Poland’s Cyberpunk 2077 pulled from PlayStation Store after complaints

WARSAW, POLAND – It was too good to be true. Only a week after its global release, Cyberpunk 2077, created Poland’s CD Projekt, has been pulled from Sony’s PlayStation Store in the wake of complaints of glitches in the much-anticipated video game.

CD Projekt said the suspension was temporary and it was working hard to bring Cyberpunk 2077 back to PlayStation Store as soon as possible, adding that it was not in talks with Microsoft about a possible withdrawal of the game from the Xbox platform.

The role-playing game, billed as an “open-world, action-adventure story set in a megalopolis obsessed with power, glamour and body modification”, was released on December 10 after being delayed three times. CD Projekt said it did not consider delaying for a fourth time despite the fact that there had been fewer external testers because of Covid-19.

Sony’s unusual move is indeed another blow for CD Projekt, Poland’s top video game maker, whose shares have tumbled from a record high last week as fans and game reviewers have voiced concerns, reports Reuters.

The Polish studio, best known for being behind the hugely successful “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt”, was expected to break sales records with Cyberpunk 2077, which also launched on Microsoft’s XBox and Google’s Stadia. The game is reported to be one of the most expensive game ever made, with a total budget estimated at 1.2 billion zloty (270 million euros).

Set in the futuristc universe of the popular pen-and-paper role-playing game of the same name, CD Projekt’s latest release is an action role-playing video game in which players assume the first-person perspective of a customisable mercenary known as V, who features on the advertising posters in a marketing campaign spanning 55 countries, from Warsaw to New York’s Times Square.

The story takes place in Night City, an American megacity in the Free State of North California controlled by corporations which is reliant on robotics for everyday aspects like waste collection, maintenance, and public transportation.

Fan-favourite actor Keanu Reeves has a starring role in the game, which can be completed without killing anyone, with non-lethal options for weapons and cyberware.

The game draws its influences directly from the cyberpunk genre, and particularly from Ridley Scott’s 1982 film Blade Runner, William Gibson’s 1984 novel Neuromancer, as well as the manga and anime series Ghost in the Shell, which often features advanced technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cybernetics, juxtaposed with a degree of breakdown or radical change in the social order.

Last year, Poland became the world’s fourth largest exporter of video games, behind China, Japan and Hong Kong.

Poland is now fourth largest exporter of video games in the world