We said in October that Cyberpunk 2077’s redemption is complete, but I think that may have been a little premature because now it’s really complete: CD Projekt has finally settled the class action lawsuit filed against it in 2020 by investors who weren’t happy with the state of the game at launch.
It’s easy to forget now because it all happened three years ago (in Covid years, more like six), and the PC version was actually pretty decent, but Cyberpunk 2077 was an absolute shambles at launch. It was bad enough that Sony kicked the whole thing off the PlayStation store for more than six months. That was actually at the heart of at least one of the lawsuits filed against CD Projekt over the game: That the studio had made false or misleading statements about Cyberpunk 2077 being properly playable on then-current PS4 and Xbox One consoles.
In a press release (via the Wayback Machine), Rosen Law Firm said CD Projekt failed to disclose that “Cyberpunk 2077 was virtually unplayable on the current-generation Xbox or Playstation systems due to an enormous number of bugs,” and that as a result, “CD Projekt would suffer reputational and pecuniary harm” that would in term cause financial damage to investors.
In 2021, four separate lawsuits against the studio were rolled into one “mega lawsuit,” but at the end of that year proceedings were suspended because an out-of-court settlement was being worked on. That eventually resulted in a $1.85 million deal to make the whole thing go away, although it all had to be approved by the courts.
The wheels of justice turn slowly, but initial approval was given in January 2023, and now, finally, it’s a done deal: CD Projekt said in a regulatory announcement on November 28 (via GamesIndustry.biz) that “the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California had issued an order regarding final approval of the corresponding settlement,” which “ends the legal proceedings related to the US class action lawsuit filed against the Company and other defendants.”
I said it when the terms of the settlement were first reached, and I’ll say it again now: $1.85 million is a remarkably small price to pay relative to the money CD Projekt earned on sales of Cyberpunk 2077. CD Projekt reported net profits of zł203 million ($51 million) in its most recent financial quarter alone, and said Cyberpunk 2077 sales have now surpassed 25 million units; the value of the settlement isn’t related to Cyberpunk sales because the lawsuit was based on harm to the company’s value in 2020 but even so, that’s basically the equivalent of flipping a quarter to an annoying child and telling him to go to the movies.
So it’s good news for CD Projekt, and there’s good news for Cyberpunk 2077 players coming soon too: The studio recently announced a surprise 2.1 update to the game that will add a number of new gameplay elements, including a fully functional metro system that will carry players around Night City in style.