Sony Offering ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ Refunds For PS4 And PS5 After Gamers Cry Foul

Cyberpunk 2077 is a 2020 action role-playing video game developed and published by CD Projekt is currently rocking a 2.7 on PS4 and a 3.5 on Xbox One, and this is a developer who is much-loved and greatly respected by gamers.

On PC, where the game is truly meant to be played and where it really does shine, a litany of bugs and other issues still has that number down at 6.7/10—quite a lot lower than the critic’s consensus of 90/100.

On base PS4, the game barely scrapes by at 720p and (at times) 15 frames-per-second. This is, honestly, entirely unacceptable. The game’s defenders will tell you that of course it runs poorly on such old hardware. But then why release it at all on such old hardware?

Part of the issue is that Sony and Microsoft require games released on PS4 or Xbox One to play on all versions of those consoles. You can’t just release a PS4 Pro game that doesn’t play on PS4 vanilla. Same for Xbox One X and Xbox One (and S).

The expectation is that a game released on PS4 will look and play better on PS4 Pro, where it could theoretically upscale to 4k or run at 60fps, but that same game will still look and play like a PS4 game on a base PS4. This is decidedly not the case with Cyberpunk 2077. Footage I’ve seen of the game playing on a base PS4 is ghastly, like something from early PS3 days (and that’s generous).

Imagine defending this. Cyberpunk 2077 is a terrible game. Base PS4 footage. pic.twitter.com/uHTmMACi3R

— Michael Does Life (@MichaelDoesLife) December 9, 2020

You may want to defend this if you’re an unrepentant CDPR fanboy, but you shouldn’t. It’s proof-positive that the company should simply have waited and not released the game on last-gen consoles at all (or delayed said release until the game actually worked on them). It’s atrocious at best, and a betrayal of gamer trust at worst.

Now gamers are reporting that Sony is offering up refunds on PS4 and PS5—something that is not by any means guaranteed on that platform. Sony has no set return policy, and it’s only under somewhat extreme circumstances that this sort of thing happens.

It still isn’t a guarantee, of course. You’ll want to delete the game from your system, make sure you haven’t played too much of it before asking for a refund, and—when speaking to a Sony rep—be polite and make your case calmly.

You can also get refunds on Steam if you haven’t played more than two hours of the game and via Xbox where it sounds like refunds are fairly easy to come by.

It’s really a shame about the state of this game on console, but it really ought to have been a next-gen only game to begin with. Right now, it plays better on Stadia than on any console and, well, really should be played on a high-end gaming PC (or GeForce Now). 

Cyberpunk 2077 is an open-world, action-adventure story set in Night City, a megalopolis obsessed with power, glamour and body modification. You play as V, a mercenary outlaw going after a one-of-a-kind implant that is the key to immortality. You can customize your character’s cyberware, skillset and playstyle, and explore a vast city where the choices you make shape the story and the world around you. - Forbes 

December 13, 2020