10 Video Games That Were Pulled From Digital Store Shelves (And Why)

2. Cyberpunk 2077

cyberpunk 2077
CD Projekt RED

Imagine if, a year ago, you told somebody that the discourse surrounding the release of Cyberpunk 2077 would consist of widespread refunds, game-ruining glitches, and Sony pulling the damn thing from sale. You would be laughed at. A lot.

And yet, that's the reality we live in. CD Projekt Red's highly-anticipated open-world actioner hasn't enjoyed the smooth launch that most people assumed it would have, with reports that the game is borderline unplayable on base last-gen consoles dominating its early December release date.

Games have launched in messy states before, sure, but it seemed like Cyberpunk was a particularly dire case (amusingly, "Cyberbug 2077" became a trending topic on Twitter), and just when it looked like things couldn't get any worse for CD Projekt Red, Sony dropped a bombshell: the game was being pulled from the PlayStation Store, and players who had already purchased it would be eligible for a full refund.

This was a bold and unprecedented act on Sony's part - again, we see buggy games all the time, but none of them get delisted like this - but at the same time, it's great to see the company pull such a consumer-friendly move, especially in an industry that's commonly labelled as greedy and self-serving.

Cyberpunk 2077 will undoubtedly return to the PlayStation Store in the near future, but in the meantime, this isn't the only pickle that CD Projekt is currently involved in...

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!