CD Projekt Red Says People Only Hated 'Cyberpunk 2077' At Launch To Be 'Cool,' Opening Pandora's Box Of Glitchy Launch Memories

After years of being derided as one of the most disappointing, glitch-filled disasters in gaming history, Cyberpunk 2077 is, by most accounts, in a better place now. The game runs smoothly and the game-breaking glitches that defined its launch appear to have been patched out.

With steady technical improvement and a well-received anime spin-off, it appears the reputation of Cyberpunk 2077 and its developer, CD Projekt Red, has been restored — apparently to the point where CD Projekt's VP of PR and communication Michał Platkow-Gilewski felt comfortable enough to reflect on the game's harrowing launch with an optimistic view.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Platkow-Gilewski gave an eye-popping quote about the controversy surrounding the buggy launch of Cyberpunk 2077, saying, "I actually believe Cyberpunk on launch was way better than it was received, and even the first reviews were positive. Then it became a cool thing not to like it."

This quote was not exactly well-received on social media, as many remembered that Cyberpunk 2077 was nearly unplayable for some upon its release, especially on older console versions. The issues were so bad that CD Projekt offered refunds, Sony pulled the game from the PlayStation Store and CD Projekt co-founder Marcin Iwinski delivered a video apology to players, all within a month of launch.

The idea that "hating Cyberpunk 2077" was more a meme than a real phenomenon rankled players (even though memes were a huge part of the backlash). The quote inspired players to revisit some of the myriad and hilarious bugs that went viral online from the game's launch era.

In particular, one user shared a 10-minute compilation of bugs from the game's launch that racked up over 2.1 million views on YouTube.

Others shared more basic but unforgivable performance issues they'd had with the game.

The launch state of Cyberpunk 2077 was the stuff of gaming history, even as the game's performance improved over years of extra development work, and while bandwagoning may have been a part of why the backlash was so intense, it appears gamers have not forgotten about the absolute state of the base game.