Editorial - Buckle up for Cyberpunk 2077's redemption arc
Back in 1949, a dude named Joseph Campbell wrote a book named "The Hero with a Thousand Faces". Most college grads will be familiar with this book - you can't have escaped a lit class without hearing about it. In The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell posits that almost all mythical stories follow the same basic structure; There is a hero who wanders into a supernatural realm. The hero fights and overcomes mysterious forces, before returning home with a boon for their fellow man. Campbell's supposition that most myths follow this general structure has pretty much been universally accepted to the point where we all learn about it school. Its a thing.
In the video game community, we have our own version of the cyclical, mythological narrative. I call it "The Buggy Video Game Redemption Story". Lemme know if this one sounds familiar: There is a highly anticipated video game that everyone wants to play. The game is released to ridiculously high demand, but it is super buggy to the point of being unplayable. The gaming community is outraged, and bombs the game on Metacritic and Twitter. The developer apologizes amid the terrible scandal, then toils in banished disgrace, before returning to present the world with a better version of the game. The gaming community smiles in approval, and says stuff like "This is how you do it!", happily playing their newly improved game.
Gamers love nothing more than a good redemption story. The list of games that released in rough shape but eventually "made good" is deep and long. The Witcher 3, for starters. Skyrim. No Man's Sky. Fallout 76 (yep, it's in the "good" column now). Anthem might even make the list, but the jury's still out on that one. The point is, games that release in rough shape are often slowly retooled to the point where they become respected - even beloved. Think about the hundreds of online games that release with server problems in the first couple of weeks. Then the servers get fixed, and everybody forgets about it. Redemption!
And here we are, on December 15, 2020, with Cyberpunk 2077 is just getting started on its redemption cycle. Admittedly, Cyberpunk 2077 has a tough row to hoe. Things are looking pretty dire right now. A lot of the discussion around the game's console rollout seems justified. There were a lot of mistakes made - many of them in the PR and Marketing departments, which seemed to make promises that the game couldn't keep. And yes, another delay - while it would have made everyone scream bloody murder - would probably have done the game and CD Projekt Red's reputation a lot of good. A colleague suggested that perhaps Cyberpunk could have gone the Witcher route, and released on PC first while taking the extra time to clean up the console versions. That would have been acceptable as well. But none of that happened, so here we are - mid-scandal.
But don't for one second think that CD Projekt Red - or Cyberpunk 2077 - are down for the count. The company will pick this game up, brush it off, polish it up, and we will all love them for it. This is a game that will sell and sell, far into the new generation of consoles. There's a reason you still constantly see The Witcher 3 on sale in the PlayStation Store - and that's because people still buy it. It's an awesome game that gamers can't get enough of. Cyberpunk will be the same.
There are millions and millions of dollars still to be made off of Cyberpunk 2077. I'm playing on Stadia - and am seeing few of the bugs that everyone is going on about - so I can attest that this is a fantastic game when it's running correctly. We can all bitch and scream and howl at the moon about how messed up it is at launch, but don't get it twisted - Cyberpunk 2077 is here to stay.
A year from now, we'll write articles about how improved Cyberpunk is, and how everyone should give it a second chance. CD Projekt Red has now totally fulfilled it's original vision. Yadda-yadda-yadda. We've done it before, and we'll do it again. It has to feel absolutely awful for those on the inside of the whirlwind, but for the rest of us, this is all just the usual bread and circuses. The current Cyberpunk uproar is a new telling of our favorite story, and it's just beginning. Buckle up.
