8 Controversies That Have ALREADY Hurt Cyberpunk 2077

Right off the bat, it’s important to state that Cyberpunk 2077 is shaping up to have one of the biggest releases ever. Developers CD Projekt RED have massive goodwill after mega hit The Witcher III, while the intriguing genre, themes and visuals have generated massive buzz.

Also, they have Keanu Reeves.

However, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing as far as their momentum has gone. Various trailers and demos have already given us a few reasons to (at the very least) temper our expectations.

These scandals tend to run the gamut from those who might see them as deal-breakers, to others who question why anyone even cares.

You could even argue these aren’t all legitimate criticisms, but then they aren’t supposed to be criticisms at all. Instead, these are merely the biggest scandals to have hit the game so far.

All the times Cyberpunk 2077 has ended up in the headlines with negative press, to reasons not connected to hands-on gameplay. Whether you care about these are not is entirely up to you, but it’s obvious that at least some people out there do, and in one way or another, they’ve damaged Cyberpunk 2077’s momentum.

Anybody who’s anybody has some Twitter skeletons in their closet these days, and CDPR (and GOG, in their conglomerate) have three doozies.

Sean Halliday ran the social media for both companies, and first got into trouble after tweeting a picture of someone urinating on a gravestone marked ‘Games Journalism - Committed Suicide’ in reference to the GamerGate controversy.

The other two Tweets were labelled transphobic, with one using the hashtag #WontBeErased (used to discuss trans experiences in America) to promote GOG’s PC games.

The other replied to an innocent Tweet about guys gaming with unoriginal gag ‘Did you just assume their gender?!’.

There’s some things to say in CD Projekt Red’s defence though, even if the Twitter mobs tend to completely ignore grey areas.

The first is that Halliday wasn’t a dev. There’s nothing to suggest his attitude reflects Cyberpunk 2077’s overall, but that hasn’t stopped the outcry.

This is all about the biggest scandals, after all, not the most sensible reactions.

The second caveat is that Halliday was fired after these tweets, seeing CDPR & GOG distance themselves from him. Interestingly, Halliday claims he’d drafted an apology but that GOG refused to run it, instead just putting out a statement that he had been dismissed.