20 Most Controversial Games of the 2020s (So Far)

There's no denying that being the ambitious brainchild of The Witcher developers CD Projekt Red, Cyberpunk 2077 was one of the most anticipated video games ever made.

The marketing made it look awesome, and even though it suffered through numerous delays and reports emerged of its troubled, crunch-filled development, the general expectation was that the final game would be another masterpiece from the studio.

But Cyberpunk 2077's launch was, to be kind, an abject disaster, especially on consoles, where bugs and performance issues rendered it close-to-unplayable for many.

Worse still, CD Projekt Red didn't release any pre-launch gameplay footage of the game running on PS4 or Xbox One and only provided PC review codes to the press, making it clear they knew precisely what was up and peddled a broken product regardless.

The backlash was significant enough that Sony even took the drastic step of removing the game from the PlayStation Store for six months until it was in a better state. 

Some disgruntled players meanwhile filed a class-action lawsuit against CD Projekt Red for concealing the state of the console versions, resulting in $1.85 million being paid out.

Cyberpunk 2077 was eventually patched into good shape across all platforms and has now sold more than 35 million units, though it remains a stinging reminder that assuming your favourite developers "can do no wrong" is a foolish stance to take.