G A M I N G – T E C H N O L O G Y
Shammi Syera Simin
The anticipated CyberPunk 2077 launch wasn’t just a disaster for gamers, but for the investors, too. A lawsuit filed on 24 December against CD Projekt, the company behind Cyberpunk, claims investors were misled about the game’s performance ahead of its release, causing a significant stock price drop and losses.
CD Projekt allegedly failed to convey that the game was “virtually unplayable”, the lawsuit states, and instead marketed it as a success with a few issues that would go unnoticed by players. The plaintiff, Andrew Trampe, is looking to include other investors in the suit to turn it into a class action.
Since the game’s launch earlier this month, it’s been plagued with bugs, prompting retailers and console makers to offer full refunds. GameStop is accepting returns, even if people opened the game, which goes against its typical policy, and Sony pulled the game last week and began processing digital refunds for unsatisfied buyers.
Still, the game sold more than 13 million copies in the two weeks since its launch, making it one of the best selling games of the year. Many of those sales came from pre-orders after a much hyped marketing campaign, which helped CD Projekt recoup the nearly decade-long costs of making the game.