CD Projekt has denied claims about cut Cyberpunk 2077 content and major studio departures

CD Projekt Red has denied various claims about Cyberpunk 2077’s turbulent development, as well as suggestions that major departures from the studio are imminent.

The claims, which were allegedly made by a disgruntled developer at the Polish company, emerged following a troubled launch last month primarily centred around Cyberpunk 2077’s performance on last-gen consoles and its subsequent removal from the PlayStation Store.

The problems have led to a class-action lawsuit being brought against CD Projekt, which claims that the company misled investors over the quality of the game.

The alleged CD Projekt Red employee’s report claims a huge underground and sewer section of the game’s open world was scrapped because it “looked ugly” to execs, as were side arcs involving priests and Hare Krishna, and that Keanu Reeves’ character Johnny Silverhand was originally heavily inspired by David Hayter’s Solid Snake and the actor Cillian Murphy.

It also claims staff morale is at an all-time low and that there will be major departures from the studio in the coming months, while a series of patches designed to bring the game up to the quality level originally planned for release will not be ready before June 2021.

The report was labelled false by CD Projekt, which published the following statement online: “Normally we don’t comment on rumors but this time we wanted to make an exception as this story is simply not true.”

Following Cyberpunk 2077’s troubled launch, CD Projekt pledged to improve the experience with a series of updates but also said customers not wanting to keep it could get their money back.

Despite its difficulties, Cyberpunk 2077 has enjoyed a very successful commercial launch, selling over 13 million copies, according to CD Project.

Further reading

Cyberpunk’s developer pledges to ‘vigorously defend itself’ as lawsuit is confirmed

Investor class-action targets “virtually unplayable" console version