Senior Cyberpunk 2077 dev says "it's f***ing good to be back" in emotional discussion of the game's resurgence
Quest director Pavel Sasko discusses the difficult recovery from Cyberpunk's rocky launch
Cyberpunk 2077's quest director has spoken about the game's difficult launch and turnaround nearly two years later.
As clipped by the Reddit post just below, Paweł Sasko recently spoke to viewers on his personal Twitch channel about the struggles of Cyberpunk 2077's launch in later 2020, and how it's faring now. "It's hard to express, when you're putting so much heart and work into something," Sasko began.
"And you know for some of us it's been six, seven, eight years sometimes, especially for those who started at the very beginning," the quest director continued. "So to have this moment, of people liking something that we did, it's really feeling a bit unreal. That finally people are appreciating it."
Turning to Cyberpunk 2077's launch, Sasko said "after the release, I couldn't believe - after some time, I did - but at the beginning I couldn't believe, and I remember [...] my dear girlfriend, she was seeing me fucking completely wrecked. But it's good to be back. It's fucking good to be back. That was really so heart breaking."
What Sasko is talking about here, if you're unfamiliar with Cyberpunk 2077's journey, is the game's extremely difficult launch period. Bugs were rife, and performance issues plagued the PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game, so much so that developer CD Projekt issued refunds after the game was temporarily pulled from sale on PS4.
Now though, nearly two years after Cyberpunk 2077's launch in December 2020, we're seeing a resurgence for the game. Helped in no small part by Studio Trigger's excellent Netflix anime spin-off, over one million players ventured into Night City every day last week, and over the past weekend the game eclipsed The Witcher 3's Steam concurrent player record to set a new benchmark. Sasko's new comments reflect that incredibly long road for the developers at CD Projekt.
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Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.
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