Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

Cyberpunk 2077 release date reportedly set for 2019, but likely delayed to 2020

By

CD Projekt Red is reportedly targeting to release the long-awaited Cyberpunk 2077 this year, but the game will likely be delayed to 2020.

In the developer’s latest quarterly report, CD Projekt Red’s CFO Piotr Nielubowicz said that the development of Cyberpunk 2077 is “proceeding at full speed,” with E3 2019 set to be the “most important” one in the company’s history.

Recommended Videos

The game will not yet be playable at the annual video game event though, with CD Projekt Red global community lead Marcin Momot confirming that for the gameplay presentations, it will be the developers themselves who will be on the controllers.

Related

It is widely expected that the release date of Cyberpunk 2077 will be revealed at E3 2019. Kotaku’s Jason Schreier was quick to shoot down rumors that the game will also be released this year, though his sources said that CD Projekt Red was initially aiming for a 2019 launch.

This has gotten a lot of Reddit attention so some clarity: I've heard from three sources that Cyberpunk was aiming for 2019, but belief around the studio was that it was an unrealistic target. I expect first half 2020 or maybe even an E3 announcement of 2019, then a delay to 2020 https://t.co/8QsOatEFfJ

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) May 31, 2019

It appears that CD Projekt Red has a “planned delay” for Cyberpunk 2077, which may be understandable given the studio’s goal of releasing the game with the same quality as Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption 2. The company’s The Witcher 3 was launched with a multitude of bugs, and it took three months of patches to address all the issues.

Apparently, such “planned delays” is common among video game development companies, according to Schreier.

I think companies making announcements like "fall 2017" knowing they're not shipping until 2018 is surprisingly common yeah

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) May 31, 2019

I think there could be a lot of reasons. Could be something as simple as "Well we think we have a chance at hitting this, and maybe it'll motivate the team, even if we know it's unlikely"

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) May 31, 2019

Schreier is widely regarded as a reliable source for video game information, but as with any rumor, it should not be considered as valid until the the studio itself makes the confirmation. Fortunately for players who have been looking forward to Cyberpunk 2077, E3 2019 is just around the corner. The game’s release date may finally be revealed, though with the possibility of a delay in the horizon.

If the release of Cyberpunk 2077 will be pushed back to the first half of next year, “2020 gonna be wild” according to Schreier.

Based on what I've heard, yes to all of those. 2020 gonna be wild

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) May 31, 2019

Cyberpunk 2077 may be joining The Last of Us Part 2, Ghost of Tsushima, and the Final Fantasy VII Remake, among other high-profile projects that are rumored to be releasing early next year. Gamers should look forward to E3 2019 to see what is in store for them in the near future.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Aaron Mamiit
Aaron Mamiit
Contributor
Aaron received a NES and a copy of Super Mario Bros. for Christmas when he was 4 years old, and he has been fascinated with…
Cyberpunk 2077 support bleeds into 2023 with story expansion
Holding a gun to an enemy in Cyberpunk 2077

During an investor relations call, CD Projekt Red revealed that its long-awaited story expansion for Cyberpunk 2077 will not be released this year. Instead, the expansion is set to release sometime in 2023.

https://twitter.com/CyberpunkGame/status/1514646107434987532?s=20&t=RlvdedDMZ8OHf66Mznx86Q

Read more
The Witcher 3’s current-gen port has been delayed yet again
Geralt looks at a tower in the distance in The Witcher 3.

CD Projekt Red has announced that its current-gen port of The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt will not be releasing any time soon. In a post on the game's Twitter account, the developer said that the game's port, which was supposed to come out during the second fiscal quarter of this year, has been postponed "until further notice." The game had earlier been delayed to this year.

https://twitter.com/witchergame/status/1514285274553008135

Read more
The Witcher reveal repeats Cyberpunk 2077’s biggest mistake
A player points a gun at a cyborg in Cyberpunk 2077's reveal trailer.

On March 21, CD Projekt Red confirmed a new The Witcher game while revealing a new Unreal Engine 5 partnership with Epic Games. Shortly after that announcement, CD Projekt Red's Global PR Director Radek Grabowski had to clarify some crucial details about this new game and the Epic Games partnership in a tweet:
https://twitter.com/gamebowski/status/1506022957591797760
While this tweet clarifies the biggest misconceptions about CD Projekt Red's The Witcher announcement, it also highlights that the developer announced this game way too early and vaguely. CD Projekt Red is already losing control of some of the discourse around the game and risks repeating one of the biggest mistakes of Cyberpunk 2077's development and marketing: Overpromising.
Cyberpunk 2077's big mistake
CD Projekt Red announced Cyberpunk 2077 in May 2012 at a press conference. At the time, the developer promised features like a "gripping non-linear story filled with life and detail" and a variety of character classes, weapons, upgrades, implants, and more to choose from. It said the game would "set [a] new standard in the futuristic RPG genre with an exceptional gaming experience."
Cyberpunk 2077 would not release until December 2020, over eight years later. But in the meantime, CD Projekt Red continued to tease the title with trailers and interviews, highlighting the game's ambitious scope and vision. CD Projekt Red developers hyped up how the main story and sidequests intertwined, how the game would feature multiplayer, how cops would be very reactive, and more. Although the game looked and sounded very impressive prior to its release, many of these features and promises were either missing or half-baked in their implementation into Cyberpunk 2077.
Cyberpunk 2077 Teaser Trailer
For eight years, an RPG that was supposed to change the genre forever was promised, but in the end, all we got was a fairly standard open-world RPG with a bevy of technical problems at release. The massive backlash happened because people were so excited for Cyberpunk 2077, partly because CD Projekt Red hyped up all of these ambitious features over eight years.
The reality is that game development is an arduous journey that doesn't always go according to plan. Designs change, features are cut, and sometimes the finished product just doesn't come together. CD Projekt Red probably never meant to lie to its fans, but priorities and development timelines shifted and what the developer ultimately delivered with Cyberpunk 2077 wasn't up to snuff.
As CD Projekt Red made the mistake of announcing Cyberpunk 2077 too early and overpromising, I thought the studio would what to share more details on its next game until it was close to release. That was not the case. 
Initial Confirmation
CD Projekt Red was not willing to share a development time frame or release window as part of The Witcher announcement, so it's likely that this game is still several years away. Although the developer didn't reveal many details at this time, announcing the next The Witcher game so early gives s the Polish studio plenty of time to do so. For example, the game's director is already promising that there will be no crunch during the development of this game, something people may hold him accountable for as stories about the game's development emerge. CD Projekt Red must be cautious about what it shares about this new game before launch if it doesn't want another PR disaster, and it already seems to be getting a bit out of hand.  
Grabowski's tweet indicates that there are already some misconceptions about the game. That will likely exponentially worsen as CD Projekt Red continues to tease this title in job listings, interviews, and trailers. It's a dangerous approach, so why did the developer make this "initial confirmation" happen so early? There are several reasons why this could be the case. First off, most of this announcement was focused on CD Projekt Red's partnership with Epic Games and the use of Unreal Engine 5, and the developer wanted to confirm the first game that will be part of this partnership to make it more exciting for fans. 

Meanwhile, CD Projekt Red is still recovering from the backlash toward Cyberpunk 2077's rocky launch. Announcing a follow-up title to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt now not only restores a little bit of goodwill with fans and investors but will also attract some Unreal Engine-experienced developers who might be nervous to come to CD Projekt Red following Cyberpunk 2077. 2022 has been a year of anticlimatic and purposefully vague game announcements. CD Projekt Red's The Witcher announcement is simply the latest one to be part of this trend, but it's also one of the most worrying because this developer has made this mistake before.  
While CD Projekt Red felt pressured to confirm this game early, they need to be very careful if they don't want to repeat the mistakes of Cyberpunk 2077. The best course of action for CD Projekt Red to take now is to stay completely silent until it has a clear idea of what the finished game will entail. If that isn't the case, this could all be building to disappointment in the year 2030. 

Read more