As threatened earlier in December, CD Projekt S.A. is being taken to court in the United States over claims that the bug-ridden state of Cyberpunk 2077‘s PS4 and Xbox One releases were hidden from investors, causing them to incur losses. Now the company has responded to acknowledge the class action suit, with a brief statement saying it will defend itself vigorously.
The class action refers to Cyberpunk 2077’s release on PS4 and Xbox One, which ranged from incredibly buggy to literally unplayable. The issues encountered by players on these consoles led to CD Projekt Red putting out a statement that invited unhappy players to seek a refund, and later caused Sony to remove the game from the PlayStation store in a rare move. These issues caused CD Projekt stock prices to plummet, with the company’s founders losing approximately $1 billion in value off their joint share.
CD Projekt has already received criticism from many within the gaming community for only providing advance review copies on PC, meaning the numerous issues on PS4 and Xbox One didn’t come to light until the game’s retail release.
The class action suit alleges that “(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.”
The suit is being brought by investors represented by New York’s Rosen Law Firm, who specialize in securities cases like these. “CD Projekt shareholders have an opportunity to recover their investment losses,” the firm’s class action case page reads.
CD Projekt has now released a statement saying it received confirmation of this suit. “The Company will undertake vigorous action to defend itself against any such claims,” the statement to investors reads.
Neither party is likely to have closure on this issue anytime soon, as class action suits are often a drawn-out process. The first step is for the court to certify that the issue is in fact eligible for a class action. By the time this case is resolved, it’s likely that Cyberpunk 2077 will already be a very different game thanks to ongoing patches.
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