Recap: To say that CD Projekt Red's release of Cyberpunk 2077 was a fiasco might be something of an understatement. The studio was not honest about the project's condition on last-gen consoles. It hyped the game using PC demos, leading players to believe console versions to be in the same playable state. The much-delayed bug-ridden mess ended up leaving CDPR with egg on its face.
Last week Sony announced that it was reinstating Cyberpunk 2077 to the PlayStation Store after pulling it for several months while CD Projekt Red fixed its many game-breaking issues. In that time, the developer has pushed out two huge updates and several more minor hotfixes. As of Monday, the game is available once again on the PSN storefront.
However, the bad news is that those still wanting to run the game on a base model PlayStation 4 will likely encounter severe problems. In an early-morning tweet, CDPR explicitly stated that players could play Cyberpunk 2077 on "the PS4 Pro and PS5." The standard PlayStation 4 simply does not have enough processing power to run the game despite the patches.
Users may continue to experience some performance issues with the PS4 edition while we continue to improve stability across all platforms. The PS4 Pro and PS5 versions of the game will provide the best experience on PlayStation.
--- Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) June 21, 2021
It is a truly unique situation because it marks the first time ever that a developer released a PlayStation 4 game exclusively intended for the PlayStation 4 Pro. Typically, studios code PS4 games to dynamically adjust to run efficiently depending on which console is running the game. Evidently, this was not possible for Cyberpunk 2077.
To be honest, CDPR probably should not have released a PlayStation 4 version at all. The overly ambitious game was truly intended for higher-performing PCs, and the studio's early demos were indicative of this fact. Releasing a shoddy PS4 version so close after the release of a new console generation was a mistake. The developer should have trashed the PS4 version and then focused solely on releasing it on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Had it done that, we'd likely be playing next-gen versions by now.
As it is, the PS5 and XBSX versions still do not have a release date. CD Projekt Red said they should be out in the second half of 2021, but with the greater focus on fixing the debacle, it would not be surprising if the studio delayed everything until next year. Fortunately, anyone who bought the game for PS4 or XB1 can upgrade to the next-gen version for free.
Image credit: Rokas Tenys