Under a month after a record setting launch for Cyberpunk 2077, the action role-playing game developed and published by CD Projekt SA , which saw the game amass over 13 million copies sold across all platforms by December 20th, the Polish developer and publisher is facing a class action lawsuit by Rosen Law Firm on behalf of investors.
The suit is seeking unspecified damages, stating that CD Projekt made “false and/or misleading” statements about the games performance ahead of its December 10th release. With the game being seen by many as virtually unplayable, there was significant drop in the stock over the course of the last month.
The claim is based on the organization marketing the game as if it was “complete and playable” across all platforms when in fact there were immense technical issues causing Microsoft, Sony, and GameStop to accept returns and provide refunds. Sony went as far as removing the game from the PlayStation store. The bug and tech issues seemed to have been brushed under the rug with CD Projekt acknowledging the issues back in a November conference call saying “we believe that the level will be as low as to let gamers not see them.”
Per the firms press release: “(1) Cyberpunk 2077 was virtually unplayable on the current-generation Xbox or Playstation systems due to an enormous number of bugs; (2) as a result, Sony would remove Cyberpunk 2077 from the Playstation store, and Sony, Microsoft and CD Projekt would be forced to offer full refunds for the game; (3) consequently, CD Projekt would suffer reputational and pecuniary harm; and (4) as a result, defendants’ statements about its business, operations, and prospects, were materially false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all relevant times. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.”
Even with the pending lawsuit and steep drop in stock, Cyberpunk was still able to have massive sales success, totalling 13 million copies solid which also includes the refund requests on all platforms. Of that 13 million, 8 million came from pre-launch sales which made it the largest PC launch ever.
Steam top sellers for the week ending Dec 27. Ordered by revenue ($):
1. Cyberpunk 2077
2. Valve Index VR Kit
3. Sea of Thieves
4. Hades
5. Raft
6. Phasmophobia
7. Grand Theft Auto V
8. Halo MCC
9. Red Dead Redemption 2
10. CS: GO – Operation Broken Fang (DLC) pic.twitter.com/pSAJX0ILVS— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) December 27, 2020
It has also been the top game on Steam, including 1 million concurrent players when it launched, which set a record for a single-player game. It is fun to imagine how historical of a launch this game could have been, considering gamers stuck with the game and continued to purchase it amidst the controversies since its release.
Class action lawsuits tend to take up time, so it is a wait and see game to see how the sales figures react to the news. This story is still fresh, but the drama surrounding Cyberpunk 2077 should continue on as we head into 2021.