberpunk 2077 that they had expected to see. The company blames this on the removal from the PlayStation Store, not only for direct sales on PlayStation, but also having a ripple effect onto other platforms. They don’t, however, ever attribute it to Cyberpunk 2077 not meeting the years of expectations that were set up beforehand, disappointing even the most hardcore of hyped fans.
Additional updates, expansions, and a proper native next-gen version of Cyberpunk 2077 are expected this year, though CDPR has yet to offer any specific timelines as to when we might be able to expect them. The game remains unavailable for sale digitally on the PlayStation Store at this time.
[Source: Axios]
