The game is now set to release on December 10th across all platforms.

Hoping to make Cyberpunk 2077 the first game you play on your shiny new PS5 come launch day? Well, I’ve got some shitty news for you as yes, the game has been delayed yet again. This time, mercifully, for just 3 weeks.

CD Projekt Red, the hugely popular studio behind the game, made the statement on twitter, despite the fact the game has ’gone gold‘, meaning the master content has been signed off as finished. Check it out:

It’s clear from the tweet the studio were reluctant to delay the game again, but felt they had no choice in order to deliver a smooth experience from the get go. To be fair, no one wants to be dicked about by a broken game on launch day.

Why so many delays??

Well, delays to modern games are no new thing, especially when they’re as massive and complex in terms of story threads and world simulation as this is bound to be. If The Witcher 3, the studios best game to date, is anything to go by, then Cyberpunk 2077 is sure to be an extremely rich experience – perhaps the most ambitious open-world game ever made.

And when you factor in the enormous disruption that COVID-19 has caused, it’s unsurprising deadlines have been missed.

Lastly lest we forget, as the tweet highlights, the enormous task of optimising the game for a variety of current-gen and next-gen platforms. A problem that was unavoidable once the game’s release got pushed into the launch windows for the new machines.

Crunch time

Staff had been asked to work 6 day weeks and well into the early hours to get the game done, a term in gaming spheres known as ‘crunching’, which has become a thorny subject in recent times due to the enormous psychological pressure it puts on teams, endangering mental health and general well-being.

Whether any pushback against crunch was responsible for the latest delay is anyone’s guess, but in today’s sensitive environment where a career can be ended by the click of a tweet, it’s very possible studio bosses held back on pushing their staff to the max to hit that November release.

We just hope all the crunch, all the delays, the optimisations and a crazy 8 year wait are worth it. Knowing this studio, it really should be.