CD Projekt Red Responds To Cyberpunk 2077 Fake E3 Demo Accusations

CD Projekt Red has shared a response to the accusations that Cyberpunk 2077 E3 2018 demo was faked. They have clarified their stance on it.

Earlier this week, Bloomberg published an article on the behind the scenes issues during the development of Cyberpunk 2077. The game had a tumulus launch, especially on last-generation consoles where it failed to run properly, and suffered from numerous bugs and performance issues.

The article posted by Bloomberg goes behind the scenes of how Cyberpunk 2077 suffered from a rushed launch. It also claimed that the E3 2018 demo that was demonstrated by CD Projekt Red was fake with gameplay systems that weren’t even properly developed at that point in the game’s development.

Adam Badowski, head of the studio at CD Projekt Red, has now shared a long statement where he has responded to some of the accusations against CD Projekt Red including the E3 2018 demo.

In a tweet where he shared the statement, the developer talked about how this was false and the end game was close to the demo, which was clearly labeled as a work-in-progress version.

“It’s hard for a trade show game demo not to be a test of vision or vertical slice two years before the game ships, but that doesn’t mean it’s fake, ” said Adam Badowski.

“Compare the demo with the game. Look at the Dumdum scene or the car chase, or the many other things. What the people reading your article may not know is that games are not made in a linear fashion and start looking like the final product only a few months before launch. If you look at that demo now, it’s different yes, but that’s what the “work in progress” watermark is for. Our final game looks and plays way better than what that demo ever was.”

“As for ‘missing’ features, that’s part of the creation process. Features come and go as we see if they work or not. Also, car ambushes exist in the final game almost verbatim to what we showed in the demo.
And if we get a bit more granular about our release, the vision we presented in this demo evolved into something that got multiple 9/10s and 10/10s on PC from many renown gaming outlets in the world.”

It appears that these accusations might have hit closer to home for CD Projekt Red judging by this response. As for the final game, the reception so far has been mixed especially on the consoles, while it is generally well-received on PC.

Cyberpunk 2077 is available now for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. CD Projekt Red is planning to release a next-generation update for the game in the second half of 2021.