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There is that one moment when everything seems perfect.
In this story, it is June 10, 2019 when actor star Keanu Reeves takes the stage at a press conference in Los Angeles when the audience stands up and screams in excitement.
He traveled to the west coast of the USA to promote the computer game “Cyberpunk 2077” at the “E3” game fair.
The dystopian adventure of the Polish developer CD Projekt Red is probably the most exciting title of the industry show.
Fans and specialist media praise the game to the sky without ever having tried it.
The wacky world in a shattered future and the successes of the makers so far are simply too promising.
The appearance of Reeves, whose programmed alter ego is supposed to play an important role in the game, only looks like a seal of approval.
By now it is clear: "Cyberpunk", which was announced back in 2012, has to become one of the best video games of all time - but it will be a disaster.
And that's even bigger than previously thought.
Sony takes "Cyberpunk 2077" from the Playstation Store
Cyberpunk 2077 is the most eagerly anticipated video game of the year - and now this: Because the PS4 version contains numerous bugs, Sony has removed the game from its online store.
Even the purchase price is returned.
A one-time process.
Source: WORLD
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Because the big shows could only have been smoke and mirrors.
Since the start of sales, the Polish developers have been at the center of never-ending criticism.
Completely unfinished and apparently under great time pressure, the game was released in December 2020.
Now extensive research shows: The developers have apparently completely overdone with the game, put employees under pressure - and possibly lied to fans and investors.
The face of this disaster is called Marcin Iwiński.
He is the boss of CD Projekt and apologized for the game about a week ago.
It “did not meet the quality standards that we wanted to achieve.
The entire management team and I deeply regret that. "
But that should be of little consolation for fans who had waited eight years for the game.
The hype attracted many pre-orderers even before the release.
The game sold 13 million times within ten days - for around 60 euros each.
There was a time when Spieleschmiede was the most valuable company in Poland.
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But when the players finally got their hands on “Cyberpunk”, it was clear: The game is full of errors - so badly programmed that Sony removed the digital version from its online shop and Microsoft warned against buying it.
The makers had to offer a large-scale reimbursement offensive that could cost millions.
Since then, Iwiński and his team have barely come out of a vicious circle of public apologies.
But only a few days after the video kneeling, the humiliation wobbles.
The reason for this is a report by the Bloomberg news service - based on interviews with around 20 current and former employees.
Most of them, while wanting to remain anonymous, have revealed conditions about the development process that are worrying.
In the interviews, according to Bloomberg author Jason Schreier, the employees reported about a company that focused on pompous marketing instead of game development and forced its employees to work long hours with poor planning.
They “underestimated” the work, says Iwiński in his video message.
The vision of the game was simply too big for older video game consoles.
Completely new scenario for "Cyberpunk"
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But that's exactly what developers really need to notice in good time if they test the game over and over again before selling it.
Studio boss Iwiński claims that hardly any mistakes were found.
Developers tell Bloomberg that the weaknesses have been discovered - but simply haven't been given time to fix.
How could it possibly come this far?
In fact, the makers of the game had the ambition to set new standards.
While the previous megahit "The Witcher 3" took place in the Middle Ages and players looked over the shoulder of the main character, "Cyberpunk" should play in a completely new scenario and be experienced from the first person's perspective.
But this required new technologies and employees as well as a new "engine" - the basic structure of every video game.
That should be developed at the same time as the rest of the title, which is almost hopeless.
It's like laying the rails right in front of a moving train, says one employee.
And the train went faster and faster - because the industry is merciless.
If there is a hype about a title, it is important to make the most of it.
If games are postponed, they disappear into insignificance.
Suddenly other games look much better or your own concept is considered outdated.
Particularly problematic for the Poles: "Cyberpunk" was announced in 2012, but the main part of the development apparently only started late in 2016.
There should have been a dispute within the studio: executives were replaced, essential game elements removed, responsible developers left the company.
“I knew it wouldn't go well,” former audio developer Adrian Jakubiak is quoted as saying.
"I just didn't know how disastrous it would be."
But the speeding train had to keep going, the fans wanted to finally try “Cyberpunk”.
And so an excerpt from the game was shown at the “E3” game fair in 2018 - a sequence that players can also experience for themselves in the future.
But according to employees, it was only about impressing the outside world.
A large part of the working time should have flowed into the presentation.
But it was, according to the Bloomberg report, just a fake.
The underlying gaming experience was not programmed yet, many functions disappeared again in the final game - they had only been developed to astonish people.
Employees involved said months had been wasted on the demo.
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Technical demonstrations are quite common in the industry: Press conferences do not always show what video gamers can later buy in stores.
But the fact that the software behind it is not even properly developed while it is being presented on the big stage is unusual.
This is a delicate risk for the developers - the more “finished” the game looks, the higher the expectations.
It is unclear what drove CD Projekt to the supposed fake.
Because that should have increased the panic behind the scenes.
Finally, the plan worked to inspire fans and the media.
The game was showered with over 100 prizes without ever being tested.
"Crunchtime" is common
The way out: "Crunchtime".
This is what overtime is called in the digital economy.
Adrian Jakubiak worked 13 hours a day, he says today.
Then he quit after he got married.
"I have some friends who have lost their families to such nonsense."
This crunchtime is also common in the industry - but only for a few weeks in the final phase of a production.
Then they work through nights to eliminate mistakes.
Most of the time, the employees work together behind the procedure.
It is unusual for CD Projekt to have been urging its employees to do this a year and a half before the end of development.
The result: the completion of the game failed.
Nevertheless, the makers announced in summer 2019 that the title would go on sale in April 2020.
Employees mistook the date for a joke and predicted completion in 2022. In response, features were cut and the game world shrunk.
While "The Witcher 3" was still being developed by around 240 employees, 500 employees are now said to have worked on "Cyberpunk" - too many, say insiders.
The teams were isolated or poorly organized.
And too few, say industry experts: Several thousand people have worked on games of comparable sizes such as “Grand Theft Auto V”.
Nevertheless, further postponements were taboo.
The creators wanted to sell the game for the Playstation 4 and Xbox One even before the successor devices were presented last year.
With versions especially for the new devices, they could have earned again.
It wasn't until the end of 2019 that the company bosses finally recognized the drama.
The start of sales was postponed in January.
Then came the coronavirus.
Completion was further delayed.
Instead of working in the office, the developers continued programming at home and tested the results on their home PCs.
That could explain the catastrophic bugs, especially in the console games.
Another shift followed.
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But in the end the manufacturer had to bow to the greed of its fans.
In the meantime, they were completely crazy, threatening developers with death.
One of them wrote that he knew where the developer lived.
Either the game appears “or you're done”.
The gaming industry is no longer a dream castle, but a tough industry with all its excesses.
When the game was pressed onto the media, it was riddled with errors.
And suddenly the whole gaming world realized that.
Meanwhile, studio boss Adam Badowski has also commented on this in a Twitter post.
The demo at the "E3" game fair was "in progress", but not a fake.
The fact that functions in development “come and go” is the order of the day.
"Our final game looks and plays better than it ever was in the demo." Badowski describes the interviews with around 20 employees as not representative of the entire team.
CD Projekt shares in descent
Nevertheless, the fake allegations torpedo the company's apology offensive: While the shares of CD Projekt were worth just under 100 euros before the sale, the price plummeted by up to 46 percent in January.
The disappointment of the markets is hardly surprising.
Because in the coming months all capacities will be needed to save the game - instead of designing new worlds or selling paid expansions.
This becomes a business problem for the studio.
While Electronic Arts and Ubisoft, for example, throw new games onto the market every year with series such as “FIFA” and “Assassin's Creed”, games are only replenished from Warsaw every few years.
All hopes rest on that - and it is precisely this strategy that could now ruin the studio.
Because not only fans and shareholders are disappointed: On Tuesday, investors in the Polish company filed a class action lawsuit in the USA.
The donors accuse the Poles of having lied to them about the unfinished state of "Cyberpunk".
Investors had already filed a lawsuit in December, and the company defends itself "vigorously" against the allegations.
Observation by consumer protection
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However, the lawyer Adam Adler estimates the chances of success low, he explained to the online magazine "The Escapist".
The lawsuit is about fraud, so the plaintiffs would have to prove “that CD Projekt knew that the start of the game would end in a catastrophic way.
That is a high hurdle. "
The Polish consumer protection department is now also observing the studio.
If upcoming updates do not adequately fix the game's problems, the authorities could take action against the developers and impose a fine.
The “cyberpunk” scandal could go down as a lesson in video game history.
Because the future of CD Projekt will not only depend on the outcome of the proceedings.
Market researchers already see a takeover candidate in the studio.
The consulting firm DFC Intelligence, which specializes in the games industry, cites the rapidly falling market value as a potential reason for takeover.
CD Projekt Red currently plays in a league with companies like Ubisoft and Zenimax.
Microsoft swallowed the latter developer last year for $ 7.5 billion.
Amazon and Google could also be interested in buying, they say.
Yes, the analysts write: “A takeover would be a risky bet.” The gloomy future of a crumbling world - at least in Warsaw, it could soon become ominously real.