“It was cool not to like it” CD Projekt Red VP of PR believes Cyberpunk 2077 was unfairly dunked on at launch

Michal Platkow-Gilewski, CD Project Red’s vice president of public relations and communications, has stated that he believes Cyberpunk 2077 became “great that I didn’t like it” at launch, despite major technical issues and controversial practices with review copies.

This quote and additional thoughts from Gilewski come from a Interview with Gamesindustry.biz. In it, Gilewski goes to great lengths describing the arduous journey it takes to bring the quality of Cyberpunk up to the expectations of the community in what he describes as an effort to “fix the relationship with our players.”

Throughout the article, Gilewski explains the drastic changes that occurred within CD Projekt Red following the release of Cyberpunk 2077. “We had to rebuild a lot of things within the company. We started with projects on the development side, we started to think that we should Do we tie our future with a different engine or should we stick with our own? We made some decisions about how to work, how we’re structured. It was a big rebuild.”

Despite the drastic changes made as a result of the general poor reception, Gilewski remains steadfast in his belief that the game’s launch was better than the sentiments online would have you believe. This is highlighted in the final paragraph: “In fact, I think the release of Cyberpunk was much better than it was received, and even the early reviews were positive.”

“So, it became a cool thing that I didn’t like it. We went from heroes to zero very quickly. That was the hard time. We didn’t know what was going on. We knew the game is great, yes we can make it better.” Yeah, we need to take time to do it, and we need to rebuild some things.”

However, it’s hard to ignore the glaring and widely reported issues with Cyberpunk 2077 at launch. The game had a large number of bugs plaguing the game, with post-launch patches having to fix features like the minimap being broken at launch. While the game ended up selling well, it received a staggering number of refund requests at launch, with the company even having to face lawsuits after the tumultuous release window.

It’s like Gilewski says, a lot of work went into the post-launch game. The game has finally returned to the PlayStation store after its removal, and if you launch the game right now, it’s a pretty fun time. However, it is strange to see this statement coming from the vice president of public relations and communications for all people. A generous reading of the quote places it as the perspective of someone who was in the trenches with the team and had good feelings about the launch product. To be uncharitable, it could be perceived as gaslighting for those who had to see a V ride a motorcycle bare-bottomed in Night City.

It’s obvious to see why CD Project Red would like it, but it has a troubled past behind it. It remains in the minds of early adopters a real disappointment despite its genuinely great narrative and brilliant world to explore. Also, Phantom Liberty is just around the corner, and it’s very good. With the DLC reworking how much the game works and fixing many remaining issues with the game that have persisted since launch, Phantom Liberty’s portrayal as a second release seems justified.

This is perhaps a sentiment Gilewski points to in the interview, a difficult road to a much-needed second chance: “After the launch it was difficult, but I knew we had the same people. The players are the same… we just need to fix our relationship. The only thing we can really do is deliver what we’re capable of. I have a feeling we’ll be able to do that soon and I hope it’s a fresh start for all of us.”