The long-delayed Cyberpunk 2077 has had its release postponed yet again. CD Projekt Red announced that the game will now come out on December 10.
The action RPG was weeks away from its November 19 release date. The latest delay pushes it back 21 days from that planned launch, putting its release about one month after the release of the Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PlayStation 5.
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— Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) October 27, 2020
The news comes as something of a surprise as CD Projekt Red recently announced that the game had gone gold, which seemed to suggest the release was locked in. The studio clarified that while going gold meant that the game was in a completed state with all its planned content done, it didn’t mean that the studio had finished improvements to the game.
CD Projekt Red cited the game’s cross-generation launch strategy as a reason for the delay, noting that it was preparing nine different versions of the game for launch. While the game originally began development as a title for current consoles, the next-generation release has complicated matters for the studio, which says it is making sure each version runs smoothly.
The studio recently came under fire after implementing a studio-wide, mandatory crunch to finish the game, despite saying that it would not do so one year prior. The situation became a hot debate in the video game industry, with many wondering why the game wasn’t delayed to avoid crunch.
CD Projekt Red studio head Adam Badowski defended the decision, saying: “These last six weeks are our final sprint on a project we’ve all spent much of our lives on. Something we care for deeply. The majority of the team understands that push, especially in light of the fact that we’ve just sent the game to cert and every day brings us visibly closer to shipping a game we want to be proud of.”